People are all brought into this world as newborns not knowing a single thing. We all have the same beginnings so why is it that we are all so unique? Phenomenological research, answers that question. Everyone experiences the world and interacts with the world in their own distinctive ways. For example, if I compared my childhood to my father’s, our daily schedules were the exact same, but every encounter was completely different.
I woke up and got dressed in fresh, clean clothes. He woke up and wore the same clothes he slept in. I ate a nutritious breakfast with oats and eggs. He ate a plain piece of bread. I rode the bus to school. He walked three miles to school. I sat at a desk and took notes with a pencil and notebook. He snuck into a random class and took notes mentally because he couldn’t pay his teacher. I went home to do homework. He went home to plow the fields. I ate a bowl of spiced noodles for dinner. He had a bowl of plain porridge for dinner. I showered in a bathtub. He bathed himself in a lake. I slept on a soft mattress, covered with a blanket. He slept on a straw mat, next to a small fire.
His background led him to become strong headed and incredibly traditional. Every decision he makes is based on survival, regardless of any emotional appeal. Although, he tries to push his values onto me, I disagree with many of them. The way we each view the world are very unalike because we had different scenarios thrown at us, even if it was the same task. This form of comparison is very limiting because we can only analyze specific situations, but it is still insightful into how people develop their set of morals as they react to their experiences.
Unruly Bodies 
I found what you said very insightful in how we as people continuously walk through the world only fully knowing our own experiences. We may have family and friends that we are close with who share pieces of their life with us but we could never fully walk in their shoes or live their life. At least not until technology figures that out. Overall, getting to know and learn about people’s experiences is as close as we will get to fully knowing them. This also helps to gain worldly knowledge and perspectives about views in a way you might never have thought about.
This story shows that most people are the way they are because of how they came up and their environment around them. It’s difficult to develop new values if no one you knew growing had those said values.
I love your passage as I have a similar experience with my dad which always ends the same way. It seems like 40, 30, 20 or even 10 years ago the world was completely different.
Something that also has great impact on this is the community’s mentality in which both generations were born as it also has great power in the shaping of a human being.
Relatable. Isn’t it weird how we can be of the same family, but live our lives completely different? “Although, he tries to push his values onto me, I disagree with many of them” I guess… this is the art of growing up *shrugs*. I too have this issue and I pray/hope things will get better for the both of us! Maybe that’s the act of phenomenology and a bigger focus on empathy – our fathers are different. And that’s okay.
I related to this very much. My parents were raised a certain way as well and that shaped them a lot affecting the way they raised me. It makes me think of how similar but completely different we are to our family. It makes me think ancestrally of how we are so different but the same, how that could carry through to our families.
This is interesting. Being born basically the same, but living different lifestyles. This could be because times are changing and so is technology. Back in the 2000s, we used to play with toy cars and make forts. Nowadays, it is just all technology and being on phones all day.