Open Forum - Questions from Jess

Continue to post questions for me in the OPEN FORUM post.

Jess over at Oh, The Joys has asked me a LOT of questions. I plan to try to answer them as best as I can. Her questions are:

Where did you grow up, what were your parents like, how did they shape who you would become, who was your first love - the whole story on that - and then the whole story on every love since him - up to now.

Where did I grow up??? I am not sure if I have grown up quite yet. But my childhood was spent in the small city of Melville, Saskatchewan. I went to St. Henry's Catholic School (no Catholic School Girl jokes please) up to grade 9. Then I attended the Melville Comprehensive High School for grades 10-12. I did a lot more partying than studying back then. I was a bit of a badass. I smoked ...... "stuff".... I drank....I skipped school.

I was the youngest of five kids. I have two brothers and two sisters. None of which are very close to me in age. I think by the time I came to the teen years, my parents were just really tired. My mom was 35 when I was born, and she worked as a nurses aide and was seldom around when I was growing up. My Father was 24 years older than my mother. So, if you do the math, he was 59 when I was born. He was the most influential in my growing up, as he was the one who I spent the majority of my time with. He taught me to strive for intelligent conversation, to exercise my mind, not to waste an opportunity to learn something. That is what I do with blogging.....I read and learn.

As for the loves of my life....well....I was married, as you all know. We were high school sweethearts, and it was expected of us to marry...so we did. We divorced. I was involved with another man for a few years, that did not go well, even if it did produce my little TucMan. I talk about both of those relationships in my other blog, Imperfect Perfections. You can read that article here. I am now with my soul mate, the love of my life.....NewMan. I have never felt happier or more secure in any relationship in my life. I have spoken about him here several times. You can read one of those articles here.

I believe that we are all on this earth to teach lessons to one another. I believe that we do not leave this earth until all our lessons are taught and learned. I believe that some of us have a lot of lessons to teach and learn, and some of us not as many. I believe that most of the time we are not even aware of the lessons we are teaching others, and some of the time we are not aware of what we are being taught.

Jess, my question for you..... can you think of a specific lesson that your mere existence in this world has taught someone else?? Can you think of a lesson that you learned from a brief encounter with a complete stranger that changed the way you think, act, etc???