INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

Significant person - My mom

1) When I was 9 years old, I asked her to divorce my father. And she did. We were sitting in the den of our old house in midtown and we were watching a movie and i just looked at her and told her what I thought. I remember it so vividly, I even remember that I was wearing a big t-shirt, i was eating cereal, and it was still so early in the morning that it was dark outside. All it took was for her to realize that her 9 year old kid didn't approve of the relationship she was in. She then went on to raise me and my sister on her own. She's done an amazing job. She is THE MOST significant person in my life.

2) When I was 18, about 2 months after I got a tattoo. It's a very small heart on my foot. I kept it hidden from her for about 3 weeks. Then one day while we were at El Chico's eating, I just decided to tell her. She hated it at first but she's grown to realize that it's on my skin forever and ever and that I've accepted that. Still to this day I want to get her initials tattooed on me somewhere, just as a constant reminder of how important she is to me.

3) For my 3rd birthday I really wanted a Wizard of Oz themed birthday party. And included in that party I wanted a yellow-brick road. My mom is so awesome that two days before my party she painted this brick walk way in our backyard yellow for me. It was probably one of my fondest childhood memories. Even though she didn't want a bright yellow walk way to our backyard, she did it anyway, just so I could really feel like Dorothy.


Significant event - My mothers pregnancy with my younger sister/Her birth

1) When I was 4 years old my mom had my younger sister, Caroline. During her pregnancy I mimicked my mom's sicknesses, when she had hot flashes..I had hot flashes. When she got shingles, I pretended that I had them too. When she had morning sickness, I had morning sickeness. I would "crave" what I found to be weird foods. It was basically me getting my last bit of only child attention in before Caroline was born.

2) While my mom was in the hospital getting ready to have Caroline, I stayed with my grandparents (two more very significant people in my life). There was a garage sale next door and I walked over there with my grandfather. This was during my my little pony obsession, and lucky for me there were tons of my little ponys and accessories. My grandfather asked me which one I wanted and I told him that I had to have them all. Fortunately my grandfather was really good friends with the neighbors having the sale, so they gave him a deal. Those ponys never left my grandparents house, and are still there to this day.

3) The day Caroline was born I announced to my entire family that it was actually my baby. For hours and hours I would hold her and sing her the Muppet Babies theme song. It eventually drove my family crazy. I remember sitting in the living room with her in my lap expressing my frustration that she didn't have anything to say and that she wasn't very good at learning the words. She eventually did learn the words, but it was after a few years when she actually started talking.

Significant belief - Everything happens for a reason

1) I am a firm believer in everything happening for a reason. If I hadn't dated this one certain guy, I never would have met Jake, my current boyfriend. When that guy broke up with me his friends just so happened to continue to hang out with me and that's how I met my friend Rachel. At the time she was looking for a cool girlfriend for her best friend, Jake to date. She introduced us and was all for us dating up til the day he finally asked me out. I still give her credit and thank her regularly to this day, no matter how corny that sounds. So, if I had never dated that one guy, I never would have met my friend Rachel and she never introduced me to Jake, so who knows how my life would have played out if it had gone differently.

2) If I hadn't made the decision to graduate early, my life would probably be completely different. And my high school GPA definitely would have been different. By graduating through Gateway, I was given the oppurtunity to take time off from school and focus on working. I never would have moved out when I did and I probably wouldn't be as self sufficient as I am now. Some people say that "growing up" too fast isn't beneficial to a person at all but I really feel that it did me a favor. Being a momma's girl is really difficult when it comes to certain things, here I am at 20 years old and I still make my mom go with me to the doctor. But I also learned that things like rent and bills are all up to me. If they're going to get paid then it's going to be because I pay them, and because I chose to get up and go to work so that I can pay those bills. It's made me who I am today and I appreciate my mom and family for supporting me and my choice to skip out on senior.

3) When I was really young, I'm not sure how old, I do know I couldn't have been more than 2 years old, my family almost moved to Chicago. In some ways I wonder what it would have been like if we did move. But I look at it this way, if we had moved there, I never would have met the people that I know today. Throughout my life so far there have been many many important people that either pass through or stayed. I've taught myself to really learn to appreciate what God has given me and my family. It's hard to be thankful sometimes but I feel that I do a pretty good job of knowing what's important and what's not.