To start off i was born at Saint Josephs Hospital in Syracuse N.Y. on September 16th 1989 at around 2:40am I was brought into a life with a mother, father, three older sisters (one who passed away before any of my siblings or i was born) and one older brother. I lived in Jordan N.Y. from the time I was born until I was about thirteen. Those years are what made me who I'am today.
I had a good set up in life until I was three, when my parents got divorced. My mother did not work at the time so she could not afford to have us kids come and live with her after the split, so we were forced to live with our father. I grew up mostly on my own my oldest sister Holly basically took care of us kids while my father was at work. She made sure we did our chores, homework and cooked us food whenever she had time. So my time was spent either at school or outside playing mostly with my close cousin Alayna. We loved make believe we would play house, school and grocery store but our favorite was playing school. I enjoyed being the teacher because I got to decide what we were going to play or "learn" that day.
As i grew i enjoyed school more in some ways and less in others. I loved learning new things and going home to repeat what i had learned for my siblings. Or creating things in class, if i made something it was the greatest thing on the fridge to me. I spent more and more time by myself using my imagination and thinking of all the great things I wanted to be when I grew up. I always liked most of my teachers an wanted to be on their god side, which sometimes made me the teachers pet but I didn't care. I just like being noticed and praised for things I would do correctly.
Sixth grade was the last grade i attended at Jordan-Elbridge school district. My father had met someone and we were moving to Syracuse N.Y. By that time both my older sisters had moved out, so it was just my brother Eddie and I who moved to Syracuse. Once i started at my new school Jamesville-DeWitt school district i went through i drop in my grades. I stopped caring about pleasing the teachers and started to care more about my friends and what i was going to do that day after school. I was sick of being the teachers pet and having no friends I wanted the very opposite. My grades started dropping and I began to feel like I would never be anything great like i had dreamed about before. My aspirations and goals all disappeared I stopped thinking about where i was going after I graduated.
This sluggish effort continued until after freshman year in high school when i started dating my then boyfriend David. He was a very gifted student who worked hard, was in many AP classes and played on the baseball team. His effort astonished me; I didn't think any high school student really worked that hard. Being his new girlfriend i wanted to make a good impression on him, and show him that I'am just as smart as he is. Sure enough my grades started to turn around test grades went from low 70's to high 80's I did all of my homework on time and attended classes always. My hope for a bright future started blossoming again.
I went through the rest of high school with steady grades and an open mind to the future, I was not 100% sure what i wanted to do but i knew it was something with kids. At first i thought about how I want to help kids who struggle with everyday life and need someone to talk to. I wanted to become a counselor at first so that i could be there for those kids who needed open arms and ears. I graduated from Jamesville-DeWitt high school in 2008 then in the following fall i attended one semester at Onondaga Community College, majoring in Human Services. I enjoyed my time at O.C.C. but there was something missing.
My boyfriend of over three years by that time had moved away to M.I. to go to school for Mechanical Engineering. It was hard to go everyday without him so in January of 2009 we decided that i was going to move to M.I. so that we could live together. The only condition was that this was not to interrupt the continuing of my education. So i searched for schools in the area and came across Finlandia University. It was a smaller school that had what i wanted to major in (Psychology) but as i was looking at the majors offered at this University I came across Elementary Education.
Something sparked in my mind but i forced myself to forget it, I felt that i was not good enough to ever be a teacher. However over time my curiosity grew and i researched everyday on what went along with being a teacher the pros and cons. The more i thought about it the more i liked the idea, then one day i finally decided that I would go to Finlandia not for Psychology but for Elementary Education. I was very happy with my decision and could not wait for school to start. I'am now attending Finlandia as an Elementary Education student and i love it, I could not be happier with my decision to change my major. Now i still get to work with kids and make a difference in their lives.
