Prompt: Write about someone whose example shaped you.
All right, the prompt for today, July 9th, 2026, is: Write about someone whose example shaped you.
I mean, I think the obvious answer is my parents.
My parents have an interesting story, having come to Canada from East Africa and then building a life for themselves. And then, yeah, continuing to help their children build their lives. So I think that, obviously, they’ve had a huge impact on me.
But I think as I get older, now that I’m a parent, I view them differently. I view the struggles they went through differently, and I appreciate them more.
I didn’t quite understand when I was younger—and when I say younger, I’m not talking about childhood. I’m talking about a few years ago. I didn’t quite understand what they actually sacrificed, what they’ve done in their lives to get to where they are today, and then to get me and my sister to where we are today.
Just the amount of work they’ve put in, the number of sacrifices they’ve made, the number of mistakes they’ve had to correct on their own without help from others—and all of this while helping other people succeed.
And oftentimes, from my perspective, those people end up with even more success than my parents, and then don’t really repay the favour, as such.
So I think that definitely stands out to me.
But I also think that, in everyday life, the people we run into—the people who disrupt the norm—can teach me something too, if I’m self-reflective enough and not angry, like we talked about in one of the previous posts. I have to be in the right headspace and capable of reflecting on the situation to make it better.
A quick example would be today when we were going to swim class. One of the other parents was playing football with their kid, kicked the ball, and it ended up under a car. I happened to be standing near the car, and he kind of whistled and pointed.
I took a half second to think about whether I was going to respond to the whistle or not. But since he was in the class, I thought, let’s not make this disruptive. So I reached under the car, got the ball out, and pushed it over to him.
He just went about his day. Didn’t say thank you or anything.
I guess what that taught me—or what it reminded me to remind myself—is that when you do something good for someone else, the reward has to be internal. Looking for external validation in that way just isn’t dependable.
So I think those little moments of self-reflection, those disruptive interactions with other people, are one way that people have taught me something.
I don’t know that I’ve ever really responded to mentorship as such. I don’t think there’s ever been one person I run to and seek advice from.
Yeah, but then there’s Hannah, of course. Without her, I don’t know that I’d be where I am today. But that feels more organic, more like natural support than something explicit. And often that’s the kind of support that can be taken for granted or overlooked, so I’d be wrong not to acknowledge it.
Yeah, I think that’s that.
Right on. You can find this prompt and more at Letters’ Lounge, www.letterslounge.com.
Of course, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this or any of the other prompts, so please do leave a comment with your ideas, or a link to your blog or audio journal, or whatever it happens to be, and I’ll be sure to check it out.
All right, folks. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
This transcript was lightly cleaned up with the help of AI to improve readability while preserving the original voice and intent of the recording.
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