I was recently at the wedding of an elementary school friend. A group of us were standing together talking when the bride came over and waved down another woman.
She turned to the other woman. “Come here. I want you to meet these people. These are my girls. We’ve all been friends since middle school, some of us earlier. This is [name]. She’s the reason I’m the pharmacist that I am today. I owe so much of that to her.”
And suddenly my ragtag group of middle school friends are clapping and chanting the name of this woman we’ve just met.
I’ve been thinking about that interaction for a couple of weeks now. How in just a few sentences our beautiful bride was able to make us all feel special and connected and loved. But more than that, I was thinking about the woman she introduced us to.
“She’s the reason I am the xyz that I am today.”
The other day, I was feeling really confident about something I’d done for work. I was feeling proud, borderline cocky about it. And then I remembered this comment. “The reason I am…”
There are so many people who made me the writer I am, the nonprofit professional I am, the colleague I am. But more importantly, these people made me the listener I am, the friend I am, the person I am.
I looked around at the colliding worlds. We are all just a messy quilt of the influence of the people who’ve loved us.
Take a moment right now to think of someone who has made a difference in your life. Someone who has made you the person that you are today. Got it? Great. Now reach out to them… even if it’s been years. Even if you’re texting or emailing an account that may no longer exist. Thank them. Tell them they’re a reason you are.
And then, go out into the world tomorrow and be someone else’s reason.
Love always,
Liz
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