History 301.01 - Jim Blackwood March 4, 2009Gareia, Jammie 1 In the twenty three years of my life I have gone through a lot of different events that have shaped me into the person I am today. Some events were great learning experiences and some were harsh realizations but they have all had a great impact on my life. One of the most important events in my life is the day I was born. I was born on September 20, 1985, My mothers name is Julieta and my fathers name is Jaime, I am the oldest child in my family. From my moms side of the family I was the first grandchild and from my dads side I’m not the oldest grandchild but I'm the oldest one that lives in the U.S. I was named Jammie because of a show my mom use to see in México. The main character in the show is similar to wonder women, and the actress’s real name was Jamie and my mom always said to herself that when she had a daughter she would name her Jamie. When my mom was writing my name at the hospital after I ‘was born her brother had the idea of adding another m to my name to make it unique. That is where my second m comes from. The only bad thing with having a uniquely spelled name is that it always gets mispronounced. ‘On September 19, 1985 the day before I was born, one of the biggest earthquakes in México’s history occurred in México City. The earthquake had a magnitude of 8.1 and caused 10,000 deaths. After my mom heard the news about the earthquake she started worrying a lot about family members that lived in Mexico City. She says it was very nerve raking because she couldn't get any details about how the family was doing. All of this pressure on my mom caused her to go it was faith because as into labor three weeks early. My mom and dad tell me that it seemed lil soon as she gave birth, two hours later my dad got a call from my uncles that live in México City ‘and he told them that they were ok. Since the earthquake caused my mom to go into labor, some of my uncles gave me the nickname “terremoto,” which means earthquake in Spanish. One of the most important events in my life is when I was baptized. I was baptized on April 12, 1986 at the Saint E1 life because it is when 1 oh admitted into the Catholic religion. ‘The baptism is a very important jus church in Lynwood, California. It was a very important event in my ritual act, because it is, on is admitted as a full member of the Christian Church. In most churches it is said that if you are baptized in thege’church it makes you a member of the church. In the summer of 1989)1 went on my of México. My parents, my brother and I took a road trip down to Ruiz, Nayarit Mexico, wl yere my dads’ parents live. It took about 24 hours to get there but it seemed much longer since it was the longest car ride [ had ever taken. ‘This trip started a traditi nn that we still have now. We try to travel to México at least once a year. We usually vacation in México for two weeks. We try to spend as much of our time with myGarcia, Jammie 2 grandparents but sometimes it’s hard to just stay there with them because we have other family member that li in other areas of México. Through all these trips I’ve learned so much about the culture and the lifestyles of people that live in México. This tradition is something that I would like to continue on doing with my own family one day. The Los Angeles Riots of 1992 had a very big impact on my life. I've always lived in the city of Compton and when the LA riots broke that was one of the cities that had a very hard impact. The Los Angeles Riots occurred on April 29, 1992 when a jury acquitted four police officers accused of beating Rodney King, a black motorist, following a high-speed pursuit. Thousands of people living in the Los Angeles area were involved in the riots. The riots lasted six days following ‘aflorthe verdict. The riots caused a lot of property damage that totaled more than one billion dollars. There were many people looting all over the south central region of Los Angeles. There M¥aS even murders. Many of the crimes were racially motivated. I remember my mom telling us that we couldn’t play near the windows and we had to stay mostly inside at all times. I would hear siren after siren all day and all night long. 1 remember being afraid to go to sleep because of everything going on around me. After the riots ended a lot of businesses were ruined. I believe that because of the riots the city of Compton gained a neg. On Tuesday, April 20, 1999, The Columbine High School massacre occurred,Columbine -whiebvis located in Jefferson County in Colorado. ‘There were two students by the names of Erie image towards it. Harris and Dylan Klebold who were the ones that opened fire on classmates and teachers at their school. These two sured twelve students and a teacher and also wounded 23 others before they committed suicide. After this horrific incident many schools all around the nation improved security measures to keep students safe. At the time that this happened I was in my last year of middle school ready to go into high school and I became terrified of starting high school. In Mexican tradition it is customary that when girls turn fifteen they have a quinceaftera, but opted out of one. 1 decided that I didn’t want to have a quinceaftera and I chose to go on a trip. I decided I wanted to take a family trip to Walt Disney World in Florida. My family and I spent seven days in Walt Disney World and four days on the Disney Cruise. There are four them parks at Walt 1ey World; Magic Kingdom, Epcot, MGM Studios, and Animal Kingdom. We bought a family packet that gave us