There are people in your life who shape you. You may not realize it at the time, and honestly, they probably do not either, but they help form who you become. Maybe it was something they said, or maybe it was simply how they lived. Years later, you look back and think, “That is where I learned that” and you are thankful.

I am not including family here. They obviously shaped me, and I am grateful for that. This is about the people who did not have to invest in me but chose to anyway. The ones who did not owe me anything but made my life better just by showing up. There are plenty more people, but these are the few I brainstormed at 4:30 a.m. at the gym.

There is no particular order. Just a few people whom I want to shout out.

Joe Orso was my All-Star coach when I was nine. That was the summer I truly fell in love with baseball. He believed in me at a young age, and that meant more than I realized. It was also the first time I felt real heartbreak. We should have won the district championship, but we lost. It stung. In a strange way, that loss made me love the game even more.

Looking back, that summer shaped how I compete to this day. Thank you, Coach.

Mr. and Mrs. Lapoint felt like a second set of parents. Their house had an open-door policy. No matter the time or day, I could walk in and feel at home. They showed me what loving someone who is not family looks like and what it means to make people feel welcome and valued.

Chris Kish, the head coach at Hughesville, started as a rival. It is safe to say we did not like each other much at first. Then one day we just talked. We realized we both wanted the same thing, what is best for the kids. Now I consider him a friend and someone I go to for advice. That experience taught me not to form opinions from a distance. Get to know people. You might find you have more in common than you think.

Demetrius “Meech” Haskins is one of my best friends and one of the best humans I know. He taught me the importance of being supportive and genuinely wanting to see your friends win. We can go weeks without talking, and it feels like no time has passed. From the beginning, he treated me like a brother. He came into my life when I truly needed a friend, and now he is family. He showed me how to give people your full self and make them feel important.

Dylan Bower is a full circle one. I met Dylan when I was still playing baseball, and he was just a little kid following me around. He looked up to me, and I wanted to lead him the right way. Years later, I had the opportunity to coach him. That was special. Our relationship grew even more. Now he has graduated, and I am lucky to call him a friend. I hope he felt the investment I tried to make in him and how much I cared.

That leads to the point of this article. You never truly know who you are impacting or who is watching you. Someone may be learning from how you compete, how you treat people, or how you show up.

There are kids watching. There are people listening. There are friends paying attention to how you show up. The truth is — you may never know the impact you are making. Someone might carry a lesson you taught, a standard you lived by, or the way you handled a moment for the rest of their life. So be intentional. Show up the right way. Treat people well. You never know who you are shaping without even realizing it.

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” ~ Galatians 6:9