A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you.
This one is tough- many things and people have made an impact on me. Very hard to choose just one!
I’d love to post a photo of myself and my clients from my job working with intellectual disabilities and brain injuries, but that would be a breach in confidentiality 
They are definitely very important, though!
So I guess…
My little sister Lindsey came into my life on October 17, 1992 when I was nearly 5 years old. She’s been a big impact on my life because I’ve always heard my parents telling me that she looks up to me and that I need to be a good role model for her. Whether or not any of that is true is always debatable. I swing between wanting to be her best friend and wanting to choke her, which is, I think, the definition of true sisterhood. It’s been really hard trying to figure out the balance between being responsible and being the “cool older sister”. I’m still working on that. I struggle with feeling guilty about the things we’ve done together in the past that were me giving bad examples- we’ve definitely gotten drunk and smoked weed together. And although I know that’s in the past and I’m a better person now, I just wonder what kind of effect that had on her. Regardless- she’s impacted my life almost to a fault and sometimes I want to join in and be a parent too when I feel like our parents aren’t doing what they should be doing, and then I’m let down when I realize that I don’t have a say in it!
My kitties
My two kitties. At the risk of sounding like a complete crazy cat lady, my first two pets that I’ve been completely responsible for are something that keeps me going on. At my darkest moments they’ve been there to cuddle me (It’s so strange but cats seem to know when you’re sad!) and not judge me. Pets in general have made more of an impact on me than most people have- I’ve lived a total of 6 days without a cat, and have never lived without a dog until I moved into my apartment (the family dog at my mom’s, BooBoo, I still consider my own too). Violet (the bigger cat in the picture) was rescued from the Humane Society 6 days after I moved in here- she was amazing from the start. She thinks she’s a dog, and she’s super smart! It felt good to rescue a cat who was over a year old (most people want a kitten). The smaller cat, Rezzie, my grandma’s boyfriend found outside at his house when she was under a month old. I got her in July and her and Violet became fast friends after a short territorial dispute. She’s named after Trent Reznor and is full of kitten angst and is very “street”, sometimes I have to remind myself that’s why she has no manners. I love them so much- when I was considering going into the hospital for mental health issues, my biggest hang-up was not being able to see my babies and who would take care of them.
All of my friends and family have impacted my life, but I just wanted to highlight the unusual ones as on these type of posts, it’s always someone’s parents or someone’s soulmate or whatever.
