Apart from looks, a child is bound to take some traits or characteristics after his or her parents. It works with genes. As a result of this, you could see two siblings exhibiting a level of difference in their characteristics. I have seen a situation where a child takes after his father in brilliance while the sibling takes after the mother with another trait.
Moving away from this, I think there are some characteristics that I can't easily place under the influence of genes. It could be as a result of learning by imitation. Children build up their characters after what they see their parents do. This is where the relationship between me and my dad comes in.
My dad was a lover of children. When I was growing up, I took him as my mentor. I tried to structure my character around him.
Out of the numerous characteristics that I took from him, the one that I will like to talk about is selflessness. My father was a selfless person. My mother used to complain in some instances but the man was built like that from his youthful age.
My dad was a farmer. He grew yams and vegetables. Each year when he harvested his first set of yams, he shared everything for our relations far and near and our immediate neighbors. I saw him do this for almost two decades before his demise.
The day he died, my maternal grandfather couldn't hold back his tears. In all of his sons-in-law, the relationship between him and my dad was quite unique. When my father was a driver before switching to full-time farming, he would convey my grandparents and their neighbors from their place of residence to our hometown without collecting a dime. He saw the ability to render assistance as a privilege to the person rendering it.
He once gave me a piece of advice in this regard;
"Any opportunity that comes your way to assist another person in any way, grab it. If you don't do it, another person will do it if the recipient had been destined to get the help. Why not be the lucky one to grab the opportunity to register your name in gold in the heart of someone. Do it and don't look back to get your reward from the same person.
"Remember that not everyone that you assist will appreciate you in words. Don't do it because of appreciation. Do it because it is the best thing for humanity."
Of course, I followed his footsteps. Anywhere I find myself, I am ever ready to render assistance to anyone that comes my way in need of it. I give listening ears to everyone that wants to talk to me whether a family member, friend or a total stranger. If the assistance requested is not something that I can render, I will politely explain to the person.
This has helped me a lot. I realized that whatever good that you do will come back to you directly or indirectly. In all of the help that I received that changed my life for the better, it has always come from strangers. If I start listing them, I won't exhaust the list easily. I connect it to the fact that I love everyone around me including strangers too.
The characteristics that I took from my father have been an asset to me. Like every parent would want to pass his or her asset to his child, I am passing this asset to my children too.
From my lovely mother, I learned how to be hardworking. The woman is my hero. After the death of my father, I was able to complete my university education because of her hard work. She is always motivated by the problem that she is raising money to solve. If it is her children's school fees, no job is too dirty for her to do as much as it is legitimate. She worked on people's farms. She worked in factories, all in her efforts to maintain the family. She taught me the dignity of labor long before I heard of it in the classroom. She filled the shoes of my dad as the breadwinner of the family.
This characteristic of hers goes hand in hand with resilience. My mother believes in herself. Whatever she set out to achieve, she would strive to achieve it without giving up.
This has helped me to navigate through difficult times of my life. I do any legitimate work that I lay my hands on instead of being idle. I can say that my growth over the years is a product of hardwork and assistance from some people that I crossed paths with.
The mix of the characteristics from my dad and mum has helped me to achieve many things. I hope to pass them on to my children.
