Genetics are a crazy thing. When you're an adoptee from a closed adoption, the whole genetic thing is a big, fat question mark. Did I learn certain behaviors and responses from the family who raised me or is it something cellular?
I think my adopted brother ( I use adopted for clarity. He's my brother, through and through) and I look alike, even though he has dark hair and eyes. In our dated Olan Mills pictures, we have the same uncomfortable smile painted across our face. Our eyes and noses have a similar shape. It's hard to tell we don't share DNA. Hell, my husband has blue eyes and blonde hair, his mom is a brown-eyed brunette.
Then there's the whole quirky factor. When my adopted brother and mom mixed their Thanksgiving dinner together, I gagged. Foods aren't meant to be mixed or even touch. If green bean juice flowed into my mashed potatoes - game over. Done. I never noticed I ate my food clockwise until my mother-in-law pointed it out. Corn. Then green beans. Turkey. Potatoes. No back and forth. I finish one and move to the next. Weird? Don't judge!
When I found out I had two biological brothers, I flipped. After a long discussion with the oldest of the two, I discovered we had so much in common it was eerie. He ate clockwise as well, finishing one thing before moving to the next. Something he never noticed until a friend pointed it out. We liked the same movies, not just one. The same favorite movies: The Royal Tenenbaums and Snatch. Those aren't mainstream. They're quirky, like us.
I think my adopted brother ( I use adopted for clarity. He's my brother, through and through) and I look alike, even though he has dark hair and eyes. In our dated Olan Mills pictures, we have the same uncomfortable smile painted across our face. Our eyes and noses have a similar shape. It's hard to tell we don't share DNA. Hell, my husband has blue eyes and blonde hair, his mom is a brown-eyed brunette.
Then there's the whole quirky factor. When my adopted brother and mom mixed their Thanksgiving dinner together, I gagged. Foods aren't meant to be mixed or even touch. If green bean juice flowed into my mashed potatoes - game over. Done. I never noticed I ate my food clockwise until my mother-in-law pointed it out. Corn. Then green beans. Turkey. Potatoes. No back and forth. I finish one and move to the next. Weird? Don't judge!
When I found out I had two biological brothers, I flipped. After a long discussion with the oldest of the two, I discovered we had so much in common it was eerie. He ate clockwise as well, finishing one thing before moving to the next. Something he never noticed until a friend pointed it out. We liked the same movies, not just one. The same favorite movies: The Royal Tenenbaums and Snatch. Those aren't mainstream. They're quirky, like us.
When I vacationed with my birth mom and birth granny, they hated the morning like me. No complete sentences formed until we had a pot of coffee in our system. Night owls. We didn't care about getting the worm. We wanted sleep. Period.
What do you think influences a person the most? Nature? Or Nurture? Do you act like your family? Do you wish you were adopted 😉? Talk to me!
We are definitely hardwired for behavior. If they aren't "nurtured" they may not ever be known. I think there's regulation by the body. Stress or other stimuli may cause expression or suppression of traits. There's so much variation from person to person, yet if people in your family do something (clockwise eating), you may copy it
ReplyDeleteGood points! I think that's true - that certain qualities exist and something triggers them to become apparent. It's odd in my and my bio brother's case because we weren't raised together. I didn't know he existed until I was an adult. Yet, we both eat clockwise. That's one of many similarities we share even though we were nurtured differently.
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