It is hard to think about only one important thing from growing up, since there are so many.
So I’ll try to pick a few.
Probably, the most important thing I learned from my parents was about work.
Both my mother and father were good workers, and they both liked what they did. They expected the same from me, meaning to study hard and get good grades. Doing this, you develop good learning habits, and that has served me well all my life.
I think you learn mostly by example. Both my parents had a strong will. I tried to have that too, but according to my wife, it is just stubbornness.
My mother often smiled and liked people, and people liked her. But she was also somewhat of a stoic. She never complained or got upset, even when she had good reason to do so. I liked to smile and laugh, too, and did not get mad easily. However, I did complain and sometimes got mad.
In Hungary, the universities had oral exams. Naturally, that added to the anxiety of taking the exams. My colleagues told me I was lucky because I was not anxious before going to the professor. I tried telling them I was, but they did not believe me.
Disposition also has something to do with genetics.
The father who raised me taught me swimming, rowing, chess, and to like sports in general. He was a good chess player, a master of chess by correspondence, meaning that the two players send letters to each other, one after the other, containing the chess movements. They do that until the game is over. Naturally, waiting for the mail to go back and forth makes the game last for a long time. Chess was very important to him. I liked to play chess, but that was as far as it went.
Recently, we watched a TV show, The Queen’s Gambit. It was a very good show, particularly for people who like chess. It brought some childhood memories back. For example, my father often played with a chess clock and played so-called schnell, which means “quick” in German. The games lasted ten or sometimes even five minutes. Watching the show prompted me to remember conversations in which my father explained to me certain things about chess.
You learn many things in life, and from many people, but never as much as from the people who raise you.
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