Share a story about someone who had a positive impact on your life.
It wasn’t the kind of impact most people celebrate, but it changed everything about whom I became. My dad taught me about boundaries by constantly violating them. He’d call and say he was coming to see me. “Be ready,” he’d say. I’d sit there, bag packed, watching the window all weekend. And most of the time… he never showed.
He never paid child support. Never helped. Not financially, not emotionally. But he always made sure I knew what disappointment felt like, like it was his signature on my childhood.
And still, in a strange way, he taught me.
Because of him, I became the kind of person who honors their word. Who shows up. Who doesn’t use love as bait or trust as a trick. I am fiercely in tune with my own boundaries because I know what it’s like when no one respects them.
He taught me who I’d never be especially as a man.
He showed me that masculinity built on control and silence will always collapse. Mine is built on presence, softness, and honesty. I know that real strength means protecting others from the kind of pain I lived through.
So yeah… maybe that’s a kind of impact. Maybe even a gift. Just one I wrapped myself in survival.
