Tyler

Wesseldine
 Cultural
Belonging
I was born in Phoenix, Arizona. I moved to Las Vegas when I was 4 years old and have
lived here ever since. My father is of German descent and my mother
is Italian. I have a brother and sister who are half, so we share the same mother but
not father. I would say the Italian side of my family is more prevalent than the
German side. Growing up my mom was always cooking Italian food. She made her
own sauce and there was never a shortage of food. She made homemade Lasagna,
pasta, stuffed shells, linguini and clams, as well as meatballs and sausage. She did not
speak Italian, but we had our own language of food. No one in my family,
including myself, are multilingual. Growing up with an Italian mom there was just as
much communication with body language as there was with verbal. We talk with
our hands quite often and expressed our emotions through body language and hand
gestures just as much if not more than verbally. I have never lived anywhere
outside of the U.S. I have only lived in Nevada. I spent a year in Reno, Nevada when I
was 18 and lived in Las Vegas the rest of the time. We would celebrate
the "regular” events growing up. My dad didn’t have a religious affiliation, but my
mother grew up catholic. I never attended any church growing up. We celebrate
birthdays and Christmas as well as regular U.S holidays. I would say the most important
holiday in our house growing up was Christmas. It was always the one holiday
where we were always together and had to be on mom’s watch.
Life Experiences

•I was born in 1984 which means I am a 90’s kid through and through. We were the pioneers of the
internet and lived on AOL messenger and went into chat rooms that we probably should not have. I
can remember my dad being so proud and bringing home his first big purchase. It was a DVD player. I
will never forget how excited he was to say, “and it only cost me $400.” Being a 90’s kid it has
influenced my music choices more than anything. I live for grunge and rock and roll. Nirvana, Foo
Fighters, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, and The Offspring are just a few of my favorites still to this
day.

•I will say life always has its ups and downs. My childhood was rather good, and I never went without.
I would say I am living proof of a survivor. When I was 18, I had my mom basically disappeared on me
and by the time I was 24 my father had done the same. Both dealing with alcohol abuse issues I
decided to separate myself from that and be on my own. My biggest asset in my life is my sister
getting me through the tough times in my life. I feel this life experience forced me to grow up and
learn the hard way on a lot things. Right after high school I went to college and then dropped out
because of the family turmoil at the time and just not being ready. I didn’t take it seriously and had my
parents divorce and the alcohol abuse by both was not helping my situation. But here I am 20 years
later going back on this journey of school and college and trying to complete what I started.

•Growing up in Las Vegas and in the southern region I think it did have some influence on my hobbies
and interests. I grew up loving all sports. I played baseball and soccer as a young child. Surprisingly
enough what stuck is when my brother took me to a hockey game when I was 10 and from then on
that’s what I wanted to do. I played hockey from age 10 to about 24 years old competitively. Growing
up in Las Vegas roller hockey was way more prominent than ice hockey so I played both, but roller
hockey dominated. I traveled all over the U.S playing in California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Georgia,
and New Mexico. Now later on in my life I have become a golf nut. It really is my only hobby, but it
keeps my competitive edge. I think what draws me to golf is you can always be better its never
complete. I am a 7 handicap and always striving to be a scratch golfer.

•Golf is what I do for fun for sure, but I also enjoy hanging out with friends and family and going to see
movies or just hanging out at home watching movies. If I am not on the golf course, I am most likely
with family and friends. I am also very into music. I can play drums, guitar, and bass guitar. I hope to
learn piano next.
 My World View
My values and standards really don’t follow anything already laid out. I don’t have much of a military background other than my father being
in the Navy for 2 years. I would say one value that I truly live by is family is what you make of it. I have such a strained relationship with my
blood family that I have created my own lifelong family. Close friends that I have had for many years I consider my brothers and sisters. Older
people who have mentored me and helped me on my journey of life I consider my parents. A standard I live by would be treat others how
you would want to be treated. I see so many times of people treating each other poorly just because of social standard or economic
standards that when it comes down to it, we are all just humans. If I ever owned a fortune 500 company, I would truly treat everyone equally,
whether you were the janitor or the CFO because we are all just humans trying to have good relationships with each other. That would also
be part of the code of conduct I try to live by. Treat everyone as you want to be treated. Work hard for what you want and for what you
believe in. Strive to be better person than you were yesterday.

Growing up when I did, I feel that I got to see a lot of things change and, in my opinion, the better. My parents' views were very different. I
truly believe they did have some prejudice against different races and ethnicities. Maybe it was the time and how they were raised? I will
never know but I do know that as I got older, I started to form my own opinions and identity and become more excepting. I think their
prejudice has greatly influenced why I live by the standards I live by as stated before.

My short-term goals would be to graduate from college and start my career in the field of education. I would also like to strengthen my
personal relationships I have in my life and continue to be a better person. Long term I hope to be a successful high school History teacher as
well as a successful high school sports coach whether that would be in golf or hockey. I hope to be able to retire from teaching with a notion
that I impacted students lives for the better and that they can take away from my life experiences and put that into their own journeys for the
better and maybe it will make their path a little easier.

As far as principles go its more of the same. Treat people as you would want to be treated. I feel as people that we will always try and treat
ourselves the best and if we can hold that standard to everyone else we meet, the world would truly be a better place. I also believe to be
more excepting of one another. We are all different and that’s what makes the world great. One my favorite sayings of all time comes from
the great coach of the Phoenix Suns NBA team. I have it hanging on my wall, and he has it in their locker room and every time I am struggling
or thinking about quitting, I look to it.

“Everything you want is on the other side of hard.”

Monty Williams- Head Coach of the Phoenix Suns

Cultural Artifacts