Today we’d like to take a moment to applaud the parents who despite many challenges, did they best they could and did right by their kids. We asked folks to share stories of what they feel their parents got right and have shared highlights below.

Kylie Grooters

My parents have always been my biggest role models and supporters throughout my entire life. As a kid they always made sure I worked hard for what I wanted both in sports and academics. Growing up I had the privilege of watching them start businesses of their own, so I definitely gained my entrepreneurial spirit from them. After graduating college and moving to Denver, they continued to support my every career move, even when some didn’t always seem logical. Read more>>

Carl Wrangel

Thinking back, as far as I can remember, flavor was always there as a subject. My parents always shared their thoughts on flavor and how things tasted to them. Not overly descriptive, but a little more than just “mmm that’s good”. F ex my mom did most of the cooking herself, it was pretty rare that we got take away food, both due to the options available in the 80s in the town I was from, but she also put pride in cooking, and to her luxury came in the form of taking the time to prepare a good home cooked meal. Read more>>

Khloe Katera

I think the way my parents raised me reflects in my every day life and career more than I even realize. If it wasn’t for their continuous support, I wouldn’t see myself in the light that I do now. After being bullied year after year when I was younger, it took me until the age of 17 to really see and appreciate my beauty for what it is. I was taller than everyone else, my hair was big and frizzy (much different to my peers), and I was always a bigger girl. In my household, I was told every day that I was beautiful–despite the way I felt at school each day. Read more>>

Adenike Olori Esho

As a young girl, I watched how hard my mom worked at her job and career. Even while working a full time job, she found a way to earn her Masters degree. She instilled in me the need to work for “your own” and not be dependent on any one or any man. At such a young age she impressed upon me the need for good education. I’m ever grateful for her. Read more>>

Jessica Salazar

I owe so much to my parents. I was raised on a small farm on about an hour outside of Seattle on a little island. I was modeled entrepreneurship – my folks were self employed and had a graphic arts/marketing firm for 40+ years – at first in our home, and then as they grew, in a building next to our home. So day in and day out, I really lived their work with them. I saw the freedom and flexibility it allowed them, their creative processes. Read more>>

Camille Delaune

No recollection of my career path would be complete without mention of my parents, Susan and Warner. My mom and dad have shared qualities (kindness; unwavering support) that have uplifted my brothers and I throughout or lives, but it’s where their individual strengths differ that has been uniquely helpful for building and navigating an art-centered business. Read more>>

Becka Matthews

I love this question because I can’t talk about how I got to where I am now without talking about my incredible parents. They noticed I had a knack for art at a really early age and did everything they could to encourage my creativity. Art class wasn’t consistent in elementary school, and it wasn’t offered to me at all middle school, so they made sure to enroll me in community classes and private lessons. Read more>>

Aiyana Torres

Great question, here’s a little back story. I am the youngest of three girls on top of being the only child on my fathers side, with that being said growing up I had the best of both worlds. I was able to grab all of my fathers attention while also playing and having fun with my siblings. As I started to grow up things became a little unstable, we experienced divorce, then separation and later on my father passed away. With those sequence of events heartbreak reached me a very young age, an age I was not able to understand. Read more>>

Lindsey Jensen

At a very young age, a strong work ethic was instilled in me from both of my parents. My father was a developer and home builder. so ironically, my first job was cleaning and preparing his show homes for the realtor to show. I couldn’t drive yet, so my dad would drive me to the houses so I could clean, check light bulbs and fluff pillows. Later, I worked as his assistant and did a variety of things in his office from preparing marketing materials to driving out to fields where they were just breaking ground for future projects. Read more>>

Cory Jones

My Parents introduced me to the idea of community. When I was a child my parents were influential in making me participate and a plethora of programs. I was always trying new things and I was very active. This led me to enhancing my creative ability. I also had great family support with aunts and uncles. It introduced me to this idea of community that that it takes a village to raise all. With the various support and infrastructure in place I was able to create and explore my imagination at an early age. Read more>>

Lucy Saltmarsh

My parents have done a lot of things right, but the thing I’m most grateful for is the belief they instilled in me that, “I can do anything if I try hard enough”. They signed me up for everything as a kid – soccer, gymnastics, ballet, tennis, basketball, swimming, and so much more. This taught me to be adaptable and learn to thrive in a multitude of environments. Some of the activities I was a part of were team oriented where I learned to communicate with others and some of them were individual sports where I learned about the value of positive self-talk. Read more>>

Ali Schuller

Growing up my parents taught me lesson after lesson. Parents do that, especially mine. When I was six years old, I was diagnosed with epilepsy. Epilepsy is a disease that affects the brain, and it causes one to have seizures. It greatly impacted my life as it required that I be held back in first grade and prevented me from being able to drive. It was a disease that not only broke down my body, but also my spirit. There were many times I struggled with not being like everyone else. Read more>>

Nehan Shujaat

Parents play such a significant role in our lives it feels like there are never enough words to describe their impact. Growing up my parents had a direct role on how I saw the world, there is no double about it. I remember they encouraged drawing and painting at a young age. They gave me the confidence to feel like an artist before I truly grasped what an artist was. I feel as if I didn’t have them as parents I don’t think I would have become an artist, and I’m grateful that I was raised among people who believed and nurtured this part of me. Read more>>

Christine Schmidt

I think the biggest thing that had the most impact that my parents taught me, is not to be afraid of changing your career, or of changing your mind. That there was no such thing as wasted education, or a waste of time, so long as you learned something from it moving forward. Read more>>

Kimblery Nick Gutierrez

I think the best thing my parents ever did for me was being unapologetically supportive of my creative endeavors. Despite telling me from an early age that “being an artist would mean being poor” they still supported me when I expressed a clear desire to do something creative with my life. Granted they still tried to guide me towards careers my brothers had pursued such as accounting, business administration, and engineering; Read more>>

Suzanne Matthews

Though we had little money when I was very young, my parents viewed friendships and hospitality as a high priority, they taught us how to be happy and content whatever circumstances we had. They showed us how to save for something of value such as travel. Plus they always let me have coloring books and crayons. I used to listen to my parents conversations with other adults and color away. Read more>>