Journal Three

3. During your early years, which people had the greatest impact on you? Who were the heroes and heroines? And for what traits? Make a list and notice who is included and who is excluded?

During my early years, the people that had the greatest impact on me were my family members. I was around my family all of the time. As a child, your social life revolves around the things that you do with your family. I had an amazing family. I was lucky enough to have an older sister who is only two years older than I am. As a child, I think she had the greatest impact on me. I wanted to be just like her and I would try and run with her anywhere she went. I lived next door to my cousins, who were two and four years older than I was. Basically, I ran with a group that was bigger than me. I would try and be as brave as they were. I would go down the big kid slide with them, even if I were extremely afraid to do so. While my sister and older cousins had a large impact on me, so did my parents. They were my hero’s. I looked up to them so much and thought that their life was magical. I was fascinated with the jobs they would do, and how they could drive cars. Everything they did, I was amazed at and envied. As a child, parents are the one’s that no matter what they do, they do it perfectly. I wanted to be just like them. I would play house and pretend to be my mom, because she was perfect. (And in my mind, she still is!) Other hero’s that I had were the characters on the Disney movies. I loved Cinderella, Belle from Beauty and the Beast, and Ariel. They were my idols. I would sing all of their songs and watch their movies over and over again. They were beautiful, smart, talented and always in love. As a kid, I wanted to be all of those things. I thought that life was about those traits; being pretty, falling in love, singing and living a magical life.Another person that I would always look up to were my teachers. As a kid, I loved every single one of my teachers. I thought that they knew everything. I looked up to them because they were smart. Anytime I had a question, they knew the answer to it. I think the traits that I enjoyed in my teachers were that they were always kind, helpful, taught me interesting things and were a leader figure. They were in charge of the classroom and everyone knew it. You never wanted to do wrong towards the teacher because everyone respected them. Those are all traits that even today are good to have. Even as a child, you learn so many things about the President of the United States. They are the head honchos in your life. They are the main heroes that people look up. When I was a kid, George Bush Sr. was in charge. As a kid, it is difficult and confusing to understand politics. All I remember was that we would study the Presidents of the past and present and look up to the things that they had. They had power, they ran our country and they knew all the right things to do.When trying to remember who had the greatest impact on me when I was young, my family was at the top of the list. Fictitious characters are typically thrown in to a child’s list as well. Today my list would still be similar, but I would take away the Disney characters. While they do have heroic traits, I would trade them out with other women figures. Such as Mother Theresa, Amelia Earhardt, and Sandra Day O’Connor.