My style vs. theirs

It's time to talk about style. This topic has a lot of sub topics that go with it so it might take a lot to write but i'll just sum it up the best way possible. Style is the combination of distinctive features of literary or artistic expression, execution, or performance characterizing a particular person, group, school, or era (according to this dictionary website.) Which is something I think many people in my family, community, friends, peers, and others are forgetting. But since the topic is on family i'll stick to them. My family is totally forgetting that style is my thing and no one else is thing I determine what my style is not others. Yet being from a strict family (not just necessarily my parent) it's tough having you're own "style." If it was up to my family I would not have a tattoo, I would not have gauged my ears or even have them pierced, and I would still be wearing the outfits they choose for me as a child. But during your growth you eventually start to have a mind of your own and want to do your own thing. For me it's still an ongoing battle about my style.
I'll start off about my tattoos. I'm pretty sure I have mentioned about my tattoos and how it was a major problem in my family. Some members in my family even gave me dirty looks but that's what I do to express my style. Tattoos are something I enjoy and eventually hope  to be covered in a lot of them but if my family ever found out about that i'm pretty sure there would be World War III out here. Next I'll talk about piercings. Its something I also like I want my lip pierced and other stuff as well but my family would pull their hairs out if they saw anything like that on me. Many of my family looked at me in disgust just because of having both my ears simply pierced (It would probably be worse if they found out about my gauges.) They judged me by stereotyping me with criminals who have these things as if we all share the same emotions just because we have one thing in common. And lastly just my personal style in my outfits and other outer appearance. This one isn't as bad just because I don't think I have one personal style when it comes to clothes (for example: preppy, goth, jock, ect.) Yet still some members of my family want to put in their "2 cents" in on what they think I should where. They want to judge based on clothing and these other sorts of "styles" by all means go ahead but I don't think it should be told to me when I don't go and criticize their everyday style. Style is something that makes one unique which is one main reason someone especially family should go on and critique you all the time.

Religion vs. lifestyle

Okay so I think i'm going to go away from just talking about my family and start talking about how I come from a pretty strict life yet try to live an open-minded life in different categories. For the first category I choose a big one RELIGION. I come from a very religious background of the Roman Catholic faith. I myself don't follow the religion I choose to be a non-denomination christian.
My family is very strong in there beliefs though my parents not so much they use to be but have become more open-minded to other things. The only time my parents had a problem was a couple of years before they became more open-minded and I was in a state of confusion when talking about what I believe in at the time I didn't know if I believed in god so I didn't want to go to church and when I told my parents they flipped out which took me by surprise and really changed my perspective on them. Even though they are more open-minded today I don't know if they would be happy if I told them something like that again but I'm sure at least being a non-denomination christian is just fine with them.
Now my other family in Honduras, Puerto Rico, and some other parts of the United States wouldn't really feel the same way. They for the most part are die hard faithfuls to there religion which I respect the only problem I have is when they try to force me to believe what they believe and try to tell me whats I can and can't believe in. I feel like that's what drove me away from roman catholicism having to follow certain traditional practices (which in my opinion some of the beliefs are close-minded and ignorant) while trying to have a more liberal out look in life. In my experience and seeing how my family and some of the churches I have been to judge people because they don't believe the same thing or choose to be different. Which in my mind I think is super wrong since I like to accept everyone no matter what they believe.

My Grandparents

For this post I decided to go with my grandparents. Now many people can relate to this but not surprisingly my grandparents are very very old fashioned. First I'll start with the one who lives with me my mothers mother. She is a very unique grandmother if I say so my self she is different then most. She is very opinionated and has many things to say if there is something she doesn't like she won't necessarily tell it to your face but you will know there is a problem. This grandma of mine has lived with me since I was born and I love her to death but she is probably the MOST ignorant family member that I can think of. If I ever do anything she will comment on it and tell me i'm wrong for it if she doesn't believe the same thing. She uses the guilt trick a lot trying to make me feel bad for not going home on time or not cleaning or getting my tattoo and even my ear piercings. By guilt trick i mean she tells me that these things are wrong and they're hurting my family when in reality even those my family is against tattoos and this stuff its not hurting anyone. She is also ignorant in the way she always has to blame bad things on my african american friends which i'm not surprised cause back in her day growing up in Honduras she didn't really know many black people so she grew up ignorant to a different culture same thing with tattoos and body modifications she didn't grow up with it so in her eyes its all wrong because she isn't educated in these things.
Now my other grandparents i'll talk about together since they all live away and for the most part feel the same way about everything. My other grandparents live in Honduras and Puerto Rico they are all very judgmental as well. If they found out that I had a tattoo they would freak out. I know this because for example when I went to Puerto Rico everyone knew about my tattoo other than my grandparents so all my other family members including my dad highly advised for me to hide it because they would be super upset by yelling at me and then ignoring me which I couldn't go through not with my grandparents who I love dearly. I know my grandparents in Honduras would feel and do the same if not worse because Honduras is such a "religious" country they have very strong opinions and emotions about certain things. So its really hard to go to visit my family in these countries when I have to cover up my whole chest for the time I'm there. Yet I want to add even though my grandparents are all very judgmental and ignorant I still love them for better or worse.

