Role Models Shape Who We Are

[crydun]

Role models shape who we are. They guide us along our way by blazing the trail ahead of us with their thoughts and actions. Often, they don’t realize that they are role models or mentors. They merely keep walking, leaving others to watch them make themselves into something that the rest marvel at.
I have been blessed to have many role models in my life thus far. However, the two that stick out foremost in my mind are Jimmy Lee and John Henry. They are both cousins of mine. And they come from opposite sides of the family tree.
Jimmy Lee is my father’s brother’s son. He was a grown man by the time I was born. He worked at the phone company for many years before the big lay-off. He had such high intellect that the phone company paid him to go to college. He got his degree in computer programming and became a troubleshooter. He could fix anything on a computer. The company abolished his job. That did not stop him. He just went out of state and got a new job and career going. He and his wife Mary are very involved in their church and have fostered very high values to their children and all those that they meet. Mary has had to change careers many times too but they keep going in their faith, never giving up. They have a can do attitude and a positive outlook that makes them see the silver lining behind every cloud. They are back in North Carolina now having had to reinvent themselves again. I marvel at their fortitude and determination to go wherever God leads them never asking why. They are true disciples of Christ and are a tough act to follow.
John Henry is my mother’s nephew. He is a genius who never struggled in school and always got straight A’s. He can play many musical instruments including the violin, trumpet and piano. As a young college student, he traveled to Japan. I was a young child and marveled at his travels. He always brought something back from his destination. He made music even as a young man. I still have the tape he made me. He met his wife Pam in college. They married in the mid-eighties. They have two daughters, Emileigh and Aria, 12 and 10 respectively. They have a strong Christian faith and their daughters reflect that faith. John has had many careers, a missionary, a youth pastor and an associate pastor. However, like myself, music is his passion. He now owns his own recording studio in Missouri where he has a children’s music ministry. I’m still waiting for my audition.
So, you see, role models are around you. You just have to look for them. Don’t count on Hollywood to provide them for you. Not good ones, anyway. In a world where thin is in and money is power, not many of today’s young people have good role models to look up to. To find them, one must look around them and read between the lines. Then, you must look within. For it is certain that while you’re looking up to one person, someone else is looking up to you!

 

[Drago69]

Sure, why not.

 

[Mitchell]

Most on here know of my father and my estrangement from him. Even when we were together, his abusive demeanor and attitude never made him much of a role model for me, which is sad.
My role model was my maternal grandfather, Victor. He came to this country in 1920 with his family not knowing a word of English. Through hard work, he not only mastered the English langauge to perfection, but did so to such a degree that he completely lost his Polish accent, to the point that when he told me that he was born in Poland, I was shocked.
My grandfather worked his way through college, graduated, worked for a time in the federal house of detention in the accounting department, passed his CPA Exam, and then in 1952 started his own oven manufacturing business, Harvic, which lasted until the company folded in 1974. Undaunted, he went back to work, and worked until the day he got a massive stroke. While not wealthy financially, my grandfather was definitely upper middle class for his time. He also did an incredible thing that many today could not be trusted to do. In 1952, he had a wealthy client who was a shipbroker, and my grandfather, wanting to start his oven business, borrowed $60,000 from this client on a handshake, with no legal agreement, set payback time, or contract. It seems that when the client first immigrated to the US, my grandfather gave him a break on his accounting fees, and the client never forgot it. Being the honest man he was, my grandfather paid back every penny he owed to that client, with interest, and always taught me that "A man's word is his bond". His example has lived with me forever, and has taught me the type of man I strive to be, honorable and decent, and a good family man.
My grandfather passed away on Lincoln's birthday morning, 1989, having been happily married to my grandmother for almost 52 years, leaving behind a wife, three children, two grandchildren, and an example to his family of what a human being should be. He loved science, nature, politics, and life, and was truly a happy, jovial guy. I was 19 and in my freshman year of college on that Sunday morning when we got the call that he had passed on, and I had to go from our house in Connecticut down to my grandmother's apartment in NJ to tell her. When she opened the door, and saw my face, she immediately knew what had happened before I said a word. His death affected me so badly that I had to take off from college for a week, as I just lied on the bed in my grandmother's apartment doing little more than staring into space. As a sidebar, when I returned to Connecticut at the end of the week, my bloodless insensitive father blasted me for my "irresponsilbity" of taking three extra days off after we laid my grandfather to rest to compose myself after his death. As it turned out, my father was on his last legs with me too, as by October of that year, my parents had seperated and he and I were estranged.
I didnt mean to go off on a tangent, the point of my post was to explain my grandfather, and my relationship with him, the type of man he was, and his influence on my life. We were very close, loved each other dearly, and he treated me as well as any human being I had ever known. 15 years later, I still miss him terribly, but hold on to my wonderful memories of times with him.

