The family you got isn’t an accident. Some of your growth is waiting in those dinner arguments.

Family is the one group you did not audition for, and that is part of what makes it useful. The people who can irritate you most reliably are also the people who show you where your patience ends. Growth rarely happens with the friends who already agree with you.

At the next tense dinner, try leaving one sentence unsaid and asking one question instead. See if you can find out why they believe what they believe rather than winning the point. You may not change their mind, and you were never going to, but you will learn something about your own temper.