I was born at exactly 6:32 a.m.

on September 6, 1998, in the delivery room of Pioneer

Valley Hospital. I went home to a custody battle between my biological mother, Lorna, and
father, Justin, in which my mom emerged with full custody and my father emerged with
visitation. My father remarried in 2004 to my stepmother, Cat, and they have two children
together, my half siblings, Alizabeth and William, both of whom are lovable little stinkers.
My mom moved in with her forever boyfriend, Monte and his daughter McKenzie
around the time I turned 9, and Monte and McKenzie moved in with my moms mom, Grandma
Ruthie. My mom and Monte still havent married eight years later, and I still dont technically
have a stepsister, but were family. We go to New Mexico to visit Montes mom every summer,
and sometimes for Christmas. Ive lived in the same house my entire life. Ive gone to four
schools total: Rolling Meadows Elementary, Grant Elementary, Riverview Junior High, and
Murray High.
When I was a wee lass at the age of three months, still in the trust vs. mistrust stage and
even before I experienced stranger wariness, which is Fear of unfamiliar people, especially
when they move too close too quickly, (Stassen-Berger, 2014), I decided that was the prime
time to develop three different illnesses just to mess with my mother: colic, pneumonia, and acid
reflux all at once. How nice was I? Most of my information from this comes from the horror
stories my mom has told meshe does like to bring up how nice of a human she was to her
screaming, inconsolable infantbut its definitely accurate.
According to my mom, I slept about 6 hours a day at this time, while normally, [babies]
sleep 15 to 17 hours a day, in one- to three-hour segments (Stassen-Berger, 2014). Colic seemed
to do thisshe described my stomach as rock hard and bloated (sadly not because I had rippling
abs), and the more bloated I became the harder I cried. The textbook reiterates that breast is

bestbreast milk provides antibodies against any disease to which the mother is immune and
decreases allergies and asthma (Stassen-Berger, 2014). Because of the colic, acid reflux, and my
finicky temperament at three months, I refused to be breast fed and instead survived on a special,
prescription formula for my compilation if illnesses.
I end this event in my life with the claim that my mother is a saint for living with me.
The year I turned ten was the year I switched schools. Not just from one school to one
down the street, but entire districts. I went from a school named Rolling Meadows in the Granite
School District to Grant Elementary in Murray, and it was one of the best decisions my mom has
ever made for mebut at the time, it seemed like the worst. I remember my first day; Murray
had started school a week earlier than Granite would have, and I was standing in the office
talking to a new face in a new place with new kids running down the hall. It was pretty scary for
a tiny nine year old. It just so happened that the class I was set to join was marching down the
hall, kids of all shapes and sizes in a single file line, to go to gym. I dont quite remember how,
but the next thing that was happening to me was my teacher, Mrs. Lundberg, was introducing me
to the class and a girl about half my height threw her arms around my waist and decided we were
best friends. That was that. Eden, her name wasshe made my first two weeks a lot easier
because children want to be liked; they learn faster and feel happier when they have friends
(Stassen-Berger, 2014). I was no exception; my adjustment between two polar opposite lives was
made much easier by her.
At the time, I thought my switch was horrible because little kids can be mean. In all
aspectsphysically, socially, and emotionallythey like continuity, not change; peace, not
conflict (Stassen-Berger, 2014), and couldnt be bothered to learn my name because it was
harder than saying New Girl apparently. Edens friends became my friends mostly because she

towed me with her everywhere by the arm and refused to call me anything but my name, albeit
said in her extravagant and theatric way. I almost think they put up with me because they were
used to picking up the strays Eden befriended. But a few of these people are still close with me
today.
Befriending Eden helped me mostly in my social development; a common value among
third graders is dont be too different from your peers, (Stassen-Berger, 2014) which can
isolate students that are, which can even turn into bullying. For me, thats what it almost became.
Being the New Girl was difficultwhen I wasnt ignored for being new, I was being told
whenever I did something different the nine-year-old equivalent of Thats not how we do things
at Grant. Eden put a stop to that because while many bullies believe their actions are admired,
(Stassen-Berger, 2014) and in this case they believed that everyone thought the same way they
did about me, she caustically informed them that their comments werent appreciated and that I
was her friend so back off, thank you very much. Without her, I think I would still be a very shy
child, caught in the shell being New Girl forced me into.
At seventeen, on this past Wednesday, May 11, I ended up in the Emergency Room.
I asked my mom to check me out of school during second period because Id woken up
with a migrainewhich wasnt a first time occurrence; Ive been getting them since kindergarten
and it hadnt gone away despite my usual attempts to appease it: dark rooms, caffeine, salt,
chocolate, and medicine. A migraine this debilitating happens about once a year for me. Usually I
can break it by dinnertime, and Ill be back at school the next day. As it so happens, by the time
dinner rolled around, I displayed a lovely list of symptoms that Ive never had before: weakness,
low blood pressure, nausea, numbness, blind spots, and slurred speech. Worried, my mom took

me to the E.R., who determined my migraine was a combination of dehydration, the end of
puberty, and genetics.
This scare, as there is no easier way to put it, will impact all areas of my life. Physically,
my diet will be forced to change. For teens, deficiencies of iron, calcium, zinc, and other
minerals are especially common, (Stassen-Berger, 2014) I will need to balance my intake to
minimize the possibility of another migraine, which could get progressively worse. Emotionally,
I learned that I no longer fall under the group of teens with an invincibility fable, which is an
adolescents egocentric conviction that he or she cannot be overcome or even harmed by
anything that might defeat a normal mortal, (Stassen-Berger, 2014) because being in a hospital
bed having my blood drawn didnt make me feel very invincible. I was absolutely terrified. Im
going to visit a specialized physician to help me get my migraines under control so that I can
keep my health up and get my life back.

References
Stassen-Berger, K. (2014). Invitation to the Life Span. New York: Worth Publishers.