Along the vast majority of humanity’s time on earth, it has been customary of boys to be nurtured by their parents until they have the ability to aid the family in some way, typically by working on the farm or family business. As the boys grew into young men, they would reside with their parents until they had children of their own, and even then they may have stayed at the family farm.

At this time, I find myself in a plight that most people my age throughout time have not been faced with. In American culture today, young men do not stay at home any longer than absolutely necessary. This shift in duties and family values results in what often can lead to the downfall of a family.

I feel I have outgrown my family. I say with despair that I do not feel at home in the house I grew up in. More so, I have come to realize that I am built for more; that my capabilities extend beyond Urbandale, Iowa. My parents fear that my confidence surpassess that which is feasible. It is not that they do not support me, nor that they want to hold me back. The trouble is only that my limits are set higher than my parents, I want to do better, be better than who they are. I have reached a point where my parents no longer need to nurture me, they have done well. Now it’s my turn.

Of course someday I’ll return to that house that is no longer my home. At that time I will be lovingly welcomed by two strangers who once were my whole world. But the world will seem much bigger then, for I will have realized how many cities I haven’t seen, and how many people I will never know. When I first left home, all of those places and people will seem to be calling my name, and I answered; I convinced myself that something is out there that nobody before me had seen.

If that special something is out there, I cannot say, that is for you to find. However, what I do know now is that those two strangers are bigger than I ever realized. I have found that the two people that nurtured me and, despite their attempts at detaining me, sent me into the world, are more important than the something that I never was able to find.
I arrogantly believed my parents were setting limits, that I somehow outgrew the people that they were. I see now that all their teaching made me who I am today, and that they are better than anything I have come to find in the world outside their doors.