Life Story

Gerard asked us to write a blog entry with our life story, so here goes:

I was born in San Francisco, California on March 18th, 1989 to a psychologist (mom) and wood worker (dad). A month before I turned 3, my little brother, Noah, was born. I started attending a really small, progressive elementary school called Live Oak when I was 5, and stayed at this school through 8th grade. A few days before I turned 9, my father died from a rare motor-neuron disease. Needless to say, this was incredibly hard on my family and his illness and death were a really significant part of my childhood. I still think about my father a lot and wish that he was here...
I graduated from Live Oak in 2003 and entered a really huge high school called Lowell. While there, I joined the school's swim team and began swimming competitively year-round. Joining the city's best public school swim team (the girl's varsity team had been undefeated city champions since it began) with no competitive swimming experience was really hard. However, I stuck with it and developed a lot as a person, had amazing experiences, and made some amazing lifelong friends. While in high school, I also taught a cooking class to homeless children living at a transitional housing facility in the city. This was an amazing experience that really contributed to my interest in child development and working to help children who have experienced hardship and trauma. I have continued to pursue these interests at UCLA through my Applied Developmental Psychology minor, interning at an infant-toddler center, and tutoring children from the Watts Housing Projects (which are famous for gang violence). At UCLA I am majoring in Anthropology. I love how this major has taught me new ways of looking at the world and has made me a more open-minded and thoughtful person. Also, after my first year at UCLA I spent a month in Tanzania (East Africa) teaching HIV/AIDS education, teaching English to street children, and helping out at an orphanage. This was an amazing and life-changing experience. Additionally, I joined the UCLA ultimate frisbee team, and have enjoyed developing my frisbee skillz, traveling for tournaments, and making new friends on the team.
In terms of general aspects of my life, I am really close with my family and love how we are all really relaxed and goofy around each other. I love how my mom will laugh at me and my brother's Dave Chappelle impersonations and it is not uncommon to hear sentences begin with "dude, mom" at my house. My family means the world to me and I feel so lucky for everything I have in my life.

Things I want to achieve during my semester in Vietnam:
-connect with Vietnamese people of all ages (kids, college students, older people...)
-become as fluent in Vietnamese as possible (and hopefully be able to haggle successfully by the end of the trip)
-make lasting friendships with EAP and HANU classmates
-gain a greater understanding of Vietnamese history and culture
-play ultimate frisbee/introduce ultimate to VN if people don't already play it!
-be able to stand intense heat and humidity
-learn and experience things that make me question my own beliefs and values
-give back through volunteering
-fall in love with VN and not want to leave