Tangled and Challenged

Part 1: A Little At a Time

When it comes to before I was born, I can go as far back as my great grandparents. There are a few things I know about ancestors which have informed my life. My parents were born in New York City. My parents were raised during the times of when music was important. They grew up around music. My parents met when they were walking down the street. When they met, my parents were teenagers. My dad was into music and sports. My mom was doing all different types of dance and trying to find what was good for her as a class elective. My parents are the type of people who can be cool with everyone. When it comes to how my parents were as they were raising us, I would say they worked hard, were tough when they needed to be, and caring at all other times. My first memory of my parents was when I was five and they were teaching me how to tie my shoes.

I was born in Queens, New York. I have been told when my twin brother and I were born we were one pound. I have been told we were premature. I have seen pictures of how tiny we were. I have been told many stories about when we were little. My earliest memory was when I was in kindergarten and I switched schools. One thing which immediately comes to mind when I picture myself as a small child was when I first started to learn how to read. When it comes to my physical appearance I was short with little twisties in my hair. I would wear green and yellow for a uniform. My favorite toy as a kid was my Barbie radio beach house.

I have many memories of special occasions. When it came to Christmas, we would call our relatives first and wish them a Merry Christmas. Then we would gather around the living room and open our gifts. When it came to birthdays, each person got to choose the type of cake they wanted. The balloons we got after a while would be popped, and then taped on our room walls. When it came to Halloween, our parents would take us out trick-or-treating. When we got home, we would go through it, and trade and my parents would check the candy. They always made sure we didn't eat it all in one day.

I have eight sisters and five brothers. I have a lot of cousins on both sides of my family. I have grandparents on both sides. As a young child, I had friends who meant a lot to me. On my first day of school when my mom left me with my teacher I cried. I have memories from when I was in second grade and on. When I was in second grade, my teacher would always get me ice cream. As I was going through school, I was held back in fourth grade and seventh grade. When I was held back, to me I think that's when I decided I was going to try to be even smarter than I was.

When I was in elementary school, I saw what happened at the Two Twin Towers. My parents had come and got us. During the time, I was growing up, it seemed like society was either trying to come back from what happened or was still grieving from the tragedy of our country. I was impacted by my teachers and the things I would see on TV. I began writing little short stories when I was ten. When I was in fourth grade a project, we had impacted me a whole lot. I believe if it wasn't for that project, I probably wouldn't be a writer today.

It was my second year of fourth grade. In that year, I learned so much. My teacher tutored me in math. My friends showed me how to do Paton. In exchange for them teaching me, I showed them what I was learning from tutoring. I would also sing the songs I wrote on Fun Friday. Fun Friday was free time we had on Fridays if you behaved. I used to have so much fun doing it. Anyway, the one thing which made me feel so motivated and excited was our fourth-grade project. The whole fourth grade was going to write a short story and it would go into a book. The story would start with one line and there was a picture above it.

My picture was of a house and underneath the picture was the words: "One night on 23rd street." We learned about the different types of essays. I chose to write an expository. An expository is a fictional essay. I chose to write my story about spending time with my favorite celebrity at the time. At that time, my idol was Raven Symone. I titled the story: "The Raven Symone Story." I enjoyed being able to constantly rewrite and add more to make it perfect. When the book came together, we each got one. We all got to meet a famous author. Everyone signed each other's books.

I was loving every part of it. I thought it was cool having something I wrote be in a book and my name being under it. I spent my summer creating another story. I called it The Girls Crew. From then on, I kept writing. When I got to fifth grade I learned more and had to learn many lessons about life. At first I was known as a tattle tale because I told on people if I saw them doing something wrong. After that, I had to deal with one of my former friends bullying me.

Of course, that stopped when we almost fought in the front of the class room. When we got past all the bullying, things got better. When I started middle school, things were different. My first middle school, Maitland Middle School, I quite enjoyed. I was a very determined sixth grader. I wasn't very happy at home, so I put all my focus into school. I still wrote my stories and songs of course. My teachers would say it was like I was a college kid. I was very organized. I studied very hard. I would mess around sometimes with my classmates in fourth period and play American Idol.

It always left me in tears. I had even managed to get over my fears and tell the guy I liked, I liked him. Things were rocky at first, yet by the next year, things were better. We had our first class, advance physical science together. We ended up breaking up over a rumor I listened to. It turned out it wasn't the Michael I was dating. My life changed after that, and I look back and I feel I will always remember. I have seen it to be a stretch of many things.