My Autobiography

I was born and raised, for the first 18 years of my life, in the small coastal town of Newport. Though there was a smaller population than in major cities, our community seemed to be very diverse. I grew up next door to an Asian family whose son became one of my best friends. Later in grade school I encountered another of my best friends whose parents had immigrated to our town from Mexico. Though I can reflect back on our cultural differences, at the time I was unaware of a separation between the three of us. Perhaps this comes from our common interests. I grew up in a conservative household. My family attended church every Sunday at 8:30am. During my childhood I enjoyed church simply because my friends would be there to great me, as well as the candy which was handed out for correct answers to bible story questions. It may not have been a common ‘interest’ of our own , but it was a familiar family experience for all three of us. Later on, we began to find other common interests that we shared, such as sports and mischievous activities. It wasn’t until fourth grade that I actually realized that we were in fact, racially different from one another. Of course this changed nothing between us. But it began to open my eyes to the world around me.

I grew up with a family that believed in how important we were to one another. We only had one family to ourselves. Family was the second most important thing other than God. As a result, I remember times when my friends would laugh at me for how often I would pass up the opportunity to go to a movie so that I could hang out with my family. We had dinner together at 6:30 every night and would spend the evenings sitting around talking with one another until bedtime. Now of course this schedule changed once my brother and I began sports and started middle school and high school. I can look back at how my family evolved to cover the many baseball and football games that we both had and how my parents kept their core values of family by making every effort to be there to support each of us as a group. I can actually remember the very first baseball game that my father could not attend and this was a result of our social class and my fathers drive to provide financially for my family.

My dad is the persona of the blue collar worker. He has held a variety of manual labor jobs such as fisherman, mechanic and most recently electrical lineman. He is probably the most influential person of my life. This includes the many good influences and some bad. My dad worked incredibly hard for my family to provide the economic support that we required as a middle class family. He made certain sacrifices so that my brother and I would be able to live a happy life. I can remember distinctly one night as I waited as a freshman in high school, for my dad to pick me up. I kept praying that none of my friends would be around when he drove up in his ‘beater’ of a car, a 1974 Volkswagen Rabbit. Socially, during time in my life, I knew that we weren’t rich, but I also understood that we definitely weren’t poor.

It wasn’t until I began my undergrad that I really became aware of different religious beliefs other than my own. I knew that not everyone was Christian like myself. I knew about the other world religions and knew individuals who practice none. I had grown up attending school assemblies where Native Americans came to school and taught their traditions and culture. But I had never really thought about the implications that culture had on me. During undergrad I had a professor who really challenged my thinking and helped me to think of the larger world perspective and not keep myself so centralized. I began to appreciate what different cultures taught me. I think that this understanding, or eye opening, will stay with me and challenge me to never stop thinking about culture. As I begin to spend more time in diverse classrooms these life experiences will help to keep me both grounded and open to knew ideas and its this balance that I believe makes a teacher great.