Influences

I don't know if this thread has been done before, but I'm curious and I want to get something off my chest.

Who has had the biggest influence on your life (or your life so far)? Maybe it was even just someone who said some quiet remark to you, but there's a person out there that you know made a difference in the way you see things.

I now know that (so far) mine is my art teacher, Mrs. Adams. Yesterday was the last day of our first semester classes and she gave us a critique on our finals, then did the usual "sorry-to-lose-you" speech. Every year, during the last week or so of senior year, the senior artists get a board to put up the artwork that they want to show down in the lobby, and if you don't have an art class the second semester, you still have to do it. So as she was explaining all this, she said, "So this is where I get teary-eyed just saying it, because after this I let you go." And she got teary-eyed as she said it, but I didn't really think much of it (I wanted to just get the hell out and go home!).

But this morning when I was explaining all of that to my mom, I myself burst into tears! I usually don't cry, so I immediately dismissed it and called myself "a bundle of hormones." But as I sat in my kitchen making ugly little crying noises I realised what I was crying for: as corny as it sounds, when I graduate this spring I will be leaving a great friend.

So to wrap this whole sorry mess up, who has made a great impact on your life?

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"They think I'm crazy, but I know better. It is not I who am crazy... it is I who am MAD!"