Mueller 1

Kelci Mueller
Professor Lo
Race & Social Justice
May 26th, 2016
Autobiography
My personal belief system comes from many influences within my life. These include my
friends, my family, the schools I have attended, the places I have lived, the things I studied
outside of school, sports, etc. Each and every one of these items has changed my life whether it
was in a negative or positive way, they have changed me into the person I am today. Some of the
values I hold today include being true to myself and making sure I know myself to the fullest
extent. Another value I hold is for people to do what makes them happy and not be influenced by
others just because they arent happy. One thing I have always disliked is the idea of entitlement.
I believe that nobody is entitled to anything and that if they want something they have to prove
they deserve it and not just expect it to be given to them.
Family has never really been that big of importance to me growing up because of how
broken my family could be. I have never really gotten along with my brother, we would always
fight and we could never agree on anything. My mom would tape us up in a hug for a
punishment because we have no desire to come any closer to each other than we had to. My
sister and I have always had a strange relationship, we have never really been that close but we
have always respected each other. But out of all of my close family, my mom and dad have made
the biggest impact on my life. I am definitely what they consider daddys little girl. My dad
was my favorite because he was quiet but a good listener and he was always very calm even in

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situations that were the exact opposite. I rarely ever got into fights with my dad and when I did it
was because I woke up late to school, for the millionth time and he had to call me in, again. I was
a pretty stubborn child and he was a pretty stubborn dad but we didnt let that get between us
(most of the time, of course we had our arguments but through it all I still love him very much).
He taught me that things shouldnt affect me as much as they have been and to try to stay calm in
situations to be able to rationalize them without having my emotions get in the way. Now on to
my mother. My mom is a very interesting character in my life. As far back as I can remember I
have never gotten along with her. She is a very social, outspoken, driven, and independent
person. While I, on the other hand, am very quiet, I like to do things at my own pace and as much
as I dont like to admit it, I am very reliant on others. She doesnt understand where I am coming
from 95% of the time and so we fight all the time.
This has really affected me growing up because I always needed a mother and I felt like I
didnt have one. I tended to surround myself with people that were either missing their mother
figures or had very similar relationships with their own moms. My mom is very high
maintenance despite her being very independent. I know this might be a little difficult to
understand, trust me half the time I dont even understand her, but its like she expects everything
to be handed to her when she isnt going out and doing the things herself. I feel like I pushed
myself away from her and the family because I couldnt handle the stress that the family put on
me. She is one of the biggest reasons I moved so far away from home because I couldnt deal
with being around her anymore than I had to. But she has taught me a few very important things
in my life. She has taught me to be strong in situations that I feel very weak and helpless, she has
taught me the value of hard work and leadership, and she has taught me that the only way to get
most things done is by myself with no outside help.

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My friends have had a huge impact on my life for the good and the bad. Lets start with
Sarah. Sarah has been my best friends since I was eleven years old. I have known her longer but
we really didnt start to become friends until fifth grade when she and my other friend Joanna
started to teach me how to be a girl. They told me how to do my hair, how to do my make-up,
and how to dress (even though we had uniforms, they still gave me tips on how to make them
look a little better). Sarah and I have always had a very stormy relationship, partially because she
has a personality disorder, but partially because we were the exact opposite in every aspect. That
didnt stop us from continuing being friends. Eight years later and I would still consider her one
my best friends. The things our relationship has taught me is that sometimes whats going on
with them is way more important than what is going on with me in that moment. Another thing it
has taught me is that no matter the distance or the time we are apart, we can always rely on each
other. But I also learned I cannot work with her. She can be very cocky and condescending which
makes it very hard to work with her because you get this feeling like you are not as good as she
is. Sarah also has a huge problem with entitlement and she can be too idealistic to the point
where she has nothing planned out because she believes everything will be in place for her and
she just has to float along with little to no work.
Another friend that has impacted me was my friend Nick. I met Nick in my freshman
health class and he was and still is the funniest person I have ever met. He always had a smile on
his face and told jokes whenever the time was right. I remember him coming into the class and
looking at me (this was before we were friends) and saying Why do you look so down
cowgirl? even though we have never even talked before. This made me laugh because I couldnt
quite understand why he called me cowgirl. Another time we all got sent out in the hall for
various reasons, mine was because I talk too, and he got sent out because he found an ant on his

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desk and proceeded to name it Jose and call it his pet. Nick has that personality of always trying
to make others smile when he was not in the best place. Nicks mom died that year of cancer and
I had no idea until about a year later. You wouldve never suspected it and it was shocking and
heartbreaking. As the years went by we became closer and closer. We had a lot of heart to hearts
and have always had a very good relationship. Recently his dad committed suicide and this
happened while I was living out here so I sent him a care package of all of his favorite things.
Nick has this strange ability to handle a lot of pain and still be able to take care of himself and
others around him. I have always admired that about him and I have always strived to do that for
myself. He has also taught me that bad things that have happened arent the end of the world and
that anybody can get through them.
Kylee is the last person that has really impacted me in my life. I met Kylee in AP
Psychology my junior year of high school and we just clicked. I have never met anyone in my
life that I have become so comfortable around them so quickly other than Kylee. We would talk
for hours about anything and we were always there for each other during the rough times and for
the good times. We rarely ever fought and when we did it was resolved almost immediately. One
thing I really admire about Kylee is how she speaks what is on her mind no matter how harsh it
was. She was a very open person and wasnt afraid to let people know how she felt. But she was
also very stubborn like me and maybe thats why I liked her so much. Stubbornness has always
been an attractive trait because it gives people the ability to stand up for themselves and not back
down for something they are truly passionate about. Thats why Kylee had, she always stood up
for herself and wouldnt back down when she was passionate about something. Being stubborn
myself she taught me to use the stubbornness to not back down and to stand up for myself even if
I am scared to. My best memory of me and Kylee together was in Chemistry class and we had a

