Who Am I?

About Me
Five words I would use to describe myself are: friendly, strong, funny, creative and impatient. I’ve always been a friendly person and I think that is a result of my upbringing. The people who I have/ have had relationships in the past affect my life are my sister Cheryl, my parents, my recently ex-boyfriend my best friend Lindsay. All these people share who I am today in one way or another.

My parents have always taught me to be polite and nice to everyone, even if people aren’t nice to me. That’s not always easy to do, but I’ve grown up to be a friendly, nice person. My mom made me a scrapbook for my 18th birthday a few years ago and stuck on one of the pages from elementary school with a ribbon that said “Friendliest” on it with my name. My mom said my second grade teacher gave it to me!

When I was in 5th grade my parents divorced, and, being the older sibling, I gradually started to feel the need to fill the ‘mother’ role because sometimes my mom couldn’t be around and my dad wasn’t around at all anymore. That’s one thing in my life that has made me a strong person. It was difficult to go through a divorce and even more difficult to feel like I had to step up at such a young age, but I am also proud that I became a strong, responsible adult as a result of my experience.

My younger sister Cheryl and best friend, Lindsay, were both influential when it comes to my sense of humor—they bring out the funny and creative sides of me. We all have a blunt, dry humor about us. I always have a blast when I am with either of them. My parents and Lindsay praised my creativity and I think that helped me to take pride in my art and creative talents. Lindsay is very creative and artistic and we used to love doing art together. We still share creative times now and then in between school and work.

Impatience is also something I’ve inherited practically genetically through both my parents but my father especially (I see it on his side of the family primarily—a bunch of short-tempered New Yorkers!) Impatience can come out in small interactions like in traffic, or on a larger scale. I get irritated with my friends and family because I think I hold them to a high standard. I’m very close with my family and a few good friends, so I expect them to be honest, loving and caring. I hold others to high standards and expect my friends to be honest with me, not give up when things get tough, and respect me. When they don’t meet these standards I get irritated and impatient. My interpretation of that is my parents always held me to high standards (not unattainable, but high) when I was growing up and I think it’s because they wanted me to be the best I could be—not give up when things get tough, be friendly and polite, respectful and honest. I was taught to be those things, and I expect my friends and family to do the same.