When the Time Comes

There are many things I would want to take if there was a disasters, evacuation, or fire at my house. I would have to only take the most important things in my room. You would take all my pictures and rare things I have collected over the years. Like my grandpas coin collection he gave me befor he passed away in 2007 from mesothelioma. The coin collection is my only object memory of my grandpa. Another object would be our 1973 Datsun 240z that we are slowly rebuilding. My dad got the car in 1992 and drove it till i was seven, then it just sat on the side of the house under a tent until we started rebuilding it lag year. That car has lots of meaning to me and my dad, and we want to hopefully finish rebuilding it so I can drive it around.

Rags to Riches, Riches to Rags

My mom went to college of Marin for the nursing program and when she graduated, she had lots of recommendations and she knew a lot of people at Marin general where she works now. She started with nights shifts and an old people rehabilitation facility and after a year and a half of working there she moved on to work night shifts at Marin general for five months then moved to day shifts. Den though the night shifts made year some extra money an hour she just hated the night shifts. We live in a apartment with a rent of $1600 a month. My mom gets paid $62 an hour, 12 hour days, and 5 days of work a week. And a little over half what she makes goes into our rent for a 2 bedroom apartment.

My dad is a contractor that is self employed. He has been in construction for all of my life and he is really good at what he does, which is mostly remodels. His mortgage is less than my moms rent and makes a little bit more than my mom an hour.

Both my parents are happy but when there are bills that need to be paid they both get stressed out.

The Night of Life

I was born at the Santa Rosa Kaiser Hospital. My mom told me a story about the night I was born. On our way to the hospital, she said that there was very very dense fog. My dad was driving, and you could only see five feet in front of you, you only see the ground. They were going 20 miles per hour on a 55 mile per hour highway. So it took two hours plus to get from Fairfax to Santa Rosa.

I always grew up in the same house, I never moved once, so far. 17 years I've lived there. I would always play on the play structure my dad made for me, which is now a half-patio half-storage, and swing on the rope swing hung by a tree next to the play structure. I used to make the slide on the play structure a water slide during the summer that went into a kiddy pool. We still have the slide, but now its in the backyard on a hill for our dogs for playing.

Later Life

I see myself in the future as a fireman having an enjoyable job and life in Marin. This summer I will be doing the Marin county fire explorer program, and that will teach me all the ropes of bring a fireman.

I was just accepted into the Marin County Fire Explorer program, and that will be training for me for a year plus a Fire Academy in Southern California. I am also taking a Fire Technology course at College of Marin for extra training and practice.

The Early Life

My earliest memory is when I went to Las Vegas in 4th grade. It was my last trip with my Grandpa, on my Kim's side, that i had before he passed away. He passed away from Mesothelioma, a cancer caused by asbestos. Memories that I have from that trip is walking the strip and seeing business cards spread out all along the sidewalk with topless women with stars on their parts. Another is going to a dinner show. It was a medieval reenactment with jousting, sword fights, and all that fun stuff. There were no utensils to eat from because it was medieval themed. It was a very messy dinner by very delicious. Another memory of that trip is going on the indoor roller coaster at Circus Circus, and also going on the rooftop roller coaster. I forget which casino had the rooftop roller coaster but it was very fun.

The Soft Spot

There are all different types of weaknesses. It depends on the situation you are in. Like something that ticks you off. For me one of my weaknesses when I get ticked off is if you do something to hurt me or damage my things. You can call me all the names in the world until a certain point, like if its consecutive day after day.

Organization is also a weakness for me at home because I get lazy or I'm out with friends, or working out. I've done random cleanings and organizations of my room to help it out, and then it just gets messy again.

My time management is horrible and it falls into my procrastination. This junior year I decided to change my classes to easier courses so I could get my grades and GPA up. And it has worked so far.

Money is an Issue

Poverty affects peoples lives in many ways. If you don’t have money to buy good healthy food, you become unhealthy and sometimes obese. Poverty could also affect your marriage if you always argue about money, and what needs to be spent on what, like bills, food and necessities.

My family, before my dad and mom split up, was doing fine before the stock market crashed, and my parents would always fight about money and they ended up getting a divorce.