The Role Models

I found that I have many and few role models, or maybe that makes a decent number of them. Not sure yet. I do know that I have no one specific role model for everything. Every person that I look up to influences a different part of my life.

For example, both Hank and John Green are role models for me. They really influence me in my appreciation for learning, exploration and open critical thinking. I've always been, since before I can remember, curious about how things work and exploring, like getting lost in Petra (I'm pretty sure that's where it was) and being yelled at by archaeologists for picking up mosaics. But John and Hank make me feel like those qualities are valuable and appreciated in people and support my continued interest in learning when other people my age or who I've grown up around think otherwise.

My literature role model is always changing, this week it's Felicia Day. I don't know if any of you follow her on twitter or facebook, but I'm a fan and she's been posting a lot about books recently. I kind of shy away (a lot) from certain genres, I'm uncomfortable with stories noted for containing smut or that focus primarily on romance. I managed to find a book series that wasn't too heavy on those elements in Felicia Day's Goodreads bookshelves. The book was Grave Witch, I really liked the mystery and urban fantasy of the story, there was an obvious romance factor but it wasn't too heavy for me and it did focus more on the plot rather than the relationship, or at least it focused enough on the plot. Felicia is heavily influencing my book choices so I'm considering her a role model and I hope I run into more books like this one. I feel like I'm being judged on my reading choices. I normally don't talk about them.

But when it comes to who I am morally. I'm most influenced by my friends they make up multiple role models. I learn from other people, for example, I hear their points of view and weigh the reasons for my own every time there's a difference, I don't mold to fit other people, but I become more individual because of their individuality. I have many very confident friends and they helped me to build my own self-confidence. It's very difficult for me to form any relationship or feel confident but I feel that if it hadn't been for the people I did manage to build friendships with, I wouldn't be able to function as I am now or as easily make any of my newer relationships. Not that I'm dependent on friends being around me, but I grew to become my own person, I'm much better when it comes to stating my own opinion, being myself, taking risks I would normally be too shy or scared to take.

Those are all my current role models, they feel important to me even though they may not appear so in writing. This might show up on Tuesday, I spent over an hour editing the paragraph on literature I can't feel comfortable with how I've written it.

Goodnight, everyone!
Can't wait to read your posts.

- Sarah