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substitute teacher. Well, my teacher was out sick but he had a snake that was at least eight feet
long and six inches in diameter. This huge snake decided that today was the day it was going to
escape and so he climbed up to the top of the take and was trying to remove the lid. Kylee and I
then had to get the teachers attention and we then watched her horrified reaction to this huge
snake trying to escape. She eventually just put very heavy books on top of the cage and called it
good. We were laughing so hard because this poor sub had to deal with an eight-foot long snake
on her day of subbing. This describes the rest of our relationship.
Growing up my parents put me into a private catholic school call Saint Johns the
Evangelist Catholic School. I went there from preschool up until eight grade. This has impacted a
large portion of my life because it taught me a lot of morals that wouldnt have had without
going to school there. Some morals I learned while there is to be kind to others and to respect
others and to treat others how you want to be treated. It has taught me that forgiveness is always
possible even in the worse situations and that you yourself should learn to forgive even if you
dont feel like you should or want to. But it also taught me how judgmental and entitled some
Catholics can be. The girls were called harlots (Christian name for whore) every time we would
go to church by church members because our socks werent long enough or our tights were too
see through or we were wearing too much makeup. We would get yelled at in class to fix these
things before we became an even bigger embarrassment to the school. After I had graduated I
still decided to attend church on Sundays because it wasnt the religion I despised it was some of
the people who were a part of the religion. One of the last times I went to church was an early
mass on Sunday and I went with Sarah. Because it was early and I was staying at her house I just
wore what I brought with me, which happened to be athletic shorts and a hoodie. We sat on the
floor in the back of the church and skipped communion because we didnt want anyone to see us

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that way. This older lady made it her duty to come all the way to the back of the church to look
me up and down and then proceed to say to me, Really, you wore that to church? then she
rolled her eyes and walked away. My initial reaction was shock but the more and more I thought
about it, the madder I got. What if I had been homeless? What if that was the only thing I had to
wear that day? But the more and more I asked myself these questions I realized not only that she
wouldnt have cared what my excuse was, just that I wasnt dressed to her standards. This also
made me realize I didnt want to be around people that judge others so harshly and so easily and
so I left the Catholic Church and never went back. I still believe in some of the things they
believe in but I believe that organized religion is wrong and that people should believe what they
want to believe and not what others tell them to believe.
The transition into high school was very difficult for me because I had only been in a
private school and my graduating class from eight grade was 14 kids (11 girls and 3 boys). While
my freshman class had somewhere around 450 kids in it and my high school had over 1,200
students. I had to transition from wearing the same outfit every day and knowing everyone
around me to having to pick out an outfit every morning and seeing new faces every single day.
Luckily for me, I knew some girls at the school because of club volleyball and open gyms over
the summer for volleyball. Making friends wasnt a too difficult task because of my connections
through other girls on the team but it was still very hard for me to get used to having so many
people not only in the school but within my friend group. Sometimes it was hard to keep up with
all of them and I would lose connections really quickly. But I learned to get past it and I actually
had a lot of fun my first few years of high school because of the people I hung around and the
experiences I gained. The transition into high school taught me how to transition into new jobs,

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new surroundings and when I moved out to Oregon it helped me make connections and friends
easier.
The most important influence in my life is the Enneagram. I first started learning about
this personality typing system freshman year of high school. The reason it is such a huge
influence in my life because it really has helped me to understand myself. It has helped me do
that because through the eyes of a psychologist I can look into why I do make the choices I make
and what underlying problems I deal with. This helps me to recognize where there are errors in
my thinking and so I can change myself for the better. The system also helps me type and
understand others. Because every single person is different, the system helps identify what
personality traits they are likely to possess which helps me understand why they do the things
that they do so I can have a clearer understanding. This helps me be not so judgmental when it
comes to others actions and it shows me what they might be thinking when making these
choices. This has really shaped me into who I am today because I not only have a way better
understanding of myself, I can try to understand others as well.
Moving out to college and attending Portland State University has really taught me how
to adjust to a completely new environment by myself. It has also taught me how to deal with
responsibilities in a timely way and to keep on top of my responsibilities even if I do not want to.
The experience at the dorms has and is still teaching me how to deal with another person in close
quarters with me. It is teaching me to be patient, not get too angry with the other person and not
mess with any of their stuff even if they are messing with yours. It is teaching me to be the
bigger person even if I dont want to be. The transition out to Oregon has also introduced me to a
very different crowd than what I am used to and it teaches me that even though people are
different, they are really awesome and fun to be around. One of my favorite things about

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Portland has been the introduction to a bunch of new foods that I have never tried before and it is
really teaching me to be more open with different foods.
My life has been a complicated series of events but through it all, it has taught me how to
be a mature member of society. It has taught me how to deal with serious relationships and how
to make and keep friends. It has taught me how to transition into completely new situations and
still thrive off of those new situations. It has helped me discover who I am and discover who
others are and what roles they play in my life. My life has taught me that sometimes you do have
to put others before yourself but you should never sacrifice your happiness just because someone
around you disapproves. You should stay true to yourself and not do things just to please other
people. And sometimes those who are the closest in your life are the unhealthiest and you should
only surround yourself with healthy and happy relationships even if you dont want to give up
unhealthy ones.