entry into all of the parks as many times as we wanted. My favorite park ‘was Epcot. Epcot is such an amazing park because it has so much that you can lear from. ‘The park is split up into two parts Future World, and World Showcase. My favorite part of the park is the World Showcase area. There is a huge lagoon in the middle and there are areas all around it thatGareia, Jammie 3 represent 11 different countries all around the world. ‘These countries are: Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, United States, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom and Canada. Each area has something special, like music, food and shops, about the country being represented. ‘The people that worked in those areas also spoke in their native language which was really nice because you gain a better perspective about the country being represented. I learned so much about different cultures from this trip. | remember that when I came back home I was so excited about telling everyone about all that I saw and all that I learned. This is one of my favorite trips and I can’t wait to take my own children someday. September 11, 2001 is a day that impacted many people’s lives. On that date there were a series of coordinated attacks on the United States by al-Qaeda members. I remember that day so clearly. 1 was at school that day and we were in homeroom when they announced on the load speaker that there was a national emergeney and we had to stay in our classrooms. My teacher tured on the television and it was unbelievable what was going on. I remember thinking that | couldn't believe it was real; | thought it was some kind of joke. 9/11 impacted my life because it made me realize that there are people out there in the world that can cause great harm. ‘Towards the end of my senior year in high school a very close friend of mine passed away. The aceident happened on March 1*, 2003. There were four girls driving home from a party and they were involved in a hit «fn accident. My iiend Mirella was driving, Krystal was in the passenger’s seat and Perla and Karina were sitting in the back seat, Mirella was driving down Otis, Boulevard, in the city of South Gate, they were approaching Perlds house since they were getting closer to her house she decided to take off her seatbelt and look for her purse. They were almost at her house when they realized that there was a car fallowing them, Mirella decided to drive faster to try to get away from the other car but the other car got even closer. They were getting near the railroad tracks when the car that w& fallowing them hit them from the rear corner which made Mirellas car go out of control. ‘The car started spinning and then flipped three times until it stopped ata light post. While the car was out of control there was a moment when Perla flew out of the car. She died on impact. Since she was the only one not wearing a seatbelt she was the only one that passed away. This tragic experience taught me not to always take everything for granted. My nineteenth was approaching when my parents started to dropping hints that I should think about getting a job. I started looking around and decided that a job at a department store would be kind of cool. I applied at different department stores but only got one response, Mervyn's. I started working at Mervyn’s in the summer of 2004. I was assigned to work in the children’sGarcia, Jammie 4 department. It was the hardest department to work in during that time because it was back to school season and there were so many clothes all over the place. There were days that I would fold clothes for five hours, and it still wouldn’t look clean, When you work at a department store the first 90 days are provisional, which means that at the end of the 90 day period they would tell you if they wanted you to stay and keep working for the company or they would lay you off. After my 90 day peyjod I was asked to stay but I decided not to take the job. The hour ble and the company y/2%becen't willing to compromise with my school schedule so I decided to quit. After not having money for a few months | decided to look for another job. My best friend was working at a cell phone store, Cingular wireless, and she told me they were hiring so I decided to go and apply. They hired me two days after my interview. I learned so much from my job at Cingular because I learned that it’s important to have patience. In both jobs it was difficult at times to deal with obnoxious ‘customers but I always remembered to have patience. | also learned that in order to succeed in any job you have to start from the bottom and work yourself up. I would always set goals for myself so that I could improve every month. On April 17, 2005 my world was tuned upside down. I was at school when I got a phone call from my mom telling me that my grandmother had a stroke. My grandmother has always been € very important person in my life because when I was younger she always took care of me. I've always felt a very special connection with my grandmother because she’s always been there for me. So when I heard that she had a stroke it felt like someone poured cold water on me. My first reaction was to try to get to her as soon as possible. I went back into class and I drove to the hospital. As soon as I got there I saw my mom crying which made it that much harder for me. My ‘grandmother remained in the Intensive Care Unit for eight days. She then stayed in the hospital for another three days until she was discharged and put into a rehabilitation center. She stayed at the rehabilitation