My brothers

Now I took me awhile to decide which part of my family to talk about next but I think I decided on talking about my brothers. Now this is going to be a lot different they how I talked about my parents obviously cause there is a big difference in the type of relationship me and my brothers share. I have two brothers one older one younger making me the middle child. My big brother is twenty two and has been in and out of my life basically my entire life due to drama and other stuff. My little brother is fourteen and me and him have a love/hate relationship one moment we are the best of friends the next we are arch enemies ready to beat each other to the ground. So i'm going to start with my big brother he has a HUGE affect on me, my life, and choices.
My big brother is a father (with a beautiful 9 month year old girl) that has many tattoos and piercings. He is a huge reason i'm into body modifications and all those things. He is also a big reason that i'm open minded cause he is also pretty open minded. Yet one huge affect he has is on my life goals. I say that because he has had a rough childhood with drugs and crime. He is what I try not to be because I feel every bad thing I do my family just blame it on him and say I just want to be like him which is definitely not the case. Like I said he of course has had a impact on me and who I am and I do a lot of things he does but I am my own person and I am definitely not trying to be like him nor anyone else.
Now my little brother is a different story because I feel like its the exact opposite with the relationship of me and my big brother. With my big brother I learned from him and tried not to make the same mistakes. With my little brother I feel like I am his most important and biggest affect in him, his life, and his choices(even though he wouldn't admit it). I've made a lot of mistakes but I try to hide it from him so he wont try and make the same mistake and if he does find out I try to let him know they are wrong and need to be eliminated from his brain so to say. I also try to show him how to be open minded and accept everyone and everything like me even though I notice sometimes he is very ignorant I try to let him know how to better him self my being open minded. So basically I feel like my big brothers mistakes made me open minded because I learned to accept him and his mistakes and with my little brother I feel like I need to teach him to love everyone for who they are. So it is a tough task of being the middle child learning and teaching even without realizing it it is happening with me and my brothers everyday.

My Parents

Well last week I missed last weeks blog entry which isn't good so hopefully I can make up for it with a great post this week. Before I really start talking about my topic I think I should talk about my parents since I spoke about myself in the last entry. My mom is a beautiful Honduran women with a very religious background, while my dad a Puerto Rican man how also was raised pretty religious. Basically in common they are two hispanic religious parents who have a pretty strong faith. My parents are great they are basically the best parents someone can ask for and are very laid back, BUT they can be sometimes a little close minded. 

An example one time in my life like very many people I was confused about my religion and faith. I was tired of going to church and just being forced to go made me question my faith  more and more. Then one day I was woken up for church and I just felt like I just had to say something, so I told them how I felt about my faith thinking they would understand. Well was I wrong they flipped out just in disgust as if I just committed a horrible crime. They yelled in disappointment which made me feel horrible since my parents are so laid back I would just figure they would have talked it out with me and try to understand but the close mindedness closed in and came in full force. 

Another example is when I got my tattoo now that was an experience. See my parents are old school not really understanding the generation and all the body modifications that kids in our generation are into like me. I'm the person who wants a lot of tattoos, piercings and all that good stuff, but if my parents found that out they would never understand and again would be in disgust. But I digress, not even a year ago I couldn't wait anymore I was dying for a tattoo I just had to get one so I got one. Now I understand the two main reasons my parents were upset about 1. I got it behind there backs without there permission and 2. I did not get it professionally done (I actually got it in some guys basement in his room). The thing that upseted me though is that they didn't let me do what I wanted with my own body. They wouldn't let me express my own creativity and how I wanted to live my own life, but aye life goes on and they have accepted it. They really don't want me to get anything else done which is going to be a problem but I'll just keep them happy for awhile. Now I don't want to make my parents seem like ignorant people cause they're not they are awesome amazing parents it's just difficult to be such a open minded person while they are still in that old school religious mind set. 

Me, Myself, and I

First thing I want to start with is talking about is myself. I want to start out with me because this topic is about me personally so I think I should talk about what I think, what I believe, and my views. I would consider myself as a very open-minded and accepting person I like to meet different people and experience new things. I like tattoos and piercings (hoping to have more in the future) and the different things people can create with their own bodies. I love different cultures and experience what other people know and can teach me and others. Basically I'm just reinforcing the fact I accept different things, beliefs, and people. However in the 19 years I have lived on this world it has been difficult to express myself and do the things I wanted to do coming from a strict Hispanic Roman Catholic religious family.

One example---In this day and age tattoos and piercings are everywhere and I indeed am a body modification lover. I love it all and hope to have a lot of them in the future but in my family it is defiantly taboo and despised. And in my family and many other "old school" families it is seen as something only criminals or gang members would have which we all know that the stereotype is false but they still it to be true. That's is just one example about my family and their close minded heads which I will again go more in detail in a future post.

Changing it up

I know for the last couple of weeks I've been talking about social media and how it affects our society as a whole, but I just wasn't feeling it. I just couldn't relate to the subject and I wasn't writing well since I didn't know anything about the subject so I decided to change my topic up. My new topic is living with a close minded family and living with them while be very open-minded. In more detail my new topic is about dealing with the different struggles of being open-minded and living within a changing society while being ruled by a strict closed minded family and how their opinions reflect on me and how I feel about how I live while constantly being reminded of their standards, values and views.