Jul 26, 2026 Features / Columnists, News

(Kaieteur News) – Long before we learn our first word, someone has already begun writing our story. Before we decide what we believe, someone has already taught us what is right and wrong. Before we choose our favourite foods, our style of dress, our political opinions, our religious beliefs, or even how we should greet an elder, much of the foundation has already been laid. We arrive in the world believing we are blank slates, yet from our very first breath we enter a family, a community, and a culture that quietly begin shaping the way we see ourselves and the world around us.

Most people like to think they have independently chosen the person they have become. In reality, many of our earliest beliefs, habits, fears, expectations, and ambitions were inherited long before we were capable of questioning them. We were, in many ways, born into a story that someone else had already started writing.