I grew up believing the adults always knew best. That questioning was rebellion.

I grew up believing the adults always knew best. That questioning was rebellion. That obedience was virtue.

College wasn’t framed as exploration — it was framed as protection from sin. Art wasn’t framed as truth — it was framed as danger. Creativity was something that could lead you astray. Money was something that came from submission and faith, not curiosity or craft.

I didn’t question any of it until my early twenties.

Now I look back and understand what it did:

It trained me to defer. To shrink my ideas. To wait for permission that never comes. To trust authority over my own mind. To feel like my instincts might be wrong. To feel like my Maker-Self was something to hide.

I don’t resent the people who taught me these things. They believed what they believed. But the cost of that belief was a kind of internal obedience I’m still trying to break.