My grandma abhorred the senseless violence people inflict on creepy-crawlies, and I remember being scolded very gently as a toddler for smooshing a caterpillar. What made the big impact, though, wasn’t my sweet ol’ granny scolding me as much as it was the explanation that followed up—she got me to really LOOK at little critters, appreciate their struggles, and relate to them as other beings. This has hugely impacted my sense of the world as being populated by more-than-human communities, and could be directly connected to the career path I’m on (wildlife biologist).

& Why do you always start drifting off (not listening) when I talk about something hard.

Thanks Aunt Kathy!

when I was young my Mom would hold up fingers to count every time I used a filler word when I spoke. Filler words…. “uhm”, “you know”
“ah”.

Sometimes she would count out loud, along with holding up the running finger count. It was really distracting! It made it difficult to talk on two levels.

First it was hard to think about what I was saying when it was being pointed out what I was actually say.

Second, it was hard to talk when I was suddenly being made aware of the non-words I was using to say what I was saying.It was, uhm, like, all I could think of!

Her method worked and the habit of using filler words ceased. I think it made me a faster thinker and I developed the understand the importance of words. It built a foundation of choosing the right word quickly, rather than saying any word as I went along.

I love words, really. =) Some say I use too many of them. Maybe if someone held up their fingers for each word I used as I spoke I would speak less. =)

whenever i would tell my dad, “but that is not fair”. His response would always be, well life is not fair.

It always resonated with me. People complain about their problem without remembering that everyone has problems…different types of problems, but problems nonetheless.

When I was in fifth grade, we had to document reading 100 books during the school year. I started inflating the numbers and lying about what I had actually read. Eventually, I got caught, and it was awful. My parents were involved, the teacher was upset, it was really shameful. After that I couldn’t lie for the longest time. Even now I might be able to say something untruthful, but I feel really uncomfortable doing so and generally avoid it. As a result, many people relate to my genuineness, and I’m not hurting myself or anyone saying lies just to “feel better” about something.

My camp counselor took me and another camper, a boy, with him to the market to pick up food supplies for the camp. We went wandering around while the counselor bought some things, and the boy pointed to some candy bars on a separate display and took one. I did, too, wanting to impress my new friend.

The counselor spotted our wrappers, and asked how we were able to buy candy with no money. We were so embarrassed, but confessed. He paid the store for the candy, and said that when our parents came to pick us up after camp was over, we would have to pay him back. So we had to ask our parents for a dollar to pay the counselor back, and we had to explain to them why we needed it.

It was very effective. My overactive conscience kicked me in the gut for a long time after that, and I was so mortified by my lapse in ethics that I never stole again.

I was 16 and I was feeling uber-confident for some reason; I was explaining something to my grandmother and I kept saying ‘do you know what I mean?’ to sound cool….
she stopped me and said:
‘I hate that’
I was like ‘what?’
‘I know what you mean; why do you keep asking me do I know what you mean?’
hahahaha
so I never did it again :-)
Love her so much!