43 // via Wikipedia: Let’s Hear it for the Girls
I’ve been really lucky to have had some excellent influences in my life among a ton of really bad ones. Many of them have been from strong women I’ve known along the way.
So I wanted to post about the top five who have had the strongest positive impact on me. Naturally this list excludes my wife, who deserved a post all to herself, and my mother, without whom there wouldn’t be any list of any sort.
So, here’s to the female role models:
My daughter, Alex. This wonderful, bright, shining life. I find it hard to imagine I had any part in her creation. The things she has taught me about wonder in life and about myself are too numerous to list here. They are lengthy and deep, and if I were to write them down, they would just seem trite and cliched. So I’ll leave them in my heart and in my head.
Popnizzle. You can find the Urban Dictionary definition here. Suffice to say if Alex grows up in spirit to be anything like my friend Sarah B., I’ll be very happy. Strong, independent, although still coming to grips with her path in the world (you’ll make it, the Niz), she has a formidable moral compass. And although she denies it, she shares my corrosive and somewhat inappropriate world outlook. I was her boss for a while in the technical sense, even though she’d argue that was never in fact the case literally.
My mother in law, Mary Ellen. There’s not enough good things I can say about my de facto American mother. She’s certainly one of the most giving people I’ve ever met, male or female. She’s generous with her time and has been an invaluable help to young parents. She’s incredibly intelligent, and extremely politically astute (a trait that has only fed my wonkishness). She also subscribes to several print newspapers, notable enough in itself.
The Hibbs. Jessica, or Zaminy, is a true Renaissance woman. She gardens, she photographs, she’s a musician. In between all of that she manages to find time to squeeze in her job as a communications director for the local chamber. She kicks ass on design, and has a phenomenal mind for both marketing and political flackery, and has offered a slew of good advice to me on just about any subject.
Vivian L. If it wasn’t for Viv’s early and expert guidance, I can honestly say I would have ditched journalism a long time ago (I wonder day to day if I made the right decision … ). As my editor when we were at The Gazette, Viv was in large part responsible for helping stoke my early interest in American civic life and unleashing me on an unsuspecting Frederick political community. I’m glad of that; others may not be.
