So many people it takes to make a person. One to grow it, two for its makeup. But a lifetime of active contributors will follow. They foster us, guide us, and give up pieces of themselves. In the end, what a person becomes far exceeds what two people designed. We are a patchwork of all the people around us who save our skin by grafting on some of theirs. In moments of panic, they provide a missing piece. In bouts of darkness, they become a guiding light. Years and years of people who may serve as little more than passersby in our world, but no matter where we walk they always seem to be leaving footprints for us to follow. They stick to the inside of our minds like a cork board mapped with string. We do more than use what they left behind, we remember them with gratitude when the way is a little easier thanks to their paving it. We’re fortunate to live in a world where others roll out a carpet for our newest manifestation. People can be selfish and conniving, destructive and downright evil. But they can also be remarkably kind, unfathomably good, endlessly loving, and altruistic. May we not be defined by the worst of us, but by the best of us, who come to be a part of us in the end.