Tell me about the person who has most influenced your life.

Joanne's favorite answer:
I can't narrow it down to one person - the persons that have had the biggest influence in my life would be my wife and two stepdaughters. My wife has been a consistently positive influence in my life. Each of my stepdaughters worked extremely hard in and out of college to earn degrees in their respected fields. I was able to watch them make their dreams a reality and that has been a major influence in my life. And the best part is all three are still a continuing influence in my life.

Joanne's answer:
Wow, this is a hard one! Glossing over the most obvious answer of my immediate family (who any psychologist would argue has an extraordinary influence on all of us!), I'm going to have to go with my friend Jen. Before I met Jen, I was often worried that new people did not like me, I would never have have been able to go up to a guy in a bar and just start talking to him, and I was living a best-friend-less existance at college. After meeting her, I became much more confident, started picking up boys left and right, and got the best friend any college girl could ask for. Even more than that, without her, I would never have moved in California, possibly may not even have gone to grad school, and most certainly wouldn't, today, be going to the first day of my dream job as a professor who lives near the beach!


And the other answers!

My grandma has influenced me the most. She's the kindest, most lovingperson and she really listens to me. She's my mom, my dad, and mygrandma. My life would have amounted to nothing without her. Seriously.

I'd say it's a toss-up between Maude and Rhoda. As a kid I watched a LOT of TV and those two TV icons really shaped my idea of an independent strong woman. Maude's downfall, of course, were those weird flowy MUMU's. But she knew how to strut and be sarcastic. Rhoda's? I'm not sure. Her mom was kind of a pain in the ass. Plus, she was a seamstress. As a kid, that's not so impressive because it's just sewing (it is now, of course). But then she had great fashion sense and she was funny and she knew how to take care of business and she divorced stupid Joe (even though he was HOT). Thank god for the 70s - the golden age of entertainment in America.

There you go again - most - that limits me to one. My life, and who I am and what I'm about is far too complicated to limit to one person. I was greatly influenced by my mother, although I didn't realize it until I was an adult. She taught me organization and that one side of the coin was freedom but the other side of that coin was responsibility. The bigger the coin, the more freedom you had but the more responsibility you had to accept as well. I was influenced by the lady who came to clean our house who turned out to be my mother's best friend. There was a woman who taught me that you didn't have to be intellectual to be brave and enjoy life to the fullest, you just needed to give love and accept love in return. She taught me that when someone pays you a compliment, even if you don't agree with it, you just say "thank you" and accept it. I continue to be influenced by Jesus and all He stands for. I'm influenced still by the many different kinds of music I listen to. I can't say that one person influenced my life more than someone else. I'm a real individual, a singular human being who has always marched and danced to my own drummer and music.