Who are the biggest influences in your life?

I’ve answered similar questions in the last few months, and in those answers I mentioned my Dad and two brothers. They have certainly had a strong impact, but they’re not the only people in my life.

By proximity and time, my manager has been one of the biggest influences, followed by my roommate. I know, odd to put them in that order when I’ve lived with my roommate longer than I’ve worked for my manager, but there is an explanation.

I see my roommate near daily, but I don’t talk to him as much. We have a group chat with some friends that we play Magic with, but that doesn’t always have conversations going because more often it is just memes and video clips being shared. By contrast, I see and talk to my manager every day of work. We have a standing daily team checkpoint call so that we can connect with the remote members of our team, and because I choose to be in the office everyday I get to drop by my managers office for fly-by conversations or updates. It’s thanks to this kind of convenience that I’ve learned much and become a better professional. For the record, it’s a small, close-knit team, and pre-pandemic we could turn to one another and have random 20-30 minute chats, but after the rest of the team opted to stay working from home I don’t see or talk to them as much anymore.

After those two, my Dad and brothers, other friends and family have some measure of influence in my life, but I don’t know that they would be to the same degree because they fall into the same realm of proximity and time as my coworkers.