We are each shaped by the people who gave us life. everything we are and all that we do can be traced back, in one way or another, to early influences: parents, family, a home or the lack of a home. in my case, four figures from my childhood to make me who i am, each giving me a gift that is unique: my father, my mother, my grandmother, and my grandfather. to understand me, you have to know them. the excerpt above is from page 35 of nothing's impossible: leadership lessons from inside and outside the classroom by lorraine monroe. paraphrase, summarize, and quote