The 31 Day Photo & Prompt challenge – Day Four

Today’s Prompt: An experience that made you who you are today.

I don’t think there is one defining moment, or even any one particular experience that made me the person I am today. Growing up, we always seemed to be surrounded by family. Family was the most important thing, and for me, it still is. Holidays were spent in crowded houses full of food, and loud voices, and giggling cousins. Summers were divided between home, Grandma’s house, and more cousins. We shoveled gravel, painted, weeded gardens, fished in Gramma’s pond, swam in the crick under the long gone railroad trestle, slept under the stars, went for long country walks and played make believe in the woods out back.

I read { A LOT } as a child, I still do. Books have a way of shaping you, making you think about far away things, and allow you to explore worlds you may never visit in reality. Not to say that I have never been anywhere because I have. My parents and I traveled every summer to see some really amazing parts of our country. I long to be able to afford to take my own children to see The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, Custard’s Last Stand, The Petrified Forest and the Painted Mountains,  Bear Country USA (is it still there?), Meramac Caverns, The Ocean, Zoos in all sorts of cities I can’t even remember, Gettysburg, and so many other little places that my parents thought would be fun and interesting to visit. I like things that have a history to them. Places that tell a story of the past. Perhaps this has shaped me as well.

Having children is definitely an experience that has made me who I am today. Every day is a decision that is based on what would be best for them. Each and every little moment of my life changes who I am. Each thought, each time I choose a direction to take, every little bend in the road and hour of the day shifts who I think of as “me”. Which also means, that who I am today is not who I will be tomorrow. Every day I change. Every day I watch those around me change – grow wiser, older, weaker, stronger, happier, sadder. This is life. This is who I am today and how I feel today. I wonder who I will be tomorrow?