How am I?

Who Am I?
Joseph Weisenberger; CHC, CPhT
English Composition ENG101
Arizona State University

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Who am I?
Who am I you ask? Have I ever really been asked this question before? This is what I know
about who I am. I am a 25 year old boy; I am a son, a brother, a friend, a colleague and a college
student. These are the basic statements, I can say about who I am. Many people could relate to
this. But what makes me stand out?
For my autoethnography, I am going to dig deep and really determine how the upbringing
of my childhood shaped for who I have become today. It is going to be interesting to go down
memory lane and try to figure out those very things that played a major role in my life and write
my own definition for this wonderful life of mine. Since I am not much of a creative writer, I
thought I would write a little about my educational experience growing up. Part, of which I am
today, is because of the events that happened in my past. The experience is the backbone of who
I am and who I became. Without it I wouldnt get anywhere in this world. I cherish all those
precious memories in life, especially those that I grew up with.
The first thing I would like to start out with is a class writing project. We were asked to
write about how a poem is relevant or meaningful to our lives. For this project I have a poem that
plays an important role in my life. This poem that I want to introduce to you is titled Dont
Quit.
Dont Quit
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road youre trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And when want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit

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Rest if you must but dont you quit.

For life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure runs about
When he might have won if hed stuck it out.
Dont give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victors cup:
And he learned to late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is just failure turned inside out,
The Silver tint of clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far.
So stick to the fight with your hardest hit,
Its when things seem worst that you must not quit.
-unknown
This poem means so much to me that I keep a copy of it in my bedroom as well as an app
on my phone. It means a lot to me in a few ways. For one, I think that everybody has those days
where they are mesmerized by the thoughts of giving up. It may be after a bad day, a bad grade
in school or during an intense workout. I had too had many thoughts of wanting to give up in the
past. The meaning of this poem is quite simple. Life is like a roller coaster ride, with its twists
and turns. It reminds me that no matter how life can beat you down, you need to pick yourself
back up and try again, as there is no way of predicting what will happen next year. Success is
failure turned inside out/the silver tint of clouds of doubt, which happens to be my favorite
quote in this poem. This to me means that with every failure, a lesson is learned and must be

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learned in order to achieve success in the same or future endeavors. I can argue that when one of
my relationships fail, it is true that I learn something new from each and every one of them and
in return, I am more confident in my step and thoughts. It also explains how related success and
failure are. You cant reach success without failure. Just like the context of the poem, when life
lets you down, you must pick yourself back up and move forward. Fortunately I havent
experienced too many hardships in my life. But anytime I am feeling upset, depressed or lonely,
or when things dont go my way, I refer back to this poem, brushing off those hard feelings and
moving on.

Growing up I was a sort of a mommys boy. I am the middle child with two sisters and
yes I had a little experience of the middle child syndrome. While my eldest sister being 16
years older than I There was not much growing up with her. Though my youngest sister is just a
year and a half younger than I. We did a lot of things growing up together, such as playing
babies or playing in the sandbox with my Tonka Truck. We were both born and raised on a
large farm just outside of the quaint little village of New Lothrop, Michigan, population of 565
people. Growing up my father operated a farm of 500 acres both cash crop and a beef operation
while my mother was a daytime nurse at a local Nursing facility. My ancestors are from an even
smaller village of Perkins Missouri. My sisters and I enjoyed growing up, enjoyed spending time
with our family, in both in New Lothrop and the rest of my family in Perkins.
When it was time for my sister and me to attend school, we started out in the public
schools not far from home. We started there from Kindergarten through the 1st grade. In the
public schools we experienced large class sizes with combined classrooms of up to 70 kids. In

