Response to a "I've Learned" statement I got forwarded in an email a while back...

"It is best to give advice in only two cicumstances; when it is requested and when it is a life threatening situation."

You know how sometimes your parents try to tell you how to do stuff (sometimes? what am i talking about...most of the time) Well anyways, I always insist on doing stuff the hard way, which never ceases to irritate them. I could never really explain it either- I mean, who knows why I wouldn't take their advice, but I wouldn't. I think I've finally figured it out. I want to do stuff my way so that I can understand all the situations I get myself into (which is a lot by the way.) I mean you can trust what your parents say of course, but you don't really understand what a situation is all about until you go through it yourself. Just because some one else has experienced something like it, doesn't mean that they know what the best thing to do is. I'm about to go through another one of these life learning situations with my dad. And the reason he can't give me advice on this one is because I have thrown him out of the parental role and am about to invite him back in. My other parents (mom, step dad, step mom) know not to try and help me out with this one because they know they would be over-stepping onto another parent's ground. Its been a long 2 years with my dad, and I haven't had a lot of time to sit and think about how to work out our differences, much less actually talk to him and work them out. It's going to be an interesting and hard road to go down for me, but hopefully it will be sunny at the end...and hopefully the end of this road is near.