Essay #2 The Shaping of Me

Christine Bays
Ms. Bosch
English 10 Honors
15 August 2007
The Shaping of Me
One time I watched a movie and there were two people talking to each other, a boy and a girl. The girl tells the boy a story. She says that there were once a family of squirrels, but one day something happens and a gigantic canyon separates the family of squirrels. Each “half” adapts and begins to thrive in its successive habitat. A hundred years later, these same squirrels meet again. They come from the same ancestors, yet they look and act quite differently. One side had squirrels with short, brown fur to hide them in the dry grass and the others bushy gray fur to help them survive in the harsh winters. The squirrels were the same, but they changed over time to in order to adapt to their climate. The point in this story is that people change too; they change to fit their surroundings. My surroundings have shaped me and continue to change me. The geography of where you live changes you, and will continue changing you to fit your needs.
The fist thing that starts to shape me is where I live. I live on a farm, and it makes me different form many other people at school because the majority comes from the bay area or some other urban town. People say that the country is smelly and you can’t go anywhere or do anything, but really that isn’t true. There are lots of things to do, for instance you can help out with work on the farm, or you can help out with cleaning up the house. You can also ride you bike or play basketball. Personally I like to stay home and read books, I know it is antisocial, but when you don’t have anywhere to go without a car, you have to find a way to entertain yourself. I don’t always get to sit back and relax, I have to go to school and do my homework like a regular teenager, but in the summer, I have to work from 5:30 am to about 2 pm. I have to drive a tractor for my dad’s apricot fields. When I first started to work for my dad I hated it, but at the end I always got a check. I got paid minimum wage and working in the sun at the heat of the day made me realize that I want to go to college and get a good job that pays well and has better working conditions. Living on a farm always means more responsibility. We have to feed the animals. My family has about 20 animals to feed each morning, 2 frogs, 2 horses, 3 dogs, 3 goats, 4 cats, 5 rabbits, and some fish. It’s not that hard to feed them after you do it for a couple years, but for people who only have to feed their 2 dogs, this may seem like a lot. We have a planter boxes in our backyard, every one in the family got one, and when we were little we had to grow plants in them, we had to water, and weed them. That helped me to remember to do things, or else they may die without your care. Living on a farm has also spoiled me because I know what fruit that has come right off the tree/vine tastes like, so I don’t like the store bought fruit. Living on a farm in Patterson has shaped me more than I can say.
I live on a farm, but living on a farm is not the only thing that has shaped me, living in Patterson has also shaped me. Patterson was a small town when I was younger, so I knew almost all the people that I went to school with. This shaped me by helping me to build up my confidence to talk to people and make friends with them. I learned to share and not make enemies with other students, because I would probably be seeing them for more years to come. When I went into fifth grade more and more people started to move to Patterson, so I made more and more friends, but some of them wouldn’t stay long because their family was just renting their house, or they got a better job somewhere else. Living in a small town that was growing helped to shape me by getting me used to growth and change in Patterson, because we used to go shopping in a locally owned grocery store, but then we got a Save Mart and then we got a McDonalds. We used to have a locally owned movie rental place, but then we got a Blockbuster. We had to start urbanizing for the bay area people that were coming over. They wanted places to walk to and hangout after school, so the town had to grow and get those stores to keep them happy. I hated the development and the growing of Patterson, but I had to live with it, but you get used to it, because there is nothing else you can do. These experiences have gotten me used to change, and have helped me to realize that sometimes life doesn’t end up how you want it to be.
Living in Patterson also makes me a Californian, and being a Californian has also played a big role in shaping me and making me who I am. In California we are able to get our permit after taking a permit test at 15 and 6 months, then after 6 months of driving 60 hours you are able to get your license, but you can’t drive other people in the car without a 21 year old in the car until a year after you get your license. This may seem like a long process, and it is, but at least we are able to drive before we are 18. Having to practice before you are an adult and are doing things on your own is a smarter choice, because people can help you out and tell you what you are doing wrong. I want to get as much practice in as I can before I have to be way from my parents and go to college. You can also vote when you are 18, which gives us something to look forward to, we are an adult and can do what we want and not have curfews. We also had to get rid of metal playgrounds and put in plastic ones, so that the children won’t get hurt, and that made me realize the negatives of these actions. How are children supposed to learn so that when they get older they make the right decisions? It is a proven fact that children learn better from making mistakes and experience. I know I did. I learned not to get onto a hot slide, because it hurts, and I learned that plastic doesn’t last as long as metal. California may have some questionable rules that they make up, but it helps us all learn what the flaws are.
California is just a small part of an even bigger country that also shapes me and makes me who I am. The United States of America has helped shape me and many other people. It has given me the freedom of speech. It has let me think what I want to, and say what I think when I feel that it is necessary, a freedom not found in a number of other countries. We also have the right to question what our leaders say and do without going to jail or getting killed. When I go to my history classes and learn about how other people live in fear of their leaders and not everyone is treated the same, it makes me realize that we are really lucky to live in the United States. I realize that we have rights, but not everyone has those rights like India, the women have to cover their faces because they are considered lower than man. People in the United States these days don’t know how lucky they are to live here and have freedom of speech and rights to a lot of stuff. Like I said most countries don’t live like us, and it has helped me to appreciate all that we stand for and all that the people running the country do for us. I have also learned that everyone makes bad decisions, like the presidents, and that you can’t make everyone happy, so you try to make the majority happy, and do the right thing. I see different people abusing their rights, using their racial profiles or even certain disabilities to attain certain benefits. I have learned that if I do something wrong I have to take my punishment because that is how we maintain order here. The United States has helped me to appreciate all the freedom that we have.
Before my family lived in the United States they came form Germany. My ancestors have shaped me too. They have shaped me in so many ways. They have given me my appearance, so that I am not like anyone else. They gave me my blonde hair and blue eyes. They also say that intelligence is inherited, so they must have been pretty smart. They have given me the intelligence to go to college and get a job that can support me. They made me realize that I was ment to be here because they came over here, and never left, so this atmosphere must be the right place for me to grow up in. They also gave me my body type, bigger muscular in the legs. I have learned that we are given certain things that are not quite as “appreciated” as others, but are just as much part of who I am and who I become. The geography must have made them need them, or they were given to me because I needed them in the place that I lived. It is like African’s they have dark skin so they won’t get sunburned from the sun because their darker skin blocks the sun. In Germany, it is not as hot as Africa, so they have blonde hair and blue eyes because it is not as sunny. People are shaped for many different reasons, and the shaping process never really ends, because we are always changing. The geography helps in the process of shaping us and making us who we are. Even the smallest of actions can have an affect on our lives. The life process is a series of ripples, or actions, that affect the “lake” or life of a person. These actions disrupt our lives, and change the course of the waters within us. Just as a number of objects can cause this effect on the surface of the water, these events or causes can change, or affect, our lives. These ripples in our lives make us who we become.