Autobiography of William Harrell

Birth-2008

I was born on June 2nd, 2000 at Lakeland Regional Medical Center in Lakeland, Florida. If I recall right, I was 8 pounds, 10 ounces, 20 inches in length. I was due two weeks later, but the docs told my Mom that realistically, I could come out at any time. My parents decided to induce labor a day after my Dad's birthday, that way I could have my own day. That's kind of been one of the fun things with my Dad and I, being 30 years and one day apart in age. However, after some time in labor, my Mom had to be taken to emergency C-section because the umbilical cord was wrapped around my head.

(In the medical field, in regards to L&D, there's an acronym called VEAL CHOP. This is used when looking at the fetal heart monitor. In my case, I had the V and C in the acronym, where my heart rate had Variable Decelerations due to the Cord being compressed whenever my Mom had a contraction. Basically, my Mom would push, the umbilical cord would be squished, and my heart rate would drop.)

Now, I'm not gonna pretend I remember details about the first couple years of my life... I just know what I know from photos or whatever my Mom told me. I have a vague memory of bombing my room with baby powder when I was four years old, and a dressing up as Super Mario for Halloween one year. The finer details are lost on me at that point. Again, my mom took plenty of photos when I was little, so I remember seeing that I had a Spider-Man birthday cake for my third birthday, but not what it tasted like. There's a few irrelevant details about pre-school in 2004. Nothing too special. Even going into Kindergarten, there wasn't much too important, and certainly nothing life changing.

I lived in a decent little neighborhood. Lower-middle class, one story Stucco house on Huntington Street, Lakeland. It was pretty friendly. I remember clearly in 2004 when a bunch of hurricanes hit central Florida, it took power out of the whole area. Someone down the road had a generator and passed it around the neighborhood so we all could have power for a couple days. I think that's honestly one of the only memories I have of a little community looking out for each other. Unfortunately, that's a rarity in today's world. We did a lot of renovations to that little house; we closed off the car port and turned it into a family room, installed a back door to the backyard, got a shed, replaced a lot of carpet with tile flooring. I think I recall my Mom saying they spent around $5,000 doing all that. Truthfully, all I remember is picturing two of the handymen as Mario and Luigi. I grew up playing the SNES, N64, and Gamecube, so I had my fair share of Mario games. At the time, my Mom stayed at home to care for me and my little brother Jeremy, and my Dad worked some office job. I recall visiting him once at some fancy office building; real white collar shit. At a later time, he worked at what was called Fun Bike Center in south Lakeland. I think it got shut down eventually, just not being able to compete with other dealerships. 

We grew up in the Christian faith, like many Americans. Looking back on it, it was more nondenominational, but we went to a Presbyterian church. It's a beautiful building right on Lake Hollingsworth, gorgeous architecture and definitely a close-knit and caring community. More than once did the church help us out with Christmas or groceries. I even used the pastor from that church as one of my references when I signed my enlistment papers for the Army in 2017. My Dad and I did some Cub Scout stuff there too; fundraisers, camping trips, stuff like that. My Dad was higher up in the Pack leadership, so we had a lot of opportunities to do stuff. I remember clearly he had a big, yellow pickup truck, so we took plenty advantage of it. I haven't been camping many times since, but 100% would like to do it again, even if it's on my own. There's just something nostalgic about having little travel-sized boxes of cereal for breakfast on a misty morning, somewhere in the forest. 

This was my life, for the most part, for the first seven years of my life. Not too much, honestly. It was simple, school wasn't bad, the Cub Scouts events were always fun. Around six years old, I remember the Internet becoming more of a thing. I don't remember the days of dial-up, but I remember when Google was pretty new and when YouTube had a rating system instead of a Like button. I remember at this time, my Mom was introducing me to music, and my Dad introduced me to Star Wars. For some reason, that was my favorite thing to look up was Star Wars music videos. I remember specifically there was one with "Eye of the Tiger" playing over it that I absolutely couldn't get enough of. There were also some less appropriate songs that came up... I remember when my Mom saw me watching a video with the word "Fuck" in the song lyrics, she shut that shit down. I didn't know what it meant, and still wouldn't for a few years, but I knew quickly not to listen to that song anymore. Don't even remember what it was... but I remember next time I pulled up YouTube, I found "In The End" by Linkin Park playing over a Star Wars video. I instantly became a fan, and to this day, Linkin Park to me was one of the most influential bands I listened to growing up. I even have part of a half-sleeve tattoo in memory of the lead singer, Chester Bennington. Obsessed? Maybe a little. But to me, anything that was in my life before 2008 is pretty sacred to me. Let me explain why...

