Some day my future generation will question the accuracy of my values.

In my opinion norms are something, which is build up by underlying values. Values are our defense to why a norm has been followed and still is.

I was born in Sweden with the tag ”origin Sri Lanka”, my two sisters were baked in the home country arriving as 10 and 5-year olds to the western lands. As the youngest member in our family, I was the center of care to all family members. Since no relatives of ours lived in Sweden and only a few Sri Lankans were scattered all over Sweden, my family became very attached to one another spending leisure time together. With the oriental culture of ours, my parents tried their best to induce the cultural identity to us. There will always be unwritten rules and regulations to keep up the family values they were thought to pass on with the norms.

Unlike other European countries children aged 1 year began kindergarten full time in Sweden. Government grants enable all the parents to afford the costs. I however attended the nursery at the age of 4 and that’s when I began my social life out of my family circle.

In nursery teachers taught me about how to build up my self-independence. At home mum and dad fed me where as in nursery I had to eat by myself, do my dishes and help others. At that point nursery became my second family.I spent more of my awaken hours at the nursery than at home which is a reasonable explanation why my influences started to expand majorly.

In my family we truly valuate honesty between family members, the ability  to share everything and be an acknowledgement of respect.  Hospitality is my fathers key-concept due to his thrives to impart us how to live with fellow humanity. My parents expected us to only speak our mother tongue at home, to demonstrate the respect to others culture without escaping our own.

In secondary school as I were and am an athlete I was part of a huge society. Most of my friends were from school and most of them were ethnical Swedish. I found out how to be outspoken and how free and unpunished it was to be me. This was the free culture that I absorbed like a sponge in the desert. My opinions in right and wrong changed dramatically, sleepovers and late nights suddenly became a lifestyle. I learned that this was a society for secrets. Secrets not shared with my family. I could now discuss heaven and earth knowing my thoughts remained safe and un-judged.

In high school I attended in my opinion what I call my first strong student society. I met teenagers, full of life curious about the world living by the vision: “Friday everyday but persist intelligent”. We spent more time outside, away from the books and desks. A bunch of fresh bloods who wanted to change the world. That was our new culture and our new norms, protesting against everything we knew until then to build our dreams and forget realism. I started to work with part time jobs, and as I were young and impatient I had thoughts similar to people in my age to get a full-time job and not “waste” more time behind a desk with my nose in a thick book.

But in third grade we all changed, we had to face reality; our end road was exposing us to the critical moment where we had to choose our own pathway to survive and to find our future.

Because of the overprotectiveness in my family, the freedom included in my friendship became an enormous treaty I often chose the opposite path of my cultures norm.

Engraved now is doubts during my growth about my capability of defining right with wrong due to the young suspiciousness of sharing important questions with important influences in my life. The result is an unbalance left with two options; my judgments are either impulsive or untouchably strong-based.I know however majority of understanding comes with wide involvements. Not solely by reading, listening, obey or leading.

I’ve always been an independent thinker who likes to roam out of the boundaries and clearly see the actions inside to make my decision. By now I hopefully have chosen the best possible values from family and friends in order to create my own norms.

But even the sun has spots and some day my future generation will question the accuracy of my values.