At the risk of humble-bragging, I think one of my better character traits is my ability to be impartial: to keep judgments to myself in an attempt to understand why people hold beliefs and values that I strongly disagree with.

That being said, everyone has their “hot button topics” that make impartiality next to impossible. The older I get, the more I realize that the “hot button” issues that grind my gears are similar to those of my family.

And that scares me.

Not because my family’s values are bad (though I’m biased), but because I fear becoming the kind of person I can’t stand: the kind whose beliefs are shaped more by her upbringing than personal experience. The kind of person who was taught what to think, rather than learning to think for herself.