The 2013 30 Day Blog Challenge: Day Nine

Day Nine: List 10 people who influenced you and how.

Huzzah! I’m actually writing about y’all!

1. My daughters. They inspire me to be a better person every second of every day. They’re why I go to school, why I try hard to write. They influence everything I do; whom I date, whom I speak with, why I try harder to be nice, my carbon footprint. I want to give them everything in life that they feel would make it better, even the stuff that I just can’t do. Without them, I’d somehow be a bigger screw up than usual.

2. Drew. Drew is my best friend in the whole world. He tells me every day that I am awesome. He isn’t afraid to tell me I’m too nice and God help the person who hurts me. He will coldly shut them out FOREVER and make sure you know that he hates you and will continue to treat you like crap unless I can convince him that it hurts me to treat you like crap. Drew’s opinion matters to me. If he doesn’t like you, chances are you will be removed from my life, because he has a good reason. I trust his judgment implicitly & that’s why some people think we share a mind. Who knows? Maybe we do!

3. My foster father. Arguably the smartest and most awesome man in my entire life, he made me strive to be…anything because I could be anything. I may not have done everything the way he would have wanted me to, but I’ve tried my hardest and I hope he’s proud of me. He’s the standard of which I’ve set men, since my divorce, I’ve only considered men that have traits like my father.

4. The Gleason Table. My good friend and fellow blogger at the Gleason Table is one of two reasons this blog is still operational right now. He reminds me that I need to not give an effing eff and do what makes ME happy and not just let people walk all over me. He’s a good friend and a better man & he brings out the DILIGAF in me.

5. The Texan. The other reason my blog is still running; the Texan wouldn’t have it any other way! She’s a good friend who truly demonstrates God’s love every day by helping people, even a silly Canadian girl who can’t keep her life together. I look to her for guidance on how to love my neighbour and be a better person.

6. The Artist. My best girlfriend helps me strive to be a better housekeeper, something she struggles with too. We’re working together to improve as domestic engineers.

7. My College Professor. She’s a mom, the course coordinator for the journalism program at my alma mater and a published author. I would love to do everything like she does. The day she called me a colleague was the happiest day of my life.

8. Yogi & Dawna, the ASH Team. Drew gets his special spot, but my girls Yogi & Dawna influence me in a lot of ways. From pimping my blog to get me to 10K views to dishing out harsh love life advice, they influence me by reminding me that I don’t need to be perfect, just me.

9. The Psych Major. My Jeopardy partner BFF is always the voice of reason. Rarely is she wrong about the world; something to do with her background in psychology.

10. The Audience of One. When I launched this blog, I had one fan. The most wonderful thing he (anyone) ever said to me was “I’ve read every word you’ve ever written.” Unlike other men, my work wasn’t a hobby; it was my life & he was proud of me. He would help me work, brag about me. He built me up as this thing; sweet, beautiful, perfect, the ideal mate & how badly I wanted to be that thing, because he is that thing. I tried so hard to do it too, but being the tornado of screw up that I am, I failed. Then he said the most hurtful thing any human being has ever said to me, to the point where I wanted to shut down my project (even so, I’m not terribly proud of my current work). I guess he influenced me because I wanted to be the person he seemed to see in me, not the reality of suck that is the real me.