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Book by kyo.a |
When asked to describe yourself or to do a self-intro, the first question I usually ask is “who am I?” I know pretty, dorky but as an artist, the who is always the most important part of my subject of work. While it may seem simple, to me, it is a wide question because I believe everyone has his or her own story, each and every living thing is the main character, someone else’s side character, romantic interest or even an antagonist at times. So if I were to say who I am. I would simply be a statement of today, not of yesterday or tomorrow. But, if asking for a story, then I’ll make my own as brief as possible.
Guatemala
My mother father and siblings are from Guatemala though I was born and raised in Montgomery County, Maryland. I had a decent childhood, not many complaints though my siblings say I have too many stories for my age. I should mention now that I have an older sister, who is happily married with wonderful kids down in Florida, and my brother who is the middle child. Growing up, it was really apparent that I was the late bloomer or special kid. One of the first sayings I learned was “ there are two types of people in the world, those who were born with common sense, and those who… well, they learn it through experience.” Unfortunately for my parents, only my older sister and brother realized that didn’t need to test out every idea to know if it was a bad idea.
I had an unnatural curiosity paired with ADHD, speech impediment, and motor skills issues aka. the perfect recipe for getting the nicknames such as clutz, jinks or my sister’s favorite butter fingers. Don’t misunderstand, I actually liked the nicknames, it was kinda like a symbol of pride for me since it meant that I was unique, or, at least, people stopped comparing me to my siblings since they were typical straight A+ popular kids. Since there was a big age gap between us, I saw how being popular and trying to fit in seemed boring, uncomfortable, tiring, and rather bizarre. I mean, who would pay cash to look exactly like a trend when you can start your own. So from my siblings, I learned being unique is pretty awesome.
So much so that I even changed the meaning behind a nickname for my family. In Spanish, if called a sin verguenza, it’s pretty much the English version of being called shameful. However, the direct translation being is shameless, now I should say I am horrible at speaking Spanish, thus, when asking my mom one day why she kept calling me that after one of my experiments, she explained how it was a bad thing but in my head, it sounded more like having pride in one’s actions so from then on I always remembered to say thank you after she says that. But that being said my childhood was filled with trying things way before others thought to.
To explain these experiments, I should start with one of my firsts, I learned amateur magic tricks at the age of 4 like making things disappear, which is great on april fool’s, first day of
class/ new job, or if you need an ice breaker. However, I do not advise trying a new trick while rollerblading down a hill, especially if you haven’t learned how to stop. Sadly to say for my folks, it wasn’t my worst idea, though mysteriously I never ended up getting more than a scratch or two.
My parents entered me into catholic private schools starting in middle school to see if the individualized classes would help me since well, being easily distracted has its down faults. While I highly disliked the experience of being told I was too unique for my own good it provided me with chances to try things from the basics of multiple instruments to white water rafting. I have also gone zip lining, horseback riding, learned archery, and the classic girls scout cookies sales and traveled.
Traveling and exploring cultures is one of my favorite things, because it always lets me see a part of people’s stories. So far I have seen the Vatican, Italy, Spain, France, Guatemala, and Canada. I have a lot of more places planned but only because I can’t simply get enough of adding to the pages of life’s story books. So now, with that somewhat brief intro I have a proposition. I have already shared part of my story, comment and let me know a part of yours.
