My mother is a very gregarious, funny, headstrong woman. She knows what she wants and is much more self-aware than she makes herself seem. People's first impression of her is that she is simple-minded and naive because of her child-like and sometimes obnoxious humor and the fact that she isn't exactly book-smart. She uses this to her advantage though, and I honestly believe it is what has contributed to her success. She is an excellent judge of character and always has a motive and intent behind every one of her actions. She is deceptively cunning, and the older and more socially intelligent I become, the more I have been able to both recognize and admire this. My father is pretty different from my mother. He had a pretty shitty childhood and isn't exactly the best person in the world, nor has he been the best father. He is very intelligent, has a really great mind for machinery and for taking things apart and putting them together, stuff like that. Very stubborn, short temper, socially reserved, very bad at assessing his own emotions.

Despite the fact my dad wasn't there for much of my childhood, I am almost a carbon copy of my father. Both of our brains work the same way. Except, of course, through years of self-reflection and introspection, and generally just learning to cope and be resilient after suffering multiple instances of childhood trauma and mental health issues throughout my teenage years, I have become way better at handling my emotions and striving to become a better human being overall. I think from my dad our similarity in personality is largely genetic. From my mother, however, I learned to turn my unhealthy desire for power into ambition, to turn my stubbornness into persistence. Sorry, Appa. I still love you.