Who Is Your Role Model?
Throughout my life I have been asked this question and I have never had an answer. Some people immediately have their "hero" in mind. For me it has always been more of a bits and pieces thing. I admire "this" in a certain person and I learned "that" from someone else. But it occurred to me recently that I do have role models.
It is the women who have come before me in my family, my Grandmas. Nana, my mom's mom, was the traditional wife, mother, and homemaker.
She rarely ventured out, choosing instead to spend her time at their house and at their trailer near Holland. She knitted, she sewed, she cooked, she crafted so many things, yet she never even learned to drive. You could always count on Nana to be there for you. In my 3 1/2 years away at college, before cell phones or the internet, she sent me a letter a week to remind me that she was thinking of me. How I looked forward to receiving that mail and to her sweet writing about nothing (and everything), and the couple of dollars she slipped in there for me to get a treat! I am like her in more ways than I ever imagined. I too, rarely travel, spending my time between my house and my cottage. I craft, I cook and I send a text a day to remind my son at college that I am thinking of him.
And then there was my Grandma Eva, my dad's mom, who was the fun loving, adventurous, life-is-a-party Grandma.
I'll never forget one time she was babysitting my sister and I, and we drove up to the Dairy Queen for a treat. Although I had not yet learned to drive, I was pretty sure that riding with two wheels on the curb, and two wheels on the street, was not the proper way to do it! Watch out mailboxes. It was always an adventure with her. She made people laugh, lots of times at her as much as with her. She raised two outdoorsy boys, and hunted and fished right along with them. Talk about being a cool mom.
If you had asked me when I was a young working mother with two boys, a home and a husband to care for, if I thought we shared any of the same personality traits, I'd have answered heck no. But as I grow older I realize now that I am definitely a mix of the two role models. From my Nana I got my love of home, family, and my need to make sure that people feel comfortable and cared for in my presence. From my Grandma Eva, I got the "life is a party, enjoy every minute", and oh-by-the-way just because I am the party hostess, don't think I won't be joining in the fun, attitude. From them, whether I ever realized it or not, I became the
person I am today. Both of my Grandmas have been gone for years, but somehow they stay in my thoughts. I miss them. And I aspire to someday be the role models for my grandchildren that they were for me.