Most Influential Person?

Today's quote: Life is not the amount of breaths you take, it's the moments that take your breath away.

I was filling out a personality profile with my sister on the internet, and she came across this question: Other than your parents, who is the most influential person in your life, and why? This question only drew blank stares from both me and my sis. Neither of us knew what to put for it.

It's one of those irritating questions that keeps popping up over and over again. I am pretty sure I encountered it as a personal statement question when applying to college, and then again to law school, and I know L ran across it also when applying to grad school. Who comes up with these stupid questions? This question was even worse because it ruled out the most common option of choosing either your mom or your dad.

I know people think that adding these types of questions to applications help to round out their image of the applicant, and also gives the applicant a chance to distinguish themselves from all the others. However, why can't they come up with better questions? You see these dumb questions when applying to jobs, schools, hell, you even see them in the Miss America beauty pageant.