Mitch

 

[Sunday_10pm]

Good post

I can think of about 3 or 4 role models i've had so far in my life, and I can assure you, none of them are moviestars!

Also:

Sure, why not.

Why did you post this btw? stingingly witty as it was...

 

[crydun]

Most on here know of my father and my estrangement from him. Even when we were together, his abusive demeanor and attitude never made him much of a role model for me, which is sad.
My role model was my maternal grandfather, Victor. He came to this country in 1920 with his family not knowing a word of English. Through hard work, he not only mastered the English langauge to perfection, but did so to such a degree that he completely lost his Polish accent, to the point that when he told me that he was born in Poland, I was shocked.
My grandfather worked his way through college, graduated, worked for a time in the federal house of detention in the accounting department, passed his CPA Exam, and then in 1952 started his own oven manufacturing business, Harvic, which lasted until the company folded in 1974. Undaunted, he went back to work, and worked until the day he got a massive stroke. While not wealthy financially, my grandfather was definitely upper middle class for his time. He also did an incredible thing that many today could not be trusted to do. In 1952, he had a wealthy client who was a shipbroker, and my grandfather, wanting to start his oven business, borrowed $60,000 from this client on a handshake, with no legal agreement, set payback time, or contract. It seems that when the client first immigrated to the US, my grandfather gave him a break on his accounting fees, and the client never forgot it. Being the honest man he was, my grandfather paid back every penny he owed to that client, with interest, and always taught me that "A man's word is his bond". His example has lived with me forever, and has taught me the type of man I strive to be, honorable and decent, and a good family man.
My grandfather passed away on Lincoln's birthday morning, 1989, having been happily married to my grandmother for almost 52 years, leaving behind a wife, three children, two grandchildren, and an example to his family of what a human being should be. He loved science, nature, politics, and life, and was truly a happy, jovial guy. I was 19 and in my freshman year of college on that Sunday morning when we got the call that he had passed on, and I had to go from our house in Connecticut down to my grandmother's apartment in NJ to tell her. When she opened the door, and saw my face, she immediately knew what had happened before I said a word. His death affected me so badly that I had to take off from college for a week, as I just lied on the bed in my grandmother's apartment doing little more than staring into space. As a sidebar, when I returned to Connecticut at the end of the week, my bloodless insensitive father blasted me for my "irresponsilbity" of taking three extra days off after we laid my grandfather to rest to compose myself after his death. As it turned out, my father was on his last legs with me too, as by October of that year, my parents had seperated and he and I were estranged.
I didnt mean to go off on a tangent, the point of my post was to explain my grandfather, and my relationship with him, the type of man he was, and his influence on my life. We were very close, loved each other dearly, and he treated me as well as any human being I had ever known. 15 years later, I still miss him terribly, but hold on to my wonderful memories of times with him.

Mitch

great post Mitchell. Very moving. I'm hoping that my story gets into the paper but we will see. Your grandfather sounds like a wonderful man.