How I became me. Jake Putnam

    Who I am today has mostly been determined by multiple influences. My family, my friends, and the media have affected my character even if not intentionally. My skills, values, and way of thinking have all been determined by these groups.
    To most, one’s family might be the most significant influence in their lives. I do not feel like this is the case for me, albeit I do believe they are a salient enough influence. I often find myself having much more in common with my parents than I originally thought. We have very similar political opinions even though they never specifically talked to me about any of that. I assume this means they have instilled a set of values on me that goes hand in hand with our mutual political opinions. My sister has also made a more overt influence on me in terms of my political opinions as we have actually discussed such topics. With my family I have donated my time and belongings to charity ever since I can remember, this has made me a much more giving person. My mother has had the greatest influence on my skills. She, as well as the rest of my family, is a runner and therefore I am a runner. This contributes greatly to my health and well being. At an early age she taught me to draw and value art, as her mother did for her, and now I consider drawing my greatest skill.
    My friends have influenced me in an outstanding way. My friends are all extremely open minded and can get along with just about anyone; this trait has rubbed off on me. Some of my friends have different values and political opinions which we have gone into great discussion about. These discussions have taught us to be much more open minded to others beliefs, more patient and respectful in a dispute, and have strengthened our understanding of the world. I would not be as intelligent and worldly as I am today without them. Some of my friends have far different interests; I will find myself debating with one group, creating art or music with another, or doing physical activities with the next. Simply the fact that I have such a variety of friends, in terms of intelligence, values, and appearance, gives me the fantastic ability to get along with just about anyone and forces me to take on as many challenges or experiences as I can. I probably value this more than anything else.
    I have always thought the media has had the greatest influence in my life, though as I have gotten older I have valued the people more and more. However I do feel it had the greatest influence on me at an early age; during perhaps the most important years of my life in terms of development. I would watch many hours of TV daily and pick up a lot of information. I got a wide variety of knowledge and view points from the wide variety of television shows I watched. I’m completely serious about this. I understand that most would consider television a bad source of information, but I really do believe that it taught me some great values and exposed me to a wide variety of information quickly. The biggest things is probably that one has to be a good filter for this information. I am very thankful that I am a good filter. I did pick up on facts and references that would go over most kid’s heads. I even learned many values from the “moral of story” included in a great deal of cartoons. I believe that without all these overtly contrasting forms of information I would not have become as analytical or versatile of a person as I am today. However, now that I am older I don’t watch nearly as much television, but this does not mean I’m no longer affected by the media. The bulk of my free time is spent on the Internet; specifically on various forums. Studies have shown that being exposed to all the information at such a quick rate as one is exposed to on the Internet increases ones ability to learn and absorb the information. Through forums I have kept up on world issues and, because I can read on many forum goers opinions on these issues, have been taught a far greater understanding of these issues than I would by just watching the news. I can attribute most of what I am learning now and my current development leading to the future to all I can read on the Internet.

I feel that though genetically I may have been given inherent ability to gather information, be very analytical, and filter my information well, I must give more credit to the influences in my life for the information that I have been given. My values, beliefs, and skills have all been determined by influences such as the my family, my friends, and the media. All of these have made me me.