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I always appreciated my dad coming outside and playing with us - or my mom - and being a part of the game we were playing or refereeing it or just being outside. That was fun for us, and it was very encouraging.

I was encouraged by my mother and, to a lesser extent, by my father.

When I was young, before school, my father would wake me up and we would go running together. A love of being physical, being active and being outside was something he instilled in me.

My father loved people, children and pets.

My grandmother impressed upon me the importance of family, and my grandfather encouraged my hunger for learning.

As a child, I was rather active for my age. Sensing something special about me, my father told me that I had the vision to accomplish great things in life. He always encouraged me to do what I wanted to do - and this has stood me in good stead.

Growing up, I've enjoyed hunting with my father.

When I was younger, my family would go camping and fishing on our ranches. My dad loves being around all kinds of animals. He's the one who got me to be a really big animal lover.

I have a great love for nature. That must have started somewhere down back home, I think, because my family own one of the better known gardens in Soochow, so I played there, and I lived there, and so I must have absorbed something there. So I continue to have a great interest in nature.

It was probably my parents who inspired me most. My father was a scientist and answered my scientific questions, while my mother took me on walks and showed me birds and plants. She also took me out at night and showed me the constellations and the aurora.