I dealt with these severe breakdowns from second to seventh grade before I grew out of them-or rather before I gained the ability to intellectualize them. My overactive brain conjured live black-and-white images of sickly children meanwhile, my limbs remained paralyzed under the covers as I silently gasped for air. Every evening after my mom came to tuck me in and turn off the light, my closet no longer harbored clothes, nor was the underside of my bed exclusively covered in dust bunnies. The narratives I read in books and the graphic images I was non-consensually exposed to during history class at Jewish day school haunted me. I had a peculiar fright-one that may have been a shared experience with other Gen Z Jewish children-a debilitating fear of the Holocaust. This childhood anxiety didn’t stem from ghoulish movie assassins or evil clowns as it did for many children. I have a confession to make: I was afraid of the dark until I was almost fifteen years old. The alteration in how our DNA manifests itself raises an important question: how are humans in a complex society affected by epigenetic changes on the day-to-day? How do these epigenetic changes impact our identities as they evolve throughout our lives? I personally have encountered these questions in my own life while thinking about my status as a descendant of Holocaust survivors. This specialty asserts that epigenetic changes either “turn on” or “turn off” particular gene expression through environmental factors such as diet (throwback to the broccoli) and exercise during an organism’s lifespan. This emerging scientific field is breaking the harsh dichotomy of the “nurture” vs “nature” phenomenon. One exception to this biological predetermination is epigenetics, the study of how behaviors and environment cause changes affecting gene expression. Typically, this fitness is acquired through random genetic mutations. F itness describes the success of an organism to pass on its genes as compared to others in its environment. Although I can’t verify that you will *poof* into broccoli the more florets you consume, this statement is validated through a biological and chemical perspective on species progression through epigenetic changes.
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