I am the youngest of two. That's right just two of us. My brother who is one and a half years older than me and then me. Although there were just two of us, we were very close to our huge extended family. My mom is the oldest of 7, we lived next door to my grandparents, my two sets of great uncles and aunts and my moms youngest brother and his wife. Needless to say I did not get away with much. Growing up in such a big family has impacted my life in so many ways. Not only did my parents have expectations for me but so did all of my aunts, uncles and grandparents. My brother and I are the oldest of now 16 grandchildren. Throughout the years this raised our expectations. I was the babysitter, therefore I had to make sure I was doing good and doing right in my everyday life. This effects me more now that I have older cousins that are watching my every move. Our family was raised Catholic, we lived in Mt. Angel, (if you don't know anything about Mt. Angel, it is a very Catholic town) and most of my aunts and uncles married other Catholics, except my mom. Because Mt. Angel was mainly Catholic, the kids I went to school with were Catholic. This begins a new step in my life.
When I got into elementary school, I remember a lot of the kids I went to school with were involved in the church. Now my mom was raised Catholic an my dad was not so I know they struggled on that part. I went to Church sometimes, I went to religion sometimes, but my friends went all the time. I struggled going to school and facing my peers when the night before I was not in religion class. I did not always know what to say. This starts another part of my struggles. Religion class was on Wed. nights. Well that's in the middle of the week. Both of my parents worked and neither of them made good money. We were on the poor end of the scale. My dad drank a lot and my mom yelled a lot. Anyways, when I did not go to religion class it was mostly because my parents were fighting that night. Now in elementary school I was not going to go tell my friends this, I was embarrassed. My parents fighting and my dads drinking affected me in many ways in school. One was that I was set off and shy and the other was that I was not able to focus and do as good as I could have.
On my journey to becoming a teacher I want to be able to learn how to help the children that are struggling in some of the same ways. Once I finally got to high school I started talking to my friends about what was going on in my home life and they were able to support me and help me find a way ‘out’ I guess you could say. To this day I wish I had that kind of support from day one of elementary school. It may not have been a friend that would have supported me but a teacher. Because I did not gain support from teachers, I felt left out and abandoned. I guess I will stop there and explain why all of this has lead me toward teaching.
I believe that in todays society we focus a lot on diversity and culture, while these two things are very important, I don’t see much focus on the children that have rough home lives. Also, growing up in a big family and always being the babysitter I was able to see where my strengths were with children. I remember always wanting to read to them and play school or house. My family and my friends have always told me I have great teacher ‘instincts.’ I guess you could say they were right. The last 2 years I have struggled to get into a teaching program but I believe that was for a reason. Someone higher up wants me to be the best teacher I can be and it seems that this program is right for me.
Now here I stand in the beginning of this program with a family that is sitting at home waiting for me to become a teacher. Because of my background I know I will be able to balance my life here at school and my life at home with my family. I cannot wait to become a teacher and show the world that I will be excellent!
