I've been constantly looking for little bits of manipulation in my every day life to write something insightful on this blog. Then, in an insomnia-filled night, I realized that for a big part of my life I completely ignored all social manipulations and did my own thing. Especially when I was the only 15 year old who had the courage to tell my grandparents they were rude, and disrespectful, while everyone else sat there and took their rude comments and bottled them up inside. When I was 15 I also decided that I was moving out of my house. I told my mom I wanted to live with my dad and fought her until she said yes. In that two year process I had about four therapists tell me I had some other sort of issue because no girl should want to live with her dad. They claimed that if I were a boy it would all be different. I wasn't "by the books enough" for them to think that I was normal. Eventually, I managed to leave Argentina and move into my dads house. I can guarantee that I would not be writing this blog post today if I hadn't been such a hard-headed, anti-society 15 year old.
I had never thought about this part of my life as manipulation, but the truth is no one would let me leave because society said that girls should live with their mother (I don't know where this started, or who came up with it, but I disagree) and boys should live with their father. I had to threaten to take my mother to court to get what I wanted.
So, society, you failed. Sorry, but you did. I may follow many manipulations that society puts me through, many manipulations that my college imposes, but I sure was not about to follow the manipulation of some thousand-year old psychology book. And here I am. I'm at Hamilton, and I couldn't be happier.
There were only about five or six people who supported my moving to the United States, and I owe them the world. How else would I know that I was being manipulated in most aspects of my life if I didn't move? How would I know that I should challenge things and do what I want not what others tell me to? I wouldn't. But I do. So yeah, society, you lost dude.
It's true that in more ways than we realize, we do make decisions that go against the grain of the forces that influence us. Whether it's Janelle's shaved head, your move here, or someone who perhaps might just decide not to wear their tooth some of the time… there are always ways in which we can decide for ourselves what we want to do.
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