(b) What are your reasons for choosing your academic field of study including any concentrations?

I was born as the fourth and final member of my family in Orange, California. On August 1st, 1990, my whole life was before me, ready to be melded into almost anything. The influences surrounding me in this little suburban upbringing would come to have a profound effect on the direction of my life. Much like all kids, I was raised in school and in the classroom from my pre-school years to the present. However, both of my parents were teachers so even when I was out of the my own classroom I found myself in theirs. One of my first memories takes place in pre-school when I was about 3 years old. The preschool was right next to the high school my dad taught in and, during lunch, a number of the preschoolers walked over to his classroom where he read us the book “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” Needless to say, I was a very proud little three year old. As a result of this experience and many others, teaching was the profession I always identified with throughout my education. I analyzed the techniques my teachers used that I liked with the idea of using it in my own teaching environment someday.

My mom was an elementary school teacher and my father was a history teacher and coach. It was their sporting side that made me an incredibly active child who played baseball and soccer competitively week in and week out. I grew to love sports and games, playing them socially and competitively whenever I could. In particular, my love for soccer lead me to be the Vice President of the Men’s Soccer Club program at CSULB. We only had a coach in the fall semester so during the spring semester, with the help of a few other players, I ran practices and games. On top of the club team, I have run and continue to run a coed beach soccer team on sundays and a coed outdoor friday team and an coed futsal tuesday night team, as well. There is something uniquely interesting to me about evaluating the skill set of a player, placing them in a position that both compliments their abilities and tendencies as well as the abilities and tendencies of their teammates. In my time at Cal State Long Beach, I have been a part of and helped my club soccer team qualify for three regionals and three national tournaments. I have also won every coed league I have headed a team in. I am a little proud but I am not trying to gloat. I just mention this because both playing sports and evaluating athletes is something I often obsess over and love to do.

Having said that, I never really knew what kind of teacher I wanted to be. The only thing I was ever certain of is that I loved teaching and wanted to teach. I did always enjoy the narrative of history so when I got into Cal State Long Beach and pursued a history degree. At this time, I still was not sure if I wanted to be an elementary school teacher like my mom or a history teacher like my father. However, I did know that no matter my degree I could get into either credential program. The ability to coach was the biggest draw for teaching high school but, ultimately, working more closely with fewer students, being able to help nurture their self understanding, compelled me to take steps towards becoming an elementary school teacher. I took the multisubject observation class and started working in a preschool so I could better understand children and gain important experience. I also started talking more frequently with the educator friends of my family, for which we have many. Conversations with two family friends in particular helped me understand what kind of teacher I really wanted to be. Susie MacPhee, a special educator, and Laura Choate, a curriculum developer. It was conversations with them that made me aware of adapted physical education teachers. Something I had never heard of before. When I looked more into the field I began to understand that these teachers often evaluate the physical abilities of students, those students interests and tendencies, and develop appropriate curriculum for their unique learning needs. This teaching profession ticks all the boxes for me.

These aforementioned influences brought me to where I am today. My parents careers as educators gave me an understanding and love for the profession. My love for sports, games, and teaching made me interested in coaching. My desire to work more closely with a smaller number of students temporarily lead me on a path towards elementary education until I learned, rather late in my own education, about adapted physical educators. Now I am taking my first step towards my Physical Education Credential with an Adapted Physical Education Added Authorization.

(a) Describe your personal background and any obstacles/challenges that you have overcome.

My life and my success has been handed to me on a silver platter. I’ve never been in a family that struggled economically. I did not have to learn English as a second language. I was never kicked out of my family's home or made to pay rent when I could not afford it. I have lived a very fortunate life. This very fortune is what lead me to probably the most difficult struggle I have had to face. Even if it perhaps fails in comparison to what others face, it was a great struggle for me to overcome. My parents have always looked out for me and tried to give me whatever I might need to find success and happiness in life. When I was about 17 years old, I fell head over heels in love like any teenager might. Unfortunately for me, the girl I fell in love with was from another country. We were together for about 5 months before she went back home. It was hard to say goodbye, and perhaps we should have, but we did not. We decided to have a long distance relationship but she was from Belgium and the time difference was 9 hours. Every night I would wake her up and talk with her before bed and every morning she’d wake me up before I went off to school. When I was back from school, I’d talk with her before she went to bed. On school breaks like christmas, I’d visit her or she would visit me. I gave up soccer, baseball and friends in order to make the time for this relationships to work. Finally, some 9 months later, when I graduated from high school, I decided to move to her country and be with her. At that point, we were both in a heavily dependent relationship. Over the next year or so I tried to adjust to being in another country, knowing only her and not speaking the language. There were some good moments with her but ultimately, I failed to adjust and decided to return home. We tried to keep our relationship going, I eventually visited again for another 3 or 4 months, but when I returned home the second time, although we loved one another, neither of us had the will to keep up a long distance relationship. So we ended it.
 The end of that relationship spelled the start of an intense depression. My ego and my personality had somehow grown like vines deep within the cracks of the relationship. By removing the structure of the relationship, the vines dried up and I lost a big measure of my self-esteem and self-actualization. I did not know how to go about rediscovering myself and so I fell into drug use because it helped ease the pain. It was not heavy drug use. I did not start to buy 8 balls or snort meth but I did start smoking weed almost every single day. I even went so far as to get a job, despite having no expenses, so that I could spend two to three hundred dollars on weed almost every week. I continued this habit as I trudged slowly through junior college because it made me forget my worries and it gave me access to friends. Even if they were not the best friends to have, they were still friends and I had nothing else if not weed and them. While the vines of my self-esteem were being rebuilt on the structure of cannabis. Hardly a health structure to construct. I finally graduated with an associates from junior college and transferred to Cal State Long Beach. This transfer changed my life.
I moved to Long Beach but continued much of my habits. My school suffered drastically as I failed a class and dropped out of others. If I was going to make it at this school and have a life of my own, with a career and happiness, I needed to give up my addiction to weed. The one good thing that came from that semester was the intramural coed soccer league and my soccer class. I had hung up my soccer cleats some four or five years prior for the relationship but these two things brought soccer back into my life. Very quickly, I cut weed out of my life and replaced it with my love for soccer. I began following most of the leagues so I could talk about it and make friends with new people. I joined the club team on campus and made my own coed team, as well. Within a year, I was the Vice President of the club soccer team while participating in three other intramural soccer leagues and a beach soccer league, as well. I found a community in which I knew almost everyone and was very much a big part of. My school suffered a bit in exchange for being a part of this soccer community but I was able to give up my addiction and still be happy for the first time in years. I obsessed about club soccer, in particular, tried to expand the program by adding a competitive b team and eventually even helped build a team that made it to nationals for the first time in some 15 years. Cal State Long Beach and the soccer community therein took me to a stable place.
I graduated last semester and hung up my club boots after three good years. Being a part of that community was a lot of work but it was well worth it. I made a great many friends, some that are so close my children may someday call them aunts and uncles. The club team that brought so much of that happiness to my life now has a new president for whom I have full confidence. Although my life has been one of privilege, an untimely heartbreak lead to years of addiction and depression that was cured by a well crafted soccer community. Now I am entering a new stage in my life devoted towards financial independence. I’m moving out on the 24th of February, paying for rent, school, insurance, and every other bill I can afford. I’m hoping to work my way through my credential so that I take on as few loans as possible and develop a keen sense of personal finance. This is a new and big challenge but my experience in these last six years, particularly my time at Cal State Long Beach, has given me the confidence and drive to know that this is something I can accomplish.