Life Influences

Welcome to Thursday!

And, welcome to another Thursday Blog Project entry. For those of you who don't know what this project is all about, below is what one of my fellow bloggers wrote to explain what is happening:

I have a few friends who knit and blog and we've decided to embark on a blog project that has nothing to do with knitting. We're going to take turns coming up with a topic every Thursday and we each have to blog about it by the end of that day and post links to each other's blogs so that people can see our different perspectives on the same topic.
-Thanks to Merryland Girl for this explanation of what I now affectionately refer to as "The Thursday Blog Project."


This week's topic: "Tell me how you were raised - are there any lessons that your parent(s) taught you that you didn't appreciate when you were younger, but understand now that you're an adult?"

Compliments of: Jenn @ Charmingly Random

My other friends are:

Shara @ Desperate Madness

Mel @ Me!!!

Whenever I am first sharing my family tree with someone I tell them they will need to get a pen and paper out to keep track of all of us and the relationships because I come from a very non-traditional family. Or, at least what use to be a non-traditional family back then. (I think we are more "traditional" now.) To spare you from having to get a score card of your own out I will just say I have two brothers who are significantly older than me and one that is close in age to me. I have two nieces and two nephews (one of each is closer in age to me, as well) and a great nephew.

Looking back, there are two chapters to my family life. Life before my dad passed away and life after my dad passed away. If you've read my blog at all, you would know that I loved my dad very much and his passing had a significant impact on my life. Some of my greatest memories include him. Because of him from an early age I was a magician who could disappear and reappear on command. He would be the one who would always point out the literal side of things to me even though I was a child. And he was the one who would teach me the life lessons through a "your actions have consequences" approach. And he was the one who taught me the life lessons through a "your actions have consequences" approach. Or, at least that is how he handled my brother - and I just picked up on the lessons along the way. From what I could gather from his approach, punishment wasn't effective because in most cases the consequences of ones "bad" actions sucked even more than any punishment ever could.

At this point I feel the need to back-peddle a bit. I don't want to undermine the impact my mother had on my life. However, I think her impact really set-in after my dad's passing. How could it not? She was my only parent at that point. I wasn't a bad kid overall. I had a few minor transgressions, but a fairly non-rebellious soul so I wasn't punished regularly. When I look back on my childhood I think that my mom and I survived "war" together. After that first year without dad, my brother went to college and we moved out of the house we had all been living in. Over the next four years we would become each other's "mostly companion." (And, we always will be.)

The last person to have an influence on me growing up is my brother. As shocking as it is to hear me say that, it's even more shocking for me to say. It wasn't until last night when I was ruminating over this blog post that I realized it. I learned a lot from watching him grow up. To some extent I think that is why I didn't do certain things as a teenager and an adult. Lastly, he has given me a lot of useful advice, in his own special way of course.

My parents, as my parental unit, were wonderful. There was (and still is) never a time when I didn't feel loved. Yes, they frustrated, irritated and annoyed me, but when I got past those feeling what I always came back to was their love. They taught me to be the person I am today. Through their mistakes I have learned and work towards not repeating them. In some ways I have succeeded at this and in others ways not so much.

I know you can't pick your family (and trust me many days I wish that wasn't the case), however I love my family immensely and life would not be the same without them. They have influenced me in many ways. Ways I don't know that I will ever realize. What I do know is that I continue to learn from them as the years go on and for that I am thankful.

Until later . . .