Influences to Date

Daily writing prompt

Who are the biggest influences in your life?

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My mother has always had the biggest positive influence. From childhood, she fed my thirst for knowledge as well as any of my teachers and cried with me during my down days. Her open-mindedness for another’s situation taught has stayed with me through adulthood. “Let your first meeting be met with a smile instead of course judgement. No one knows what life another lives.”

Kitty, my late cat who kept my company from elementary school through the start of junior high, was another influence. From the first day I found her in my neighbor’s drain ditch with four kittens latched on to her tummy, I knew that she didn’t like me. She would yowl and hiss when my hand neared her her or the kittens. To say she was apprehensive was an understatement. I wanted her to see me in a different light. I needed to earn her trust. As the months’ passed, I brought scraps, cat food, and water to ditch trying to make sure she was comfortable and OK. Until one day I heard a cute merow from the garden beside our front door. I reached in and something soft butted against my hand. Clicking my tongue, I crooned “Here, Kitty, Kitty” a few times before she stepped out of the bushes to rub against my legs.

I learned how precious and powerful trust is once given, what it meant to be responsible, and when creativity and imagination were fine to express oneself.

Overall, I have had many teachers that have impacted my life, and although I haven’t mentioned each of them in this post, know that I am grateful to every one.

Merry Christmas!