Reply #26: Probably more so than your ethnic background.

[Common Sense Party]

I just think there's waaaaay too much variation among members of any one ethnic group to say, all Irish are like this, or all Italians are like that, or all Norwegians are such and such.

There are stereotypes, and there may be some generalized truth to some of them, but you're always going to find exceptions to the stereotype--lots of 'em, if you look hard enough.

I'd guess you learned a lot of it from your family. Not that that's bad, it's just the way things were.

But, you can always "unlearn" what your family taught you.

In my family, I was taught to be shy, reserved, and socially awkward.

It took years and a lot of pain, but now I do public speaking for a living, basically. I still have shy tendencies, but I've learned to overcome or at least temporarily subvert them.

If you don't like any of your "programming," you can always choose to reprogram yourself. You just have to want to badly enough. (I'm not saying you need to, mind you. I'm just saying if it ever gets to the point where it bothers you, you can undo it.)