Emily Bethel

September 29, 2016

Edu 280

Who Am I?

On January 29th 1997, a miracle baby was born right here in Las Vegas. I was

born two months early, with two holes in my heart. My parents didnt know if I was

going to make it. As days went on I was still in the hospital. I was in the ICU for four

weeks. So I was away from my parents at night. When I hear these stories it kind of

scares me! Now they tell me stories of me when I was so young, and it makes me wonder

why I was the one with the problems, and no one else had any problems. It got me

wondering, where do I come from? Where are my parents and grandparents from? Do I

have any health concerns throughout my family? We would soon find out.

My parents are Dorene and Chris. They got married in 1993 and were only

married for a seven years. During that time, they moved a lot. They then had my older

sister Ashley in 1995. Just 21 months later, I was born! At this time I believe we lived in

a trailer home. Then when Ash and I got a tad bit older we moved into an apartment. This

is where I can remember my first memoires. Sadly, they got a divorce when I was just

three years old and Ashley was five. From then on my life forever changed. Throughout

my childhood, when my dad did come around, he was an alcoholic, and became abusive.

There was a specific incident that would scar me for life. From there Ashley and I

traveled together, from moms house on the weekends, and dads house during the week.

Once we were old enough to go to school. We stayed with dad during the week because

he was closest to the school we were attending at the time. We were going to Jim Thorpe
ES. As we got older, my mom moved in with my grandma and my mom gained more

custody of Ashley and I so we then moved to another elementary school. Yet again we

moved to another school. Throughout my entire life I have lived in 14 different houses

between my mom and dad.

My mom was born into an Italian home. She was born in Sarasota Florida. Her

mom, my grandma was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She was born into a full

blood Italian household. My grandma Amy was a cocktail waitress at the Riviera and

Peppermill, when she moved out here to Las Vegas. My moms dad on the other hand

was named Joel. He was French, making my mom French and Italian. Unfortunately, he

was not apart of my moms life at all. He left my grandma with two kids, my mom

Dorene, and my aunt Darlene, who passed away when she was twenty. So I never met

her. My grandma then married Augie who was my mom and aunts adopted dad. Then

my grandma was divorced from Augie and remarried five times, twice to the same man.

Crazy right! Now on my dads side, my dad was born here in Las Vegas. Jan and Robert

are my grandparents. My dad does not have any communication with his mom Jan, but

has a minimum relationship with his dad Robert. Jan and Robert divorced when my dad

was young. So the only thing I know about my grandpa Robert is that he was born in

Key West, Florida. He is Cuban and Native American. Grandma Jan was born in

Nebraska. She is German and Irish. Which then makes me Italian, German, French, Irish,

Cuban and Native American.

Where are my cultural roots you might ask? Well my great-great grandma on my

moms side came from Naples, Italy. She came over to New York and began to raise a
family with little to no money. She had seven children, my great grandma Dora being one

of them. On my dads side, well I have to clue.

Years go on and my mom met my step dad Danny. I was eight at the time. At this

point in my life, my dad had not come around often, so Ash and I didnt really have the

father figure in our childhood. When my mom met Danny I wasnt very impressed. I had

a dad, even though I rarely saw him, I had a biological dad. Over time I grew to love

Danny as if he was my blood. Danny had a daughter form a previous marriage Alayna,

who was four. My mom and Danny then got married and were expecting a baby. Six

months later my half sister Sophia was born. At this point in my life I had a mom, dad,

step dad, biological sister, stepsister from marriage, and now a half sister. Now on my

dads side he just got married last October, to my step mom Rebeca, who has a 26 year

old son. So to add on I have a stepbrother as well.

Growing up, my dad did not go to church, and neither did my mom. My

grandparents on my moms side took my sister and I to some random Christian churches

around the corner from their house and we were expected to learn from the lesson and tell

grandma and grandpa what we learned. So I felt as if I was pressured to go to church. As

Ashley and I got older we never attended church, even though my mom was brought up

Catholic, we were never forced to go by my mom. When my mom married Danny I

would go to church with Dannys ex wife Alyson, who was Alaynas mom. So I grew up

Christian. Continuing now as I am an adult. I am not a super strict Christian. I havent

read the entire Bible, but I was baptized. I plan to stay practicing Christianity.

All families have some sort of traditions. In my family we have a special tradition

whenever we celebrate a birthday. While my Aunt Darlene is deceased, we still include

her in festivies. Whenever we have balloons from a party, we will all release them into

the sky so that we can include my aunt too. We also have another tradition on my moms

side, which is to make Christmas salad. It doesnt necessarily have to be made for

Christmas. In fact, we make it in November. It is basically a pickled salad. It includes

pickles, green and black olives, carrots, cocktail onions, artichoke hearts, cauliflower,

mushrooms, red peppers, banana peppers and olive oil. You discard all the oil from the

canned goods and only keep the liquids from the other canned food. Man my mouth is

watering just writing this! Yum! We usually eat this with Thanksgiving and Christmas

dinner.

In my life I have over come many things. Growing up with an abusive alcoholic

father, a single mom, being the new kid in school four different times, having my step

dad losing his well paying job, taking care of my little sister while my parents worked, I

feel like I can do it all. I never really let my emotions show because I am not a vulnerable

person at all. I have also had some amazing memories such as playing softball for eleven

season, doing karate with my dad being the instructor, being the captain of my high

school dance team. I have won many awards in these sports for leadership, most valuable

player, so many medals. I also have traveled to California, Arizona, Utah, New York and

Florida. I have made very great memories there.

Some goals that I have set out for myself are attending college, check! I want to

get my degree in elementary education and become a kindergarten teacher. I wont to get

married and have four kids. I want to own a nice big house, a nice fancy Range Rover

and live a long healthy life.

 Overall I have had a bumpy road in the nineteen years. I have overcome a lot. I

have learned some of my background like where I came from, where my parents grew up,

and where my culture comes from. I cant wait to share this information with my kids

someday. Im sure they will find it just as interesting as I did.