What Person In Your Life Has Helped to Define You?

[HollowOfHaze]

We see countless faces during the course of our lives, and while many pass in and out of our lives with barely a trace, some leave memories and experiences that make us who we are.

List a person, or even a few people, who have defined you.

For me, I would have to pick my father. He gave me an analytical quality which pushes me to learn more, and an impartiality which motivates me to keep a clear mind in a discussion and give every person equal respect.

[Ori]

My father first off. (IN A REALLY BAD AND NEGATIVE WAY.) He basically was the main reason why I became so introverted. Man that guy criticized me on everything.

A friend whose name I won't list. Became a shoulder I could cry (Mostly rant on) and he helped me be more rebellious against my father. And also somewhat braver.

Another friend who became my game rival friend, basically we were like brothers with different mothers. I guess he made me go back into gaming

My skater friend, got me into skating.

[moonwolf101]

My friends who helped me when I needed it (not really) and they mostly made me feel depressed

[Dagmar1177]

My brother who I idolized for his knowledge and ability to learn, and many friends I have made who have been surprisingly accepting of me being a furry. Finally me mother, who I love, but the only real reason she's on here is because she help me cement my religious view, mainly the opposite of hers.

[shawcked86]

The main people that help me form me as a person would be my mother's mom and my fathers mother. Both took care of me as a child and shown me to be a good person to those that needed it. And to stay true to my feelings and instincts even when others think that they are wrong. And to first in god and know that all things have a reason for happening.

[anoni]

I feel like parents are gonna be a running theme, they're the only people you've known all your life.

I'm wondering, as a side note, as well as someone who really influenced your life like your parents, is there someone who may not necessarily be related to you, may not even be a friend, but just sort of a guy or girl somewhere who sort of changed your life?

Like in high school I had a music teacher named Christian Lillicrap (yes that was his name) and I reckon he changed my concept of religion quite a bit. He was religion and... well, I was not. And I was like 15 and was sort of in that moodset of the atheist who tries to prove everyone wrong and what-not, basically a dick. So I had long discussions with him and these discussions, he sort of opened my eyes a bit more about how religion has value, I still am not religious of course but I sort of respect religious belief a lot more than I did before. It was an interesting discussion and something that I think changed my path a bit.

[Cheza]

First there were my parents (They got divorced when I was 4. I grew up with my mother and dad kinda just disappeared. Occasionally he'd threaten mom but other than that he was pretty much gone ). They both made me realize that alcohol is a bad idea. Mom also had like 10 boyfriends (not at the same time) over the course of me growing up, and that influenced me in shaping my values and ideas about relationships, both for good and for bad. Other than that, both my parents wanted me to grow up to be "Me".
Which meant they never really tried to push their own ideals or opinions on me, they pretty much just told me stuff like "This is christianity. Some people believe in it, I personally don't, but you're free to do whatever you want.



Then came my "mother". She adopted me into her family when my real mother was sick with cancer, and she kinda showed me everything I had essentially "missed out" on when growing up in a very dysfunctional family. It was everything I could've wished for. Eventually she grew tired of me tho since I didn't quite live up to her ideas of how a daugther should be (She had three boys already and had kinda been wishing for a girl. Then I appear and turn out to be more like tomboy). So I was dumped off at an orphanage. And left with some serious trust issues that still makes it hard for me to really open up and let myself become attached to people. That kinda causes issues when I try to make friends since many just end up assuming I don't care or that I'm not interested.


Then I was at the orphanage. Where workers and children alike came and went. People appeared, talked to you, you got to know them better, started to feel some kind of friendship forming, only to have them vanish out of your life a few weeks later. It didn't quite help improve my trust issues, and it also just made me rather indifferent to trying to get to know people. Which only caused me to seem even more uncaring.


Not all was bad tho, since one of the workers really fell for me. She became like the mother I'd have needed. Patient, supportive and nice, but with a firm hand. She really helped me see the light and get back on track.


Then there were also all the other people living at the orphanage (We were all around 15-16 at the time). One person in particular stood out to me. They were the first openly-gay and trans person I met in real life. They were also the stereotypical "rainbows and unicorns and FABULOUS"-kind of gay, and at first I was kinda worried I'd end up developing homophobia or something since they were just.. A little.. Too much.. At times >_>' (They used to love climbing around on me and telling me stuff like "Oh, it's ok for me to do this because I'm gay")
They also questioned me on my sexuality all the time. Back in the day I just didn't care about anything related to "those kinds of things", so I hadn't really thought too much about it. They didn't really make me discover anything too revolutionary about myself, but we sure had a lot of interesting talks and stuff. And despite their special snowflakiness, we became good friends.


There was also a girl who had been living at the place for longer than me. We were quite different, but we still became really close friends. The biggest difference was that she came from a religious family and I didn't. We often had discussions about religion and stuff like that.


I also ended up in the special needs class at the new school I had to start at after moving. There I also a met a lot of people that changed me in quite a few ways despite me never really interacting with them.


I've been through a lot, and some things have definitely scarred me, but even with all the bad things, I still kept an open mind and simply promised myself to never become a bad person myself. -Some- people might be bad, but -far- from everyone is. I think that's one of the more important things I've learned through all this.