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the early years, I had a bit of a learning disability, which made the public schools much more
difficult for me. My doctors had later ruled out a possible diagnosis of Autism, Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity, and Multiple Sclerosis. But the only thing that was really determined was a
speech and language disorder. Growing up I was a smart child but had to learn differently from
everyone else, and in a more structured way. My writing looked more like words on paper, with
no structure, and sentences would have no end. My reading was about the same. For this reason,
the public school suggested to my parents about enrolling me into a specialized school for
disabilities.
Due to my mother being an advocate to my education, she enrolled my sister and me into
Our Lady of Perpetual Help a K-8 Catholic School system, where my parents had to commute us
12 miles to school every day. The catholic schools offered a number of benefits from smaller
class sizes and more student interaction. But also was a more structured environment with a
higher level of respect to teachers and other students. The school has taught me to have better
manners, and being a more caring and more creative person. Before starting in the catholic
schools, I was a more introverted person, from being shy, reserved, withdrawn, quiet and/ or selfabsorbed. However through a more structured education I was able to be more extroverted by
being a more outgoing and energetic. Catholic Schools had taught me to speak of a higher power,
such as the traditions of participating in group prayer and giving thanks for the things around us.
The daily prayer has allowed me to become more confident in my public speaking and building
relationships in a team environment. It taught me to be man of my own word, and I often get
complemented on it. These were all some of the beneficial perks that helped me in more ways
than I can imagine.

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The Kindergarten Song- You tube

I believe being raised in a catholic school system has taught me manners and values. The
core values we learn in Kindergarten. Through the teachings of the bible such as showing respect
to others, and to treat others in a way that you want to be treated. It has taught me the basics like
holding hands when crossing the street, playing fair, sharing, dont hit people, dont steal, and
most importantly to stick together. These are some examples of how Jesus asks us to act, and is
the context of this song All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (Fulghum,
Robert 2004)
Throughout the 5 years in this small school, I was the only boy out of a class of 8. In my
opinion this was heaven. We were the most well behaved class in the school; there was never an
argument or disrespect. Throughout high school, most of my friends were girls as I was able to
relate to them more. In my current career, I am in more of a female dominated work place, which
I have a better communication with. It wasnt until the last few years where I was able to relate
to Men in other ways, in which some of them are now my best friends.
My parents pulled my sister and me out of Our Lady, after I completed the sixth grade
and we went back into the public school near our home. This was not an easy transition or a
nurturing environment. Rather than more of an unfamiliar jungle with some familiar faces that I
saw around the area but never really noticed that I lived in their neighborhood or knew anything
about them. In junior high and high school I got myself very involved in several extracurricular
activities. I became an FFA member, participating in public speaking contests and engaged in the

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theater department of the school. I firmly believe I would have never done any of those things if
it werent spending a huge portion of my childhood in the catholic school.
Through the public high school, there were some bad times of disrespect to me, other
classmates and teachers. However despite these bad times there were some good times. I have
had some good mentors that helped me through so much, and were a good mentor to some young
kids in the community, some of which whom I was present at for their graduation. There are not
a whole lot of things my mother would do differently other than my education. Today she wishes
to have kept me enrolled in the catholic school system.
The catholic schools offered me so much in my education, that I truly dont know where
Id be today without it. My parents would say that it taught me manners that I wouldnt have
otherwise, without it I would be very behind in my education or may not have finished at all. I
wouldnt have the will power, life or career that I now have and worked so hard for. To this day I
still follow some of the traditions of the catholic school. I am still very close to my family whom
are still living in New Lothrop and Perkins. I continue to pray not daily, but at family gatherings
or when I am in a dark place and along with a prayer and reciting that poem above, I can get
through that dark place rather quickly. My brain also works better when there is more structure
in my life. Without structure, I am lost and confused. I keep a record and detailed report of my
finances. My filing cabinet is probably the most organized cabinet you ever will see. I am
happiest when the things in my life are in order. These are the things in life that got me to where
I am today, and shows a good pattern of how my life will progress. Reflecting on these
memories, were the greatest aspects of writing this paper. All of these memories in the past, and
what will develop in the future are all aspects of my life that I will cherish forever.