Family Recipe by Coco Simon

Author:Coco Simon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Spotlight
Published: 2020-05-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine Nature Vs. Nurture

I sat down on the front step, not sure what to do next. A few minutes later the door opened. Dad threw my sneakers on the step.

“C’mon,” he said. He was already wearing his running shoes and was carrying more gear.

I put my sneakers on. “Where are we going?” I asked.

Dad jogged down the front walk. He put on his reflective jacket and headlamp and handed me one of each too. I guess they were Mom’s.

“Sometimes when you feel like running, the best thing to do is actually run,” said Dad. “Let’s go.”

I followed him down the path, out into the quiet street, and the two of us took off. We just ran, side by side, a nice slow pace, not saying anything for a long while.

“Look at those stars,” said Dad.

I looked up and he was right. There were a ton of stars. It was crisp and cool, and it felt good breathing in the night air.

We jogged around the neighborhood. I followed Dad as we ran past Casey’s house. I could see her sitting at her desk in her bedroom. I wondered if she was texting Lindsay. The two of them were best friends.

There’s one road in our neighborhood that leads to a dead end. If you go on the trail, it leads to the lake. We reached the dead end and Dad turned around. Someone had their windows open, and you could hear music and people’s voices.

I heard a kid shout, “Nooooo,” and I wondered if it was one of the Sherer kids since they lived in our neighborhood.

I was waiting for Dad to try to talk about things. I kept looking at him, but he was just looking straight ahead. Maybe he was waiting for me to start talking. But there was something really nice about being together in silence. We were both breathing hard, and all I could hear was the slap slap of our sneakers hitting the pavement. I felt my body begin to relax.

When we finally came back up our street, I was tired. We reached our driveway, and Dad turned off his headlamp.

He smiled. “You have the running bug!” he said. “I’m sorry to say there’s no cure. But running regularly definitely helps.”

I laughed. “It must be genetic!” Then I stopped. “Dad, how can I tell what’s genetic and what I just pick up from you and Mom?”

Dad went up the front walk, and I followed him.

“Well,” he said, sitting down on the step. “There’s something called nature versus nurture. Nature means what you are genetically predetermined to do or have, like brown eyes or a tall frame. Nurture is more about what affects you growing up, like what language is spoken at home, if you live in a city or a small town, or what your family does on the weekends. If, say, you grow up in a family who cooks a lot, you might be more likely to cook.”

“Well, nature or nurture, I’m not getting any cooking skills from Mom,” I said, sitting down next to him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.