The beautiful part about my blog is its mine. Now please don’t be offended I mean no disrespect its just nice to have a place to put pen to paper. Therefore I am free to speak on any and all topics pertaining to being me. Now it will take a long time to truly understand who I am. We are all intricate mazes and puzzles. Everyone can see what’s on the outside but the walls and passages that lead inward make us who we are. The longer it takes to get to the other side the more you get to know why a person is the way they are.
My experiences are based upon living in a huge Metropolitan city, Los Angeles, to immigrant parents. My parents migrated in 1974, they’ve have spent more time in this country than in their place of origin. Now what does that mean for my upbringing? Well I can say that my parents are fairly evolved, unfortunately some of their beliefs have stayed. For example, my mom thinks you should wear your underwear inside out for good luck, or if you see a shooting star pull your hair so it will grow. These are just basic ideas. Believe me my mom faked a heart attack when she saw my first tattoo, they have a strong opinion on everything.
My educational background is very interesting. I went to private school from pre-kinder to the third grade. Catholic school from fourth grade to Senior year in High School. All girls high school to be exact. A public University for my Bachelors. I’m not a spoiled kid who got everything they wanted. I will show you why later.
My brother on the other hand went to public school all his life, by choice. Mom tried to put him in my school when he was little but he didn’t want to go. Yea my parents liked me more, just kidding. My brother is my mothers son and I am my fathers daughter, in theory of course because biologically we are full siblings. My parents were strict as hell, so when I see kids now a days being brats I don’t know what happened to parenting, I digress.
My dad cut coupons to save us money. We only went to the department stores if there were sales or coupons. We went to swapmeets and the downtown alleys. For any one who doesn’t know what they are, alleys are literally alleys in downtown Los Angeles. Alleys are centered around an area in Downtown Los Angeles. There is a specific area called Santee Alley which is located between Santee Street, Maple Avenue, Olympic Boulevard and 12th Street in downtown Los Angeles. There are other places in the area such as The Fashion District, Toy District, Theatre District. This is where you find bootleg and authentic items for a cheaper price.
I got my permit to drive at 15 1/2, my license with provisions at 16 and my first job at 16 1/2, making minimum wage of $6.75 at the time. Then my first promotion at 18 making almost twice as much at $12.35.
As a senior in High School my brother was convicted of conspiring to bank robbery and was locked up for 36 months. Typical hispanic family right, its okay you can laugh, I had to learn to. How did it shape me? Well being only 2 of us, seeing my mom fall into depression my dad into isolation, I gave up the opportunity to go to several universities in San Diego and San Francisco, because I was afraid to leave my parents alone.
I went to college for the first year and a half and my parents helped as best as they could with sending money to my brother and holding down the fort. I covered all other expenses, car maintenance, gas, books, and everything a college student needs.
At 20 I moved in with my girlfriend, which was also around the time my brother was let out. When I moved out they helped me a little less. I didn’t mind because my brother wanted to go back to school and I knew like always that there were sacrifices I had to make. They were not thrilled with the prospect of their youngest moving out, but things were getting tense at home.
Ultimately what all this comes down to is I want you to see that my upbringing wasn’t typical. So please don’t take anything out of context because it and I won’t make any sense.
Bienvenue
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