Personal Narrative
Peculiar path
In one of the coldest days of winter, I opened my eyes to this mysterious world in a private hospital located in the most entertaining city, Tehran. Since that day, my dreams and aspirations have been shaped in an odd manner in a conflict of values. I grew up in Iran in a traditional Persian family that was also influenced by western values. We were living in the middle of an Islamic Republic with a fundamentalist Islamic ideology that conflicted with my family values. “Our Family values are fundamental principles, they solidify the foundation for a strong, tight-knit family,” my uncle always says, to remind us the importance of the family values. My family’s values consist of honesty, generosity, forgiveness, tolerance of all beliefs, and keeping family traditions.
As I grow older, my values become more oriented towards my family’s principles because they seem more realistic and liberal than the tyrannical values of society. For instance, my dad is an agnostic liberal person but he has never told me to believe in what he believes. Nonetheless he has inspired me to explore philosophical, political, cultural, and religious studies to develop my own way of thinking. The Islamic government, on the other hand, enforced children to live by Islamic standards, to study Arabic and Islamic culture.
My upbringing in a traditional Persian family had a significant effect on my personality and the person I am today. My family has been an important source of support in all decisions I have made in my life. However there was an experience which gave me the thought that it would be better if I decrease my dependency on my family.
One experience that was significant in shaping me into the person I am occurred when I was just twelve-years old in sixth grade. It was in late 2003, and I had already passed the first week of finals, but there were two more weeks left including a difficult math test. My whole grade depended on that test and my
In one of the coldest days of winter, I opened my eyes to this mysterious world in a private hospital located in the most entertaining city, Tehran. Since that day, my dreams and aspirations have been shaped in an odd manner in a conflict of values. I grew up in Iran in a traditional Persian family that was also influenced by western values. We were living in the middle of an Islamic Republic with a fundamentalist Islamic ideology that conflicted with my family values. “Our Family values are fundamental principles, they solidify the foundation for a strong, tight-knit family,” my uncle always says, to remind us the importance of the family values. My family’s values consist of honesty, generosity, forgiveness, tolerance of all beliefs, and keeping family traditions.
As I grow older, my values become more oriented towards my family’s principles because they seem more realistic and liberal than the tyrannical values of society. For instance, my dad is an agnostic liberal person but he has never told me to believe in what he believes. Nonetheless he has inspired me to explore philosophical, political, cultural, and religious studies to develop my own way of thinking. The Islamic government, on the other hand, enforced children to live by Islamic standards, to study Arabic and Islamic culture.
My upbringing in a traditional Persian family had a significant effect on my personality and the person I am today. My family has been an important source of support in all decisions I have made in my life. However there was an experience which gave me the thought that it would be better if I decrease my dependency on my family.
One experience that was significant in shaping me into the person I am occurred when I was just twelve-years old in sixth grade. It was in late 2003, and I had already passed the first week of finals, but there were two more weeks left including a difficult math test. My whole grade depended on that test and my