"People inspire you, or they drain you. Pick them wisely" -- Hans F Hansen

    Over the past few years I have met so many new people that have walked in and out of my life. While reading The Creative Habit, I stumbled across excercise 19: work with the best. I don't consider this exercise literally working but who you associate yourself with and the people you allow to be in your life. Between cheerleading teams, friendships, and work I met a variety of different people that have made different impacts in my life. I've always been told to surround myself with good people because they will make you a better person, and I realize that more and more. If you surround yourself with negative people, you will become negative. If you surround yourself with people who do bad things, (any type of things) they will influence you and you may or may not become like them. Everybody needs people to help you and make you become more of yourself than you thought you were. They bring out a different side of yourself that you never knew was there. They help you achieve and don't bring you down and are always there lending a hand to help you.   So many of my friends from high school have changed and aren't the person they used to be. But as the first sentence on page 137 says "if it true that who you are now and who you will be in five years depend on what books you read and which people you meet, then you need to think more aggressively about those thou invite into your creative life". I agree with that 100%. We are influenced by society, social networking, friends, T.V shows, etc. Seeing different things can change who we are and it may not always be for the better. But I believe that if you stick to what you know, and surround yourself with nothing but good people, you won't have to worry about who you'll be in five years.
    I know from experience that there will be people who you associate yourself with that aren't good for you at all. I have a friend that is 4 years older than me. We met at work, until he left. He then had no job for over a year, no car, no license and no motivation to do anything. But to this day I still talk to him. He has slightly changed but myself along with my family and friends knew he was no good. If he didn't have his life figured out what made me think he would be a good asset to my life.. he wasn't. But on a completely other hand, I have some of the best friends that I still have because they bring out the good. They know what they want along with what I want. For example one of the kids I work with is more passionate about music than anyone I have ever met. His dream is to go to Berkley and have a job that has anything to do with music. Not everybody in your life has to have the same interests in you,  but if they have the same ambitions and a good head on their shoulders then maybe they are somebody worth keeping.