Story: What Shaped Your Personality?
Probably many experiences in life shape our personality; and there are those in my profession who say that we show up from the womb with tendencies toward behavior shaped from generations of our ancestors. That was a theory originally put forth about the time of Sigmund Freud, which seemed unlikely at the time (unless you were a very religious person), but considering the advancements in DNA, maybe the theory is not so far wrong. At any rate, one of the biggest contributors to my personality and attitudes was my medical problem. I was born with a congenital heart disease: Tetralogy of Fallot, named after some French fellow who was the first to describe the disorder. You can read about it if you want. After four heart surgeries, including open heart surgery and numerous hospitalizations for related issues, I am now in great condition. The lessons I learned, consciously and subconsciously, from this heart problem are almost immeasurable. More on that later. By the way, "open heart surgery" actually refers to opening the chest, not necessarily the heart. But my heart was opened during the last surgery when I was sixteen and a hole between the ventricles in my heart was repaired/closed. [They say that in the average lifetime a person's heart beats about two and a half BILLION times! Be nice to your heart. You do not want it to take a rest.] My dad would say, when he was mad at me for being stupid, that the hole in my heart matched the one in my head!!! Some day I will tell you stories about my father. He was a great guy, but being from the old school he was not always politically polite in his statements. For now you can take the Man Quiz I put together which reflects some of his behavior! HE WAS OLD SCHOOL!!!