Okay, what I'm about to write might seem childish, but these are things I don't even talk about with my closest friends. So, today I realized something: my parents were never there for me when I needed them. I mean, when I was four, five, and older (mostly childhood), I always needed them, emotionally and morally, but they were never there. Each of them had something else to do. My father worked, so I didn't see him much, and my mother only cared about the house and didn't really pay much attention to me. Also, my mother thought that proper discipline meant hitting, so whenever I made a mistake, I was punished by being hit. But like I said, they weren't there for me. And then a lot of things happened, and we separated from my father's family and started living on our own. And that's what's happening now, and I'm almost 17. I admit that my parents have changed a lot and are paying more attention to me and my siblings than before, and I'm happy about that. My siblings are young and still have the chance to enjoy their parents as they should, but I don't see the importance in that now. I mean, I grew up on my own, and I don't want anyone to come and guide me and tell me what to do. I go out and see the outside world, try things, learn things, take what's good from them, and leave what's harmful. Neither my father nor my mother taught me how to do that, so now I don't want either of them to come and restrict my freedom or teach me how to live and cope, because the age when they should have taught me how to learn that has passed. Today I went out with my friends, and we went to the gym and exercised normally, and when I got home, I found them angry, like, "Why did you go?!" And even though I told them beforehand that I was going to the gym and they agreed, now they're angry about why I'm going? Why? And my mom said a lot of illogical things, and said that I'll never grow up. What does she mean? I'm not doing anything wrong, just exercising with some friends. Does that have to be something a little kid does? And she says that the gym is only for men. She doesn't know anything about sports and she's talking to me about whether the gym is for men or women. It's for both of them. And I don't want anyone judging me for what I do, and I don't want anyone controlling me. I'm a free person, and I swear that staying at home for too long might kill me. So let them stay where they are. If they do anything for me, it's because they are my parents. It's not that I don't appreciate it, but because they gave birth to me, they brought me into this world, they chose to raise me. I didn't choose this. I didn't choose to be born.