Who was your most influential teacher? Why?

DAILY PROMPT RESPONSE

Several teachers over the years made a massive impact on me. As I think back, I find myself smiling about some lessons and cringing about the others. However, none of them impacted me more than my mother.

It all started with a watch. My mother realized I was different when I took a part of her favorite watch and put it back together. She said she wasn’t much more than eight years old. I barely remember the event. When my mother told my wife and me this story, she had the sweetest, tiniest smile. She was visiting and came to my shop to see exactly what I did for a living. It was crazy. She seemed amazed and proud all at once.

Mom said I had taken apart her watch, and the pieces were laid out on the table, and she was furious. I simply looked up and said hey, Mom. She said she then returned to reassemble the watch. She watched me carefully put everything back together, not leaving out a single piece. The watch never worked again, but she said she figured if I could do that at that age, there would be no telling what I could accomplish.

So, Mom never discouraged my endless questions about things. If it wasn’t in the encyclopedia, she took me to the library on the weekends and scribbled notes in a notebook. I found one of those notebooks last year and couldn’t believe what I was into. Because of how she raised me, I have never been afraid to learn a new skill. I went on and accomplished several things. Repairing things much more complicated than her watch, but the watch is where it started.

Mom taught me how to navigate through life with minimal whining. Take no crap from anyone and be my own person. Her favorite response to me following the lead of someone she disapproved of.

“if they jumped off a bridge, are you going to follow them?”

My response then and now is, “No, ma’am”

~thanks, Mom – You Rock!~