I mean its bascially the same principle.
Immigrants get “adopted” by a country
Just as Orphans get adopted by prospective parents
Then you get the International Adoptions which is bascially both combined… those probably have the most identity crisis…
I immigrated when I was 3 from the UK to Australia. I also wonder how growing up in the UK would have affected me. I would be a completely different person. I’d only eat plain looking food. I’d think football is important. It’s weird to think about.
Same language tho, same Anglosphere…
In my alternate timeline, I most likely would not speak English…
Or perhaps very poorly and with a heavy Cantonese accent.
Terminator 2 would not feel the same
I’m not adopted and I’ve often wondered “what if I got different parents?” I’m sure I’m not alone.
I know what you mean, I also often wonder what it would have been like if you had different parents.
I think the difference is that for someone that’s adopted, it’s more “real”
Like… scientifically, “you” had to be the product of your bio parents…
Like there is no “before” your existance, from your PoV at least
Like… you exist… and anything before was already set in stone…
Like the sequence of events that led up to your procration is just what it is…
I mean unless you’re talking about like parents dying
then I guess yea sure that’s a what if… it would be kinda tragic tho…
For an adopted person… any tiny changes could’ve led to a different outcome…
Like what if the first time they met, the kid “acted a bit weird” and then didn’t get picked by those same prospective parents…
Just a little thing can change their entire trajectory…
…
Its like… I sometimes wondered like what if I wasn’t born in China, but was an ABC (American-Born Chinese) instead?..
Like… I’d have no “before” to wonder about… I’d have no “other timeline” to be able to visualize…
My identity as an American would be undeniable (well besides the whole executive order bullshit that’s being sued in the courts)
But because I was transplanted… I have a constant identity crisis because I can see the ghosts of the other timeline…
Like if someone like trump got elected in 2008, our visa could’ve been denied… leading to that alternate timeline…
Or just dad dying… everyone else in my family were sort of like “add-ons” on the visa… so if he died, we might not have been able to come (I think the terms are Pricipal Immigrant and Derivative Immigrant), like we’re all derivatives from dad’s application…
Okay I think I’m just rambling thoughts again…
Why is my brain so hyperactive lmao
My mom died when I was in middle school. She was the taskmaster parent and my dad treated me basically like a roommate, so I was way more independent in high school and beyond than I would have been if she had lived. I see the ghost of the timeline in which things were different. I think that happens for any huge changes in life.
I’m an immigrant in Germany and moved here about a decade after I studied abroad here. I don’t think I would have been allowed/able to study abroad, especially under the circumstances (I failed German, after getting a 95 and a 98 on the midterm and final, respectively, because I didn’t do the homework), so I don’t think I would have been able to come here and become a German as a second language teacher without prior immersion. My life would look very different, and I’d probably be leaning into my Spanish a lot more to try to emigrate to a Spanish speaking country, if I were even thinking about leaving.
My mom was a republican, but I don’t know if she would have followed my dad down the Fox News wormhole or if she would have pulled him out of it. I think if she snapped out of it, but couldn’t snap him out of the maga hypnosis, she might have left him, which would probably have set my dad on a very unpleasant path.
Jesus christ. I sorry to hear that.
This makes me appreciate my parents even more. I mean at least they’re more of the “status quo” type of people and not extremists.
I remember cuddling with mom a lot… and I felt very warm and safe when I sleep with parents when I was younger…
I wonder how much did my mother’s affection changed me…
Did I get more “soft” because of that?
Like I have a weird emotional attachment to my mom who says mean things to me a lot…
So I essentially feel very vulnerable and need my mom to validate my existence.
I wonder… what if my mom was more “cold” towards me… or like died? would I have just grown more independent? But conversely that also makes me more deprived of love and that doesn’t go well… I might’ve become a more aggressive person…
But my mom is so like ambivalent towards me that I essentially have two personalities. Sometimes I’m just in rage… other times I feel so timid I wanna be a kid again…
Did my mom’s ambivalent affection helped or harmed me?
I mean dad doesn’t even show affection at all.
I mean I guess now in this timeline… I’ve felt what cuddling feels like… so I could pass on this feeling to the next generation, but without the other side, the negative side, of it (the random “bipolar mode” yelling at me)
“Fun” fact: literally everything that happens to you and all the little things you do every day are potentially just as life-changing.
You could go to one supermarket instead of another and meet your future life partner there.
Or come home 5 minutes early and catch the short circuit in time that would have burnt down your home with all your belongings.
Or cross the street here instead of there and get run over by a drunk driver.Life is unpredictable, and it’s generally healthier to look to the future instead of the past.
Oh the other hand… I could make another Steins;Gate out of my obsessive alt-timeline thoughts…
They say the best artists are weird and crazy (or something) xD
