I will take a moment (again) today to give thanks for being surrounded (now and in the past) by people I want to grow up to... I've previously used the word "become" here, but that belies the subtle connotation I'm trying to express - that the reason I admire them so much is because they have become themselves, and they make me want to grow up to become myself. The best version of myself. And help others do the same. And in that sense, become "like them," by being quite different from them.

This is something I write about frequently, because I haven't found the right words to express it yet. Ayn Rand caught part of it in The Fountainhead, in the parts where she describes how Roarke's presence spurs his workers on to do their best - particularly the scenes where Roarke and Steve Mallory and Mike and Dominique are working on the Stoddard temple; there's also a quote by Marianne Williamson about how "as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same."

Thanks to my teachers for granting me permission in a way that has let me never have to ask for it again.

I will also take a moment to laugh at online translate-bots and polite existential angst.