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Origins

Everyone has their own story of how they became themselves. It's never a straight

forward story, there's always influences from their peers, parents, or even famous people. I will

admit my story is a confusing one. Many events and people affected who I’ve become and who

I’ll want to be. When I was younger my parents constantly took any of my passions and made

them a reality. I fell in love with music, so they got me a guitar; I was enamored with sports, so

they put me in soccer and basketball; I enjoyed art, so they bought me supplies. Though, there's

one thing that's always stuck with me was my interaction with animals.

Ever since I can remember, animals have always had an impact in my life. For example, I

was able to persuade and convince my father, who despises cats, to allow me to have one of my

own. Little me ended up naming the white, siamese kitten, Skylar. As the years went by, he

became known as the neighbor cat that everyone loved. Due to Skylar not being around much,

my mother adopted our second cat whose name was Buttercup. She was the runt of her litter,

with short calcico colored fur. Buttercup lived a short, but meaningful life, and had four kittens.

We ended up only keeping one out of the four. She was different, as she stood out from the rest

of her litter, all of the others being black, brown, and white colored. We named her Saffy, short

for Saffron, due to her bright orange, tabby printed fur. These events created a lot of emotional

attachments to animals and also big communication skills. The things I learned were a better

understanding of how animals portray themselves and how I am able to communicate to them.

As I got older, my attachments towards sports outshined the love I have for animals.

Once I reached high school, basketball and soccer became my life. Sports gave me many

opportunities to become a more outgoing and friendly person. For example, during basketball

practice, I always went first for any type of drill. This gave me better communication skills
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towards my peers and other people. In soccer my position is one of the most important and

loudest. The keeper has to be commanding and very quick minded during the game towards her

teammates. Making them a better leader and having more speaking skills. Though sports weren’t

the only thing that impacted my identity in highschool; my homeroom teacher Mrs.Hannah was

the main source.

Backtracking to the first memory I have of going into highschool was my homeroom

teacher Mrs. Hannah and she asked me if I liked snakes. My response to her questions is hazy,

but I can still remember saying something along the lines of, “Duh, I love them.” Her question

then led me to her classroom, which had two long and scaly snakes in the back of her classroom.

She wasn’t your average science teacher of course. She always wanted to do crazy experiments

any chance she got, and was a big chiefs fan, but most importantly a huge animal lover. I got

very close with her and she even let me take home one of her snakes for a couple summers. This

happened my freshman, sophomore, and junior years and that experience made my love for

animals start to come back. I learned that when you open yourself up to a mentor who is

interested in the same things as you, you will grow as an individual. She taught me how to be

more open towards my teachers and through my writing. Becoming more engaged in school

events, and with my peers is also something I learned from her. Unfortunately I didn’t take any

other opportunities to learn about her love for animals until my senior year of high school. By

then my heart was already set on going towards a continuous talent of mine which was Art.

Everyone's senior year of high school is stressful, sad, but still has some exciting events.

These events have shaped me into the person I am today. Finding my way back to art really

showed me more about myself then most things have. I was able to find more creative outlets

than I have in the past. It’s taught me better communication skills through describing my art
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pieces. Which helps me in my writing skills about describing art pieces in a more descriptive

detail. My connection through animals has taught me a lot about communication skills, and my

engagement towards writing. Art was something that expanded my knowledge and helped me

become even more skilled in those subjects. Growing has been a long process, but each day I

learn more about myself and how those around me can help me grow even more.