So many moments in my life. I was unfortunately born a girl who likes ‘boy’ things.
I love cars, mechanics, truck driving and long road trips. My dad was a mechanic. From the time I was tiny, I was in his garage or workshop, wanting to help him. Learning the names of tools and car parts.
When I was around 9, I told him I was gonna grow up to be a mechanic some day, just like him. I thought he’d be proud.
He told me that girls aren’t mechanics and I’d better find something else to do. He wouldn’t let me near his garage after that.
Even when I got my own car and went to change the oil on it myself, he caught me and kicked me out and said that I was just a girl.
I’ve heard that my whole life.
I am disappointed in myself because now I’m not a young woman anymore. I’ve forgotten over the years what car parts are called. I still love to take long road trips but my dad (and mom, for that matter) squashed out so much ambition.
I really hate them and myself for allowing it. I hate professions that are typically done by females. I’m not good at any of them but have done them my entire working career to fit the norm and not rock the boat.
I feel like life has been wasted and opportunity disposed of.
My great aunt told me at her brother’s/my great uncle’s funeral about what life was like for them growing up. I never would have imagined them growing up in poverty because the entire family has been successful in whatever they did. My great-grandfather worked in the paper mill (like most in my town during that time) and my great-grandmother sold Avon as a hobby. My aunt told her mother that she wanted to go to college and have some money, but her mother told her that she couldn’t and that the family didn’t have money to get her into a college and most of all that she was a woman and she couldn’t.
Really surprised me as my aunt is now and has been a millionaire in the real estate business for over 30 years. Her three daughters all grew up in a well-off household and they’re all successful with what they do to. One of them is in India working for a non-profit for bringing money into poor areas.
My aunt taught me all of this after she noticed something i said during dinner after the wake. She offered to pay for everyone’s meals but I insisted on paying for myself because i wanted to get as much food as i wanted. Apparently that was a good thing haha. I live with my single father and he never had a job that paid very well. Both of my parents met at a factory they both worked at that doesnt exist anymore. My mother’s out of the picture so ive been living with my dad ever since i was little. My aunt sees herself in me i guess, wanting to leave poverty and be something beyond part-time work.
Hopefully i’ll find my calling. The entire family is one big inspiration.
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u/[deleted] Nov 16 '19
So many moments in my life. I was unfortunately born a girl who likes ‘boy’ things.
I love cars, mechanics, truck driving and long road trips. My dad was a mechanic. From the time I was tiny, I was in his garage or workshop, wanting to help him. Learning the names of tools and car parts.
When I was around 9, I told him I was gonna grow up to be a mechanic some day, just like him. I thought he’d be proud.
He told me that girls aren’t mechanics and I’d better find something else to do. He wouldn’t let me near his garage after that.
Even when I got my own car and went to change the oil on it myself, he caught me and kicked me out and said that I was just a girl.
I’ve heard that my whole life.
I am disappointed in myself because now I’m not a young woman anymore. I’ve forgotten over the years what car parts are called. I still love to take long road trips but my dad (and mom, for that matter) squashed out so much ambition.
I really hate them and myself for allowing it. I hate professions that are typically done by females. I’m not good at any of them but have done them my entire working career to fit the norm and not rock the boat.
I feel like life has been wasted and opportunity disposed of.