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Early Childhood
Since the day that I was brought home from the hospital I have been listening to my parents reading children's books aloud to my older brother at bed time. As I got older the books would also be read directly to me because I began to understand what was being read to me. My mother's favorite bed time story was Goodnight Moon, which she read to us more than any other story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yu_g5x3ZoQ -
Piano
I began taking piano lessons when I was in kindergarten. This is when I started learning how to read music. My favorite piece to play as i got better was "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic. This link will play the version that I learned as a little girl. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWY99zNk2nI -
Junie "B" Jones
Many nights I would lay by the fireplace in my family room with my dad and we would read Junie "B" Jones together. I needed help reading the big words since these were the first chapter books that I had ever read. The story appealed to me because we were both young girls going through school, as well as the fact that my family called me "B" so I thought I kind of shared a name with the main character of the book. -
Library Summer Reading Program
My local public library has a program to encourage kids and tweens to be reading during the summer. Depending on your age, you would either keep track of how many books were read to you or how many books you had read. That amount determined what prizes you could win. This was often my motivation to read during the summer at a young age. http://www.woodridgelibrary.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=147&Itemid=29 -
Band
In fourth grade I joined band playing the oboe, and have played it ever since then. I was ahead of my peers in reading music because of my piano background, so I then taught myself to play the saxophone and the bassoon as well. Music was a major part of my life at this point. It helped me find a way to feel smarter than some of my peers. I may not have been able to read books as fast as them, but I was much better at reading music than they were. -
First Research Paper
In seventh grade, I wrote my first long research paper of about ten pages. The topic was parachutes for my science fair project, so it involved researching physics topics as well. I was not a fan of writing papers but have always cooperated with my teachers. The excitement of doing a science fair project also trumped the idea that I was required to write such a long paper with a lot of research. Researching was worth the effort of hopefully receiving a gold for my project. -
Freshman Year English
In my freshman year of high school we all had to take an English class in which they taught some grammar. Although I am not the biggest fan of writing, this class taught me to really enjoy grammar as I still do today. There, we would also diagram sentences, and I found this to be so much fun that I would do extra ones on sentences that were not required. I felt very accomplished, also, when I got my first paper back in that class and received a perfect score. -
Music Theory
I had been learning about music theory through my piano classes since I was young, but during my senior year of high school I took a music theory course. This course got deeper into music and music history than I had ever learned before, and I loved it. I was able to learn how to analyze music and understand chord progressions. This sort of information was one that I could easily relate to and apply to something that I loved. -
College Preparatory Literature
During my senior year of high school, I took a class where we just read books and took tests on them. The objective was to prepare us to read a lot of material in college. We were required to read a certain amount of books, and could read more or long books for extra credit. Though I am very picky with books I read, I really enjoyed reading Gone With The Wind. My teacher told me to read it because he loved it and could not put it down, and I found myself in the same boat. -
Jobs
I took jobs this past summer as a Deck Attendant at my local pool and a Personal Support Worker. This came with filling out a lot of paperwork, which I enjoyed, in order to be able to work. To be a Personal Support Worker, one must prove they are eligible with a background check as well as other securing processes. Both of these jobs also came with new responsibilities in the working world and learning new levels of professionalism such as communicating with patrons and bosses.
