Assignment 19 - Kenna Miller

My mother pumps out life advice as frequently as I eat chocolate-- everyday. However, one of my favorite pieces of advice she has told me is "you see yourself in others". Un/fortunately, most of my personality comes from my father-- the friendliness, the hoarding, the junk-food obsession, the late nights where we stay up and do nothing, and the puns. My dad comes home from work at 9pm and sometimes can't make it up the stairs to sleep, so he passes out in the couch. Now, I'm here in the corner tip-tapping away at my keyboard because hey, I don't have APUSH homework today-- I can finally play some video games. After an hour of tapping, Dad grumbles: "Kenna?" "Yeah?" "Go to bed." I glance at the clock: 9:30 pm. Sometimes I'll shrug it off and keep tapping, which leads to a more angry confrontation, sending me upstairs. I'll complain to my mother about it, to which she says: "Kenna, what he really means is that he needs to go to bed."

Mom's "projecting" advice has really helped me out when I'm having arguments/frustrations with my friends or my brother. I'll get frustrated that I'm staying up late to finish web homework and project my angry feelings onto my friends and complain about not only homework but life in general. I don't realize it at that moment, but my angered state is looking for some companionship/allies. My brain tries to convert a friend into the same sense of anger so that I'll be satisfied that I'm not the only angry one.

Another example is the "Millennials" guy Simon Sinek (witty-ly dubbed "Simon Cynic" by my mother, as she opposes his policy towards technology). He constantly reiterates the fact Millennials should use their phone less and converse in ~real life~, because using your phone makes it harder "to build relationships with people, what you need in the workforce". Sinek is an avid anti-phone advocate, so similar to when I’m angry, he searches for other people that share his own views. I’m going way off the word count, so I won’t expand, but this is definitely aligned with Trump’s policy of “negative news about me is fake news”.