*My Autobiography*

Abstract

            To explain my story, I would have to say it is nothing less than a life full of inspiration, opportunity, and love. Through every step of my life, I have been helped, guided and loved by my family. They have done nothing but help me succeed in all that I have done and allowed me to grow as an individual with my own beliefs. Now that I am on my own and going through college I have to face my opportunities as an adult, but I am still not alone. I have the help of my professors that are willing to help me learn and grown to be able to live my dreams and help the children that in my life I want to be able to help. As I am learning and growing, I hope that in my life I can provide the same inspiration and guidance that I have been shown, to everyone that will be in my life.

            As I think about the person that I am today, I think back on all the events in my life that have brought me to “me.” I am Elizabeth Victoria Joy Curtis. I was born on March 16, 1991 at Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie Indiana. I was brought into this world with a very important situation happening with my family. Two weeks before I was born, my mom was diagnosed with cancer. She had stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, so as soon as she could after my delivery she started with her chemo therapy treatments. As all of this is happening my dad has to travel for work and I went off to live with my dad’s parents. As I call them, Nana and Papaw became a big part of my life. For about the first year of my life I lived with them as my mom battled her cancer and she made it through her treatments and was cured. So I moved back home with mom and dad.

            As I began to grow in the house with my parents and older brother I spent all my time with my brother and all of his friends. By always being with the boys in my neighborhood I have always had a love of sports. Yes, my brother and I went through the fights that every sibling goes through but at the end of every day we were best friends. My dad is one of the biggest inspirations in my life. He has shown me the ways to live and become a helpful person in society. He has taught me what I need to know to succeed on my own and to flourish into a working successful person out in the world on my own. My mom is the other inspiration in my life. She has been through so much and never gives up on anything. She looks at everything as a challenge and something that she will not quit until she is finished and has accomplished what she has set out to do. This is what I have learned from my mom and this is what I do in all the steps of my life. However, both of my parents showed me to do nothing but follow my dreams and when I have a passion for something, follow it and do not let anything stand in the way. Once my heart is set on something, I did it.

            All through school, I loved it. Of course there were those days that I just did not want to go and would have rather slept all day, but despite those days, I never wanted to leave. I was always willing to help people. It brought joy to my day. Along with my school work and friends, in my everyday life I also have a love and passion for running. I was a part of my high school cross country team and track & field team. Long jump was and still is my favorite thing. Throughout my high school career I qualified for the state track & field competition once and it was one of the best days of my life. Even thought I did not finish how I wanted to that day, I learned a valuable life lesson that both of my parents had told m about my entire child hood. I had finally learned it on my own. Once you find that one thing in your life that makes you happy no matter what happens, do not ever let it go. Do not give up until you have reached what you are trying to get. I showed myself that I could live my dreams.

            My senior year of high school I found my passion. I was a cadet teacher. I helped a kindergarten class that was just awesome! Up until the first day I walked into that room full of all those little six year olds, I had always planned to pursue becoming a doctor. Since I was a little girl becoming a doctor was what I was going to do, that was what my heart was set on achieving. I wanted to help people and I had always thought that becoming a doctor was the best way of helping. Until I walked into that classroom on the first day of class and saw all of those smiling faces. As I helped with their daily lessons the joy that learning brought to their faces was amazing. They never gave up learning. Not once did I have a student quit because they could not learn how or just did not understand it. Their love for learning inspired my love for teaching.

            I never wanted to leave that classroom. Those children made me smile with everything that they did. I learned that by helping people learn, you are not only assisting their growth in life and in their education, but you are helping them become the person that they will be for the rest of their lives. They will always remember that person who helped them tie their shoes at recess and who helped them learn how to read. They will always know you as their first teacher. They will see you and smile. This is what I looked forward to everyday when I walked into that room of all of those bright faces. They are my inspiration; they created the passion within me to teach and to help.

            As I started to search for the college where I would be learning to make my dreams possible, I had to weigh all of my options. Did I want a big school or a small school? I had to include my love for running so it had to be a school with a great track & field team. As I made visits to all of my possible schools, I came on my visit to Manchester and I felt right at home. It seemed as if I had already belonged. I could not be any happier with my choice. With everything that Manchester has to offer me, I have every opportunity that I need to succeed to become an amazing teacher.

            Since I have been alive, I have been provided with nothing less than the best. I have been provided all of the possible opportunities that I have needed to grow as a person and to learn how to help others. All throughout my life I have found many different ways to succeed and ways to develop my life. So now that I have learned them on my own, I can go out into the world and help other people find those ways in their life to become the person what they want to be and to let nothing stand in the way of their dreams.