Growing up, I would always think about the idea of destiny. Was our destiny already decided for us or was it something that we could shape? Was it possible for anyone to chase their dreams and become successful, or did they have to be born with a certain talent in order to become successful in a certain field? Could one become a great writer by working hard enough? Or was it decided before you were even born?
This debate in many ways has made me question exactly what it is that determines the individual we become when we grow up. There seems to be so much information and evidence that it is pre-dominantly genetics which decides who you be. ‘Your sexual preference was decided by genes’ claimed the Bailey & Pillard study of 1991 which found out how 52% of identical twins, both identified themselves as homosexual. The University of California at Los Angeles found out how there were “54 genes” that acted differently based on your gender. Learning the conclusions reached by these studies disheartened me. It was telling me that it was hopeless to go chasing my dreams. My fate had been decided before I even had a chance to change it.
Yet, how can this be? I remember the day I first joined UWCSEA. Although I did not know it at the time, it would be the start of me becoming the person I am today, someone who 5 years ago, I never thought I could and would become. It made me go from being a shy, unambitious person who was going to go ahead and follow the path of my ancestors into someone who was confident. Ambitious. Someone who chooses to create their own, unique path. I had always accredited this change to UWC. It was the people there, the surroundings, that changed me. I simply could not accept the fact that this has all been written down in my genes. There were two equally convincing arguments and I just did not know what to accept.
This debate has in many ways cleared up many of the questions I had regarding the question of what decides who I am. For one, as I was researching my position, I learned about how there was plenty of proof how nurture had a very important role in deciding the type of person I became. One study that really stood out to me was the ‘bobo doll’ experiment conducted by American Psychologist Albert Bandura in 1961. Learning about how children mimicked the aggression displayed by the adults made a lot of sense to me. After all, it after moving to UWC and meeting people who were passionate about achieving their dreams that I started to chase after my dreams as well. It was my surroundings that impacted that aspect of who I was; not my genes.
Now, I have realized how the answer is a lot more ambiguous than I expected. It isn’t just one factor that has complete say over who we become. It is a mixture of both that turns us into the individuals we are and will become. The multitude of evidence on how both nature and nurture impact us just goes to prove my point. While I still may not have clear answers to my questions, there is one thing that I do know for sure. You can change your destiny. So go ahead and chase those dreams. That’s certainly what I will be doing.
