My name is Selena J Leyendecker and I am currently 20 years old and want to be an

elementary school teacher. I grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin in the bellin hospital on March
13th, 2000. I was the 1st born out of three children and have a mother and a father. My favorite
hobbies are drawing/painting, reading, video games, and I also love movies/tv shows. My
favorite movies are mostly disney films and my favorite show ever is spongebob squarepants due
to growing up with it since I was practically a baby since it was created in 1999 (I’m just
obsessed with it!). My ethnicities are Hispanic, German, Lebonese, Irish, Native American
(Cherokee tribe), and Polish. I also am obsessed with Disney and love to collect and own
anything Disney related.
I grew up in a family of 5 with my mother Erin, my father Ralph, my sister Alexis, and
my brother Aiden. We also have three dogs, which are 2 yorkies, our teacup Zoe, and our regular
Sadie, and then our chihuahua/rat terrier mix Molly, and sadly our boston terrier Maggie passed
in 2018 December, she was my first dog. My siblings and I are all 2 years apart and as I
mentioned in the 1st paragraph I'm the oldest, my sister is the middle child, and my brother is the
youngest. My parents were married on November 12, 1999, and on the day they were married
my mother was 5 months pregnant with me. My parents were very young when they married as
my mother was 20 and my father was 26 years. My mother growing up came from a poor family
that lived fine but later on she lost her mother in 1993, so I never got to meet her but my mother
talks about her a lot. Her father was a soldier in the Vietnam war from 1971-1973 at 18 years
old. I never got to know him much and he left the family when my mom was 3 years old due to
being an alcoholic and slightly abusive. My mom has one sister Alaina and her family I never got
to know due to many deaths in the family and after my grandmother's death the family separated.
After I was born my mom is now a nurse in the ER. My father also grew up in a poor household
but lived just fine. He has 5 brothers that I never saw or got to know due to many of them doing
drugs or going to jail. Also I never get to know his parents due to old age and its a strange trend
in hispanic culture to not show emotion or be close with family which sucked growing up. Plus
they never showed love to my dad or his brothers too. All in all his family isn’t close at all. Sadly
unlike many families in the world mine isn’t big and close, it’s only me, my siblings, my parents,
and my aunt. So growing up I never had a big support group and big christmas or holiday
reunions but me and my small family are very close and loving, plus me and my siblings grew up
getting along very well and were basically bff’s due to all of us being shy.
 Growing up I was a very shy child who never had many friends and often wanted to be
alone. I was one of those kids who liked being on my own reading or doing my own thing as
everyone else was in groups or talking up a storm. As I grew up I had a very imaginative and
creative mind which was one of the reasons I liked being alone due to daydreaming and being in
my own world. I loved to create scenarios in my mind with characters and go on my own
adventures. From what my mother told me I was very loud and talkative at home where I would
scream at times just to hear myself, which I find hilarious. As a teenager I was very moody and
shy still which caused me to still have trouble with friends. Thankfully I met a girl named
rebecca in freshman year of highschool and I'm still friends with today and are very close. Due to
not having much family I never had many people with me during important events and
milestones in my life as well as people to visit which upset me for quite some time. As I got
older I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety disorder as well as mood disorder. Which
caused a huge pause in my life where I wouldn’t do much and went to a psychiatric hospital that
helped out a lot as well as with therapy. I am now better and thriving in life which makes me
proud to get out of a rough time.
As I grew up I went to three elementary schools due to moving 2 times because my
parents couldn’t decide where would be the best place for my siblings and our dogs which we
got when me and my sister were in middle school and my brother in elementary. The first one I
went to was Chappell elementary, then Forest glen, And the last one is Sunnyside. After that I
went to Pulaski middle school and Pulaski high school. During my school years in elementary
school it was very calm and I enjoyed all types of subjects and fun activities. My middle school
years were nice but I was teased often by other kids which of course I never understood, but
nobody ever does when bullied. Sadly when I went to high school it was ok but I was bullied by
groups of girls and guys due to my shyness and uniqueness as well. Due to that I was never
chosen for homecoming or was asked as a date for prom. I also never dated anyone during this
time which I was fine with since I wasn’t ready and interested anyway. My siblings were also
teased often too so we usually sat at a lunch table together which we were totally fine with since
we were close. As I mentioned in the last paragraph I met Rebecca after I had a horrible event
with a big group of friends I was with since middle school that turned on me and bullied me
which caused the start of my depression, my depression didn’t get bad until my senior year. I
finally graduated January 19th, 2018.
 Finally I went to college at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College and University of
Wisconsin Green Bay to get my Bachelors degree in early childhood education to be an
elementary school teacher. Ever since middle school I have been babysitting and did different
volunteering events and jobs with children which started my interest of being with kids. I have
been a little league referee in youth soccer, a daycare student teacher in practicum classes, and
have helped at homeless shelters. I am a kindergarten/1st grade teacher and love it so much, plus
it makes me so happy that I changed my career choice from veterinarian to elementary school
teacher.
.