The Adoption Bias

A Personal Look at Instagrams Hottest New Trend

Photo by Austin Lowman on Unsplash

Is it me, or is adoption IN these days? Everyone wants to be a savior, — adopting a young child, saving them from the horrors of their current existence. It’s all over Instagram — you’ve most surely seen it.

It’s perfect social media fodder. An adoption has all the elements of a perfect story. A bad situation, a journey to fix the situation, and everyones favorite, a happy ending.

It’s an interesting thing, raising a child to whom you are not biologically related. Most interesting is what it tells us about human nature, and our own development. An adopted child is a clear window into the traits that define who we are as individuals, and more importantly, where they came from.

This has been something I’ve struggled with tremendously in my own life. My parents adopted me when I was mere weeks old, and while I was taken out of what many would consider a bad situation, it was a situation and a reality to which I have no recollection.

I grew up in Milwaukee, WI and by all means had a great childhood. Naturally, as I believe most children do, I gravitated towards the things my parents and other family members gravitated towards. My father was an avid bowler, and as such I became one too, compiling a successful youth bowling career before it was all said and done. My mother worked at a health food store exposing me to a world of food and eating that many of my peers lacked until much later on in life. My father was also an entrepreneur, owning his own business starting early on in my childhood. It is without a doubt that this is why I developed a strong interest in business at such an early age.

Ultimately, much of who I am today is due to how I was raised, and who raised me. For better AND for worse.

But I can’t help but think about the other side — who I am without external influence.

When I was 12, I actually got in touch with my biological family. I connected with my sister on Facebook, and from there the flood gates opened. Receiving dozens of friend requests from ‘relatives’, I did my best to get to know each of them. Unfortunately, by the time the connection was made, the person I wanted to speak with most wasn’t around. My biological…