BRANDED

Do you have something from your past that you're just TIED to? Something that you can't get rid of; something that has such a big hold on you, it won't let you go; it holds you hostage. Some people call it "extra baggage" or a "heavy load". To brand something, means to give it a label or a trade mark. So to "brand yourself" means to give your self a reason to stand for something or someone. It's like how cattle have that stamp on their butts; the thing known to us as being "branded".  I guess what I'm trying to say, is we all have something that holds us back from living our lives to the fullest, and that "thing" is what brands us.

The way we do things have something to do with the way we learned to do other things. For some people, they learned how to cook because their parents taught them how to use a stove. Others learned how to cook because no one else was home to make it for them. With that said, you can already tell a lot by just looking at the way each parties learned how to cook. You could probably draw multiple conclusions about each side and come out with many things as to why they learned to cook the way they did. But in the end, the moral of this story, is to make it clear that we brand ourselves at a certain age.

Grace, how did I brand myself? Well the answer is simple. You branded yourself when you started making decisions on your own. Sometimes life throws us tough, evil choices and situations we don't wish to be in, but that's what it takes for us to really succeed in life. The decisions we make and the trials that we go through in life, is what makes us the individuals we are. You might think I sound a little crazy, but I can assure you I am 100% sane. As I mentioned before, branding is meant to mean something, it's meant to give someone/something a meaning or a label. We as individuals, give ourselves a branding almost every time we make a choice and it all starts at a young age. 

Going back to the two children who learned how to cook. Just by looking at the situations given, you can tell that one of the children had a better seat in life than the other. For what ever reason, one of them had to learn to cook the hard way because his/her parents were not home to feed them. For all we know, that child probably had to learn to do a lot of things on their own because their parents were not around; how to cook, wash the dishes, take out the trash, how to read, how to do laundry, clean the yard, how to look out after themselves. Chances are, this child had a rough childhood because he/she was forces to grow up faster than they should have. As they get older, they get names such as "boring" or "lame" and "no fun", when in reality, they are the ones who are the "go-getters" and the "husband/wife material".

It's funny how one lesson can serve multiple purposes. Like, who would have thought that the learning how to cook would make such a huge opening to create different characteristics for someone. I guess that's what I'm trying to get at. The things we learn and the things we do, leave a mark on us for later. Those marks BRAND us and effect us when we make future decisions because it's almost similar to the things we went through in the past. I know my article is all over the place, but it's because there is so much that I want to say about this subject, but I don't have enough time to say it all. I'll catch more detail on the different topics that I went through for a brief moment, in another blog post, Until then, I leave you with this question; how have you been branded?