life influences

Everyone has those certain people they've encountered in their lives who help turn them into who they are. I'm not excluded from this. So I've decided I want to share with you some of the people who I feel who have made me who I am today.

Mr. Orr- I started writing when I was in 4th grade. I would write stories and draw illustrations for them. I'd make them like story books with a paragraph or two on a page with a picture. One day I decided to show my teacher my work and he told me I was a great writer. He laminated the pages of my story and bound them together for me and told me whatever stories I wrote after that, he'd do the same thing for.

I really believe that because of him, I began to love to write. He gave me that little push into a direction that I needed.

Mr. Schott- By the time I was in middle school, I knew I wanted to be a journalist. I took every media and writing class I could sign up for. By the time I made it to high school, I decided to take journalism I. At the time, I was on the fence about taking the next class, which was to write for the paper. When Mr. Schott saw I hadn't signed up for the next level of journalism classes, he told me I needed to and he went and fixed my schedule himself.

Joining the paper was a great experience. I won two journalism awards my first year on the paper, and was editor my second year and won another award. As editor of the paper, I really felt like I had found my place in my school. With over 400 students in my class, it was hard to stand out.

Even after talking me into joining the paper, Mr. Schott continued to influence me as a writer. He would constantly be encouraging and accept nothing less than my best effort.

Pap- My pap was also a big influence on my life. When I was younger, I was quiet and easy to forget about compared to my cousins who were always lively and talkative. A lot of my family members would show favoritism toward them. However, my pap always made sure to make me feel like I was just as good, if not better, than them. He'd always tell me how I was the smart one out of all my cousins and how I would be good at whatever I wanted to pursue in life.

After he died, I slowly started feel like I was getting further and further disconnected from that side of my family. He was the glue that held it all together. I also made a promise to myself to do as well as I could at school so I'd never feel like I let him down. I graduated high school with a 3.82 and in college, I've had three semesters of 4.0s and have been on the dean's list every semester. And although I do it for myself, a big part of me does it for him, too.

My Dad- My dad grew up in Shalercrest, and if you aren't familar with the area, it isn't the nicest housing. There's a photo to the right. He went to technical school for drafting during high school and got a job and moved into an apartment in Shalercrest with my mother a year or so later.

After realizing he didn't want to live in Shalercrest for the rest of his life and he wanted a stable job he could depend on, he decided to go to college. He took out loans on his own and went to school full time while my mom worked. While he was in school, when my parents were 24, I was born. My mom had to quit her job to take care of me, and my dad continued to go to school full-time. We lived off of food stamps and welfare. He never got more than one B a semester and eventually got his degree in Electrical Engineering.

Knowing what my dad went through throughout his college career really makes me appreciate my college experience and how lucky I am to not have to worry about the same things he did.

That's another reason I try hard in school. If my dad could get good grades in an electrical engineering major, with a wife and baby at home to worry about, I should be able to get good grades with my joke of a communication degree without really having anything major in my life to worry about.