Encourage me, and I will not forget you.
Different people affect our lives in a variety of ways. The ones that we most often think about or hold close to our hearts are those that have lifted us in some way. Most of the time, this comes through encouragement, which can come in many shapes and sizes and is often wearing different hats. Encouragement can be a thought or a feeling that someone has given you, that gave you the right thoughts you to resolve a problem, assure yourself, or strive for something you sought.
Our parents or loved one’s attempt to support and guide us, and do their best to give us everything we could possibly require to succeed. They seek to create the will and the foundation of strength in our hearts that will propel us forward where others falter, and give us determination where others lose hope. For some, this passes beyond the realm of encouragement and enters something of a devotion—a gift that commands the minds of children to strive for success and well-being for themselves and for the comfort of their parents. It is a will that is inherited, carried, and expressed in everything you do.
Our professors and mentors give us a different kind of encouragement. They have devoted much of their life’s focus to pushing their students to obtain new attitudes that will go out and change the world into the ideal place their studies and experiences would have them be inclined to imagine. They are the molders of minds, and the sparks to the ignition of their student’s goals and dreams that they will later similarly go and devote their lives to achieving.
Our friends and peers often give us a reminder of our foundations. There is an old Arabic saying that my mother loves to tell me whenever she thinks I am making bad choices in friends. “Tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are,” she will say to me, while she continues telling me what a bad influence she thinks a friend has been.
We spend our lives seeking the pieces of ourselves that we believe to see in other people, and we strive to hold these people close. I believe that this is not only out of enjoyment or comfort, but because it is a positive reinforcement. Our friends encourage us simply through their behavior and the attitudes they lead, because we are so easily drawn to such things. More importantly, we will act similarly, because their actions most likely reinforce our most dearly held foundations.
Together, all of these people have made you realize things about not only yourself, but things about the world that are collectively the same things you would use to honestly describe yourself.
Whether or not you actively consider it, these are the people that have built the way that you perceive the world— a way that is uniquely you.
