What is the legacy you want to leave behind? – That is a deep question from the Daily Writing prompt.
My first thought was what did I leave behind as a person? I hope I passed on how to be a loving and supportive parent and grandparent to my children. That family and friends remember me being there for them and the great relationships we had. I hope I was a lot of fun to be with and that a smile crosses people’s faces when remembered by friends and family.
I know I left a legacy of hard work. I don’t know what that is worth. 48 years in Newspapers – a profession that is slowly morphing into something else. My grandchildren will only know it from history books and me.
I’m working on leaving a legacy of artwork, photos, and maybe a few words that I hope may inspire or just bring a smile to faces in the future.
Here is where I paused because I wanted to make sure I was thinking of legacy correctly. I’ve gotten in the habit of looking up definitions lately because my limited English education sometimes leads me to confuse some things. I’ve included the definition below from the standard of dictionaries.
The first thing it lists is a gift of money or personal property. Wow, I didn’t think of that at all as a legacy but I guess it is in a way. I’ve always thought about having my children do better than I did and worked hard to make that happen. And I hope I can leave a foundation for them for the future as well.
So the good folks at Merriam-Webster tells me the noun “legacy” means
: a gift by will, especially of money or other personal property : BEQUEST
She left us a legacy of a million dollars.
: something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past
the legacy of the ancient philosophers
The war left a legacy of pain and suffering.
: a candidate for membership in an organization (such as a school or fraternal order) who is given special status because of a familial relationship to a member
Legacies, or children of alumni, are three times more likely to be accepted to Harvard than other high school graduates with the same (sometimes better) scores …—Michael Lind
Other replies to this prompt: https://wordpress.com/tag/dailyprompt-1945
