I began this assignment at the beginning of the term because if I know this influencing person as well as I think I do, she is very busy, and hates to write letters! It is my sister, I am not really sure if she knew how much of an influence she has had on my life but she does now! Like I thought I just received my response from her last Monday, slow as a snail. She tried to respond to me through an email but I told her that I wanted her to write me back a letter. Although she did not like this idea she did it, and once I got her letter back it was very touching. The thing I noticed about the letter I wrote to her was that it was very long, very detailed, I had put my emotions into that letter and I was excited for her to read it and know that I took the time to sit down and write out why she has been such a great person of influence in my life.
The other letter I wrote/emailed was to my father, he is not one of those lovey types but he gets out what he wants to say and means it. This email to him was quite short to be honest, I basically told him how much I appreciated him as a dad and that I would be a different person without him in my life. In this email I told him how much I appreciated his encouraging words (regarding academics and goals in life) and how that pushed me to do my best. I have never wanted to let either of my parents down and that is what pushed me. His response was within hours, it was during the week so he was at work and checks his email often. He was confused at my email and asked what was wrong! It is not typical for me to do something like that but it was nice to let him know how great of a person he is in my life.
The word choice I used in my email versus my hand written letter was drastically different due to the two different types of people and their age ranges. My dad's email was short hand writing and I was more to the point with him. My sister on the other hand got a longer letter that was more in depth with examples of when she helped me through hard times, and why I appreciated her.
Both of the responders were kind of confused, like I was going to die or something. People just do not send messages/letters with such wonderful things to say (typically) and I think that is why it was confusing and funny. But they both did return with gracious words and appreciated what I had told them and in response to me had no idea that they were such influential people in my life, so it was nice to let them know that.
In both letters I meant what I said, but it was harder to say thank you to my dad for everything he does, I believe that is because he is a male, and we usually do not associate males with such emotion. Interesting and fun assignment, I enjoyed it.
