More On Maria

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San Jose, California was definitely the best place to be. I was fortunate enough to live in an apartment complex with friends I grew up with over the years. For a long time, it was just my family (my parents, sister, and I) living in a two-bedroom two-story apartment. Once my brother was born, however, we moved up the complex into a three-bedroom.

I enjoyed most of my elementary years (from ages 4 through 10) and teachers, except for one teacher. Why? She had yelled at me once for correcting her in class. Anyway, my years there were great. My first crush came in third grade. Sadly, he began going to a different school, but came back, moved to Texas, came back again, and finally went back to Texas. I recently got back in touch with him through the wonders of MySpace. Aside from him, I pretty much disliked all the others. I had a little bit of a tomboy in me; I’d chase the boys away and hit them if they ever made a crack about me or my friends. When I was 9, I began learning how to play the flute and played it for five more years until the end of my junior high years.

Junior high (ages 11 through 13) was a pain for me. It was so awkward. I was teased and wasn’t in the “in crowd,” so I always compared myself to the popular girls. I never had a date and all my attempts to get a boyfriend were futile. I met a bunch of good people, but they aren’t my friends now because they never really were. They were more like… acquaintances… except one. I had a humungo crush on a particular boy, but that didn’t pan out too well. However, we stayed friends for a little time afterwards.

My big change of my life? I moved from San Jose to a nearby city where the environment is very different. For the entire summer I was at my new house, I rarely went out. My old friends were too far away and I didn’t know a soul in my new city. For the first two years in high school, I jumped around from one group of friends to the next; I couldn’t find one that fit me right. To tell you the truth, I never really did find my own group; it was a mixture of people I knew even though they hung out with their own groups. Nevertheless, I found my new high school to be very fun in the end, despite all its rocky roads and tricky steps. I met a lot of great teachers (along with not-so-great ones of course) and a lot of great people.

Now, I’m here, in college. It’s tough. I tried one major and it didn’t work out right academically, so now I’m trying to get into another field of study, but it’s not quite as easy. I definitely need to work my butt off for the next few years.

However, college is great. I’ve always felt constrained by my parents and now that I’m not living there, I feel so much more free. I love it here. There’s so many different places to eat at and at almost any hour in the night. There’s so much diversity here amongst the students and the city folks, including the homeless people.

This is the second year in which I’ve been active in the church and I think it’s just wonderfully amazing. I think it was either fate or God that brought me to the church because on the day that I called to inquire about Adult baptism, was also the day that the program started. For seven months, I’d go to the program once a week and learn more about my Catholic faith. True, I fell asleep a couple times due to my lack of sleep, but it was truly a place to be. When the moment finally arrived, I was feeling so many things at once that I couldn’t describe how I felt. Heck, I can’t even do it now. But it was truly a sight to see. I’m thankful now that I have a place where I belong and a faith to believe in.

Now, I don’t know if that was too much or too little for you, but leave me a note and I will write some more, depending on the context.

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