Parents

It's a war between love and hate.

She has been conditioned by them.

She hates in herself what she sees in them: her concern with image; her anger at a transgression from the past; her manipulative ways to get attention; her martyrdom; and the least of these, her big italian nose.

She told me she wishes she could change these things.

I tell her a wish can become a goal. A goal can become hard work. Hard work can become results. Results can become change.

Except for the big italian nose. Embrace it.