When I was younger my mother was constantly working and my sister, who was dating the neighbor's son, would watch over me. Whenever my sister and her boyfriend wanted to go out, her boyfriend's mother would take care of me. This began as a temporary situation, but even now, although my sister's relationship is over, I continue to visit my Grandma Judy every weekend. She has gone on and affected me greatly in teaching me to be a smart, kind person.
My Grandma Judy has affected me academically. When I was in third grade my grades were slipping and I wasn't performing at what was expected. I would not understand things and I would bang my head on my desk. Judy was fretting over how I was doing in school even more than my mother, so about halfway through the year Judy gets me into reading. Which caused an explosion in my imagination and I would read at any chance I could get. I read dozens of books until the conclusion of the year and the reading transformed me into an amazing student and one of the smartest in my class. From then on Judy gave me an incentive to do well in school, she began paying me for good grades on my report card. The result gave me the idea that doing well in school would reap great rewards. Since my entrance into high school the reward for grades has stopped, but there is a new reward, the prospect of college. Grandma Judy says she will help me pay for my post-secondary schooling and is helping me to find scholarships, so in essence I am still receiving money for good grades, just at longer intervals. Not only is she assisting me in paying for school, she is helping me determine which school is best for me. Thanks to Grandma Judy I have come a long way since banging my head on my desk in frustration in elementary school.
Not only has my Grandma Judy made me an exceptional and smart student, she has also instilled in me her morals and ideals. My grandma is very liberal minded person for she grew up in the activism era of the 1960's and "70"s. One of the main ideas Judy wanted to stress to me was equality. Judy taught me how to treat people through her animals. She always treated her animals like a people, even cooking for them, and has taken in many animals and has raised them as her own children. These beliefs have rubbed off on me, for when I was little I would ask her why she treated her animals like people. She responded by saying that everyone deserves to be treated equal, no matter what the sex, race, religion, or even species. I have applied this to the friends I keep; they are of all walks of life. Although I may jump to conclusions based on a person's appearance from what Judy taught me about equality I try to get to know everyone before I form a final conclusion about that person. The belief of equality is one of the greatest things Judy has instilled in me, and I hope to carry this belief to everyone I meet and someday my own children.
Overall one of, if not the greatest, influence on my life has been the inclusion of my false Grandma. She has instilled in me the knowledge and values I had to use to excel in school and now, as I come close to graduating, life. Though my Grandma Judy I have become a kind well-educated person and I hope to pass these values on to the people around me and, someday, my own children.