At the tail end of 2007, my Dad sat me down and told me that him and my Mom were getting a divorce. At the time, I didn't know the meaning. I remember hearing the word before on an episode of Danny Phantom, but didn't understand it; little 7 year old me didn't know the power Google (or even a dictionary) had. Initially, I don't remember being too emotional until a few weeks later. At that point, it kinda hit that Dad wasn't in the same house anymore. I like to think of that as the first turning point of my life. Sure, hundreds of thousands of kids can relate to their parents divorcing at various stages of their lives. Nowadays, it doesn't really affect me, now being a young adult in the Army, and I'm on good terms with both parents. But looking back, that definitely feels like the first domino falling to start a hectic chain reaction of events that would take up most of my childhood. Not long after, my Mom had to scramble to find a job to support us, and catch up on a house payment. Unfortunately, the bank ended up foreclosing on the house, and then began the first move of my life. Not much else to say there... we just had our first financial struggle, and now had to bounce. 

Not long before we moved, my Mom met the man who would become my stepdad. He stayed a significant part of my life, even up to present. He was definitely goofy, maybe a bit immature, but he fit right in with Jeremy and I. At times he even seemed a bit overbearing, but he filled a lot of holes that my actual Dad couldn't do being away from us. My brother and I definitely learned a lot about becoming resilient, and even creativity. I remember for my 8th birthday, my stepdad baked a chocolate cake in the shape of a castle, and put that on top of another cake decorated with a race car track. He bought like $20 worth of Hot Wheel cars, and even crashed one in the front castle gate. It was definitely the coolest birthday I had for several years. 

So, we moved from Huntington Street to Josephine Street, on the other side of Lakeland. My Mom had received a settlement check from when her mother, my Nana, passed away, and was able to buy the house outright. It wasn't bad honestly, just kinda in a sketchy neighborhood. Plenty of gang shit and drugs in the area, and about four years later when we moved out of that house, there was a drug bust involving SWAT a block away. But, that's years later... I started third grade in that house, and stayed there until sixth grade. It wasn't too bad... minus the fact that the shower next to never worked, so there was certainly an odor that followed us. My brother and I had mixed reception in school, sometimes being bullied, most of the time getting on alright. There were usually one or two distinct bullies each year, but no one memorable. Thanks to either video games or YouTube, I developed quite a curiosity for the world and was ahead of my peers in a few ways. I remember in second grade, I surprised the teacher by saying that Paris was the capital of France, and that in third grade knowing what the word "infiltrate" meant, along with some random other trivia. Most of the time, it was followed by the teacher asking how I knew that. Honestly, I could never put together one answer. I could tell you that I knew something, but not know where I learned it. My fifth grade teacher even made custom awards for everyone at the end of the year, giving me "Most Informational". That's a theme that's continued into adulthood, for sure. I don't try to act like a know-it-all... quite the opposite in fact. I try to stay as humble as possible, but I also love knowing things, and telling people some random facts. Nowadays, it's mostly any off hand medical advice, mainly about food or muscle groups, or every now and then a disease or condition. For some reason lately, it's been a lot of STD questions I've been getting... but I digress. 

Josephine Street certainly started becoming a catalyst for who I'd mold into, in the good and bad ways. It was the spark to the gas, so to speak. In the first couple years there, I was still very naive and optimistic. I don't know if I willingly held onto my innocence, or just failed to embrace the world around me. Either way, things started to pile up soon in my life.