center for a month and a half. Needless to say I was there every single day. At the time I was attending Long Beach City College and the rehabilitation center was located La Palma which is not too far away. As soon as I got out of class everyday I went directly to my grandmother's side. 1 would stay there until they would pretty much kick me out. All the nurses knew me already and they taught me a few exercises that they would do with my grandmother to speed up her recovery. It’s been almost four years since the stroke and she’s still hanging in there. My grandmother goes to the rehabilitation center for monthly checkups, and I try to take her if | can. Although she has her good days and her bad days, the important thing is that we have her here with us.Gareia, Jammie 5 One event that has changed my life is my current job. 1 currently work at Stanford Avenue Elementary School where I work as a paraprofessional, I have been working here since February 2007. 1 work primarily with first graders which makes it sometimes a challenge. I work with five different teachers which means I work with a hundred students. Working with small children has taught me a lot about myself. When I first started working here I just though of it as an easy part- time job, but now I've realized that it’s a lot more than that. ‘This job has been a great learning experience because it has inspired me to want to become a teacher. I didn’t always want to become teacher. I switched my majortwo times until I realized that teaching was for me. I was a business major first but when I couldn’t pass my accounting class for the second time I realized I had to look into something else. Since I love mathematics my counselor suggested that I should look into ‘engineering. I was an engineering major for two years until I changed it again, and this time I changed it to Liberal Studies. What made me change it was my current job. After working at the ‘elementary for a year I realized that I wanted to be a teacher. 1 found that becoming a teacher is what [ really wanted to be because it’s a very rewarding job. [also think that it’s a great job for me because I am the type of person that just can’t be sitting at a desk all day long and being a teacher is definitely not like that. As a paraprofessional I learn new things all the time, I could just imagine all the knowledge I am going to acquire on a day to day basis. In the summer of 2007 I took a trip to Europe with my mom. We traveled for four weeks in Europe, mostly in Italy, We took a flight from Los Angeles to Paris, France and stayed in Paris for five days. Paris is such a huge town that five days weren’t enough to see everything. Just alone the museum of Louvre is one of the biggest art museums in the world. After Paris we traveled by train to Rome, Italy. We then traveled to different cities in Italy like Venezia, Florence, Pisa, Murano, Naples, and the island of Capri. This is one of the most important events in my life because it taught me a lot about different cultures and different customs. It also inspired me to focus in school so that I can one day travel around the world and learn about different cultures. Another reason why my current job has had such a great impact is because that is where I meet the love of my life. When I first met him I realized that he was a very nice guy but I never thought that he would be interested in me so I never pursued anything. After working for more than a year together we became closer friends. I signed up to volunteer to come to work on a Saturday and paint murals. To me, that is the day everything changed. We were assigned to paint a mural ‘outside of a classroom of James and the Giant Peach. We talked all day long and that’s when theGarcia, Jammie 6 sparks started, It took him a few months to ask me out but when he did it was perfect. Since we ‘work together it sometimes makes things a bit awkward but we've leamed to deal with it, We've been together for more than a year now and without a doubt he’s the one I want to spend the rest of my life with ‘The most recent world event that is significant to me is the election of Barack Obama as, president of the United States. This event was significant to me because Obama is the first minority president this country has ever had. It is important not only for Aftican American people but for any minority. It tells us that this nation is full of opportunity and that each one of us has the opportunity to amount to great things. Also, the election of a black president can pave the way to the future when we will probably see the first female president. That day will be the most triumphant in the history of American women, and even women worldwide. Ihave learned a lot from all of these events. They have impacted my life in many different ways. Some events were great learning experiences and some taught me to appreciate what I have. All these events have played a great role in helping me develop into the person I am today.Gareia, Jammie 7 Work Cited "Columbine High School massacre.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 3 Mar 2009, 01:22 UTC. 4 Mar 2009 hupi/en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ttle-Columbine High_Schoo!_massacrefoldid=274581619. “Earthquake shakes Mexico City" 2008, The History Channel website. 4 Mar 2009, 06:45 hit history comhis-day-n- histo do?actonsAnicieid=50042, Gray, Madison “The L.A. Riots: 5 Years After Rodney King” 2 April 2004. 3 Mar 2009, vw. latimes.com,L661 e66b 686) S86L OxaH ayenbyey Aug ooxayy or dun isin Av story sjaBuy $07 wsydeg AW oyI7 AW