Looking Back

One of the things I love about WordPress is the new feature where it reminds me of something I wrote on the same day in previous years. Today, it brought up a post I wrote on the 25th of October, 2022.

Who makes it cooler?

Today, that post is exactly four years old.

I smiled when I read it. The people, experiences and lessons I wrote about then are still part of my life today, even though my understanding of them has deepened.

As I read through the post, I found three things that stood out for me.

1. Some relationships are an ongoing story.

I started the post with, “I had a young adult who had somehow become like a son to me.”

This young man recently turned 25, and he is still around me. I call him my son. His mum trusts me enough to have me involved in his life, and I believe I have continued to be a great influence on him.

What’s interesting is that I wrote about him four years ago, and the relationship is still here. It is not something that happened and ended. It is something that continues to grow. Sometimes, we write about things happening in our lives without knowing how long they will remain part of our stories.

2. I still have people who make things cooler for me.

Four years later, I still have people around me who make things seem cooler. These are things I may have known before, things I may have heard before, but hearing them from a particular person somehow makes them feel new.

I still have people who say old things to me, and I find myself reacting as though I have just heard them for the first time. I don’t know how they do it. I am still trying to figure it out.

But I am glad I have these people around me. I listen to them a lot because I know there is always something to learn, even from things I think I already know.

3. More people look up to me, and that has shaped who I am.

In that post, I wrote about discovering that I was this kind of person to a few people. I realised that people were looking up to me, whether I knew it or not, and that this made me more careful and intentional about life and its decisions.

Today, I have increasingly had people around me who expect me to guide them and lead them. This has shaped who I am, the choices I make, and how I relate to people.

Being someone people look up to has made me more conscious of my words, my decisions, and the influence I have on others. At the same time, the person I have gradually become is part of why people trust me enough to look to me for guidance. I smile at this.

I am learning that influence is not just about what we say to people or what we teach them. I believe it has a lot to do with who we are and how we live.

Four years later, the relationships are still here, I still have people who make things cooler for me, and more people look to me for guidance.

What would you discover if you went back to something you wrote four years ago?

Author: Emaistace

wife, mom, sister, daughter, aunty, friend. writing my everyday thoughts as they pop up. View all posts by Emaistace