I guess I have always been deeply terrified to really be someone's wife since I know from life one cannot love another, ever, really.
What I learned most was how to tell a story in 15 seconds or 30 seconds or 60 seconds - to have some kind of goal of what to try to do and make it happen in that time.
Childhood didn't have a big influence on me, really - in fact I spent most of it plotting how to escape.