Is Our Future Built Into Our DNA?

As my children grow into adults and begin to figure out what they might want to do with their lives, I find myself reflecting back on my own life and was curious to explore if my future career and life was determined based on my parents influence or something built into my DNA.  However, since I am not a scientist nor a geneticist I can not say for certain whether my future is floating around in the sea of my DNA since birth or if it is based on a series of influences.


Let me provide an example or two. I am interested in theatre arts and for a time in high school and for a year in college I majored in theatre management.  How did I become to enjoy this vocation?  Was it the influence from my mother always signing songs as she cooked and cleaned and frequent childhood visits to New York City to see a show?  Was this the seed that was planted long before I could make an independent decision.  I am also interested in photography and growing up my parents had a friend that was a photographer for Life magazine.  I remember going to his apartment and starring for hours at the photographs and fussing over his rather expensive collection of cameras and associated accessories.  Was this the influencer that made me interested in photography?


Now some 30 years later, I find it interesting to see if / how I have influenced my children.  My son is a photography major and a environment biology minor at college.  Both my wife and I enjoy photography and I graduated with a degree in environmental management.   My daughter is a talented singer who sings in the select choir at school and enjoys music and hangs out with the theatre group in high school. So are these traits passed from generation to generation in our DNA or are they influences we give our children as they mature? I believe what the answer is that our children's future lies in part from parental influence,  is part of our DNA (customs and talents based down from generation to generation) and part influence from outside forces. 


Let me know what you think. Take a look back into your childhood and see what the ingredients of your future was made of, I think you will be amazed.