My Scottish Influenced My Life

Being, or identifying as, Scottish is important to me because I have great respect for those who came before me, and I rejoice in their achievements and triumphs and am saddened by their trials and disappointments. For this reason, I feel it is important to retain the knowledge of the culture from which they came. While I’m proud to be an American, I don’t think that this means I should have to let go of the traditions and history of my family, so I endeavor to keep it alive through study.

Before I even entered high school, I obtained a love of theater and the performing arts. I have been singing and acting since I was nine, as well as on and off dancing since three. Taking classes at a local theater really introduced me to this interest of mine. When I entered high school, an injury kept me from doing shows. But now I graduate with nine high school shows under my belt, as well as being in multiple community theater productions. Being a part of these shows made me feel a strong sense of belonging, and whether I was an ensemble or lead

I picture myself living a pretty good life back in the day. I know it would have been a lot harder and I would have been working very hard for everything to my name. I would have loved to of lived on a farm then. I live on one now and I love it. There are a lot more acts that I would have been for than against during that time. The one I chose about helping women out during that time though is still the one that sticks out the most to me. I would have wanted twice the money coming in between my wife and

To say that theater is what changed my life would be a lie, it wasn’t the productions themselves that changed me, but the people I met there. Most important of those, was Kristen Mackie. However, at fourteen I wasn’t exactly doing hand stands after my first encounter with her. To set the stage, imagine being close enough to see the spittle fly from the snarling mouth of a woman whose rage seems to be seeping out of every available pore of her body and then finding out that she’s the teacher of the club you just joined. Unsurprisingly, our relationship didn’t seem to improve much after that point, and I found myself trapped in a commitment I wished desperately to escape from.

My lineage is complicated and blended with multiple different cultures and origins. On my maternal side, the surname from my grandfather it O’Toole which derives from Ireland and my grandmother Wells, which comes from Great Britain. Replicated on my paternal side, I have both roots from Ireland and England. Although these two countries are a powerful force in my lineage, my ancestors also have come from Pakistan, Germany, and most recently Eastern Canada. The matrilineage of my family is much easier to track and I feel as if that side of my ancestry has more history than the others may hold.

Psychologists at NPR’s Health News channel say that “When memories never fade, the past can poison the present...”. Not only is it unhealthy to live in the past, it’s impossible, as evident in The Great Gatsby. “...his life had been confused and disorderly since then, but if he could return once more to that certain starting place, he could figure it all out...” (Fitzgerald, pg 71). What’s done is done, what’s gone is gone. We have only the present to take hold of, and the future to dream in.

“So, what are you anyway?” the girl asked in a snarky tone, staring at me blankly from across the awkwardly conjoined, wooden desks. I took a minute to sit back in my chair and wonder what the reaction would be this time, the usual “You don’t even look white,” or something completely new that I could add to my list of quirky comments made about being biracial. I stared blankly back at her, adding to the not-so-dramatic moment of suspense. “I’m Irish and African American,” I replied in a somewhat rehearsed, monotone voice, as if I had already been through this situation 100 times (that might be an exaggeration…more like 99 times to be exact). Just as her lips began to part, I was preparing myself for the Q&A session I would be holding after class to learn about the wonders of my life. “Oh wow…you don’t even look white!” Well what a surprise…the story of my life.

Homeless? Successful? Abandoned? Accomplished? Depressed? Do you wish you could go back in time and change something?

In life there are always moments that we wish we could take back. If given the chance to revisit the past and change the outcome of a situation, I would have not dropped out of school and later gotten my GED. I made this decision at a young age, unaware of how this decision would change my future greatly. In deciding to drop out of school, I missed out on the experience that high school gives you and how it would have helped develop my character. If I stayed enrolled in school I would have had more doors opened for my future and the assistance that I would have needed to make those life choices such as college. I would have been able to feel the sense of success, like getting promoted to a higher position, getting rewards for all my hard work at the job, or simply getting employee of the month. I would’ve wanted to finish the four years of high school and know that all my hard work has paid off.

When she was asked what she would change about her past, she said, ''Probably everything but if you're happy with your life today, you have to be appreciative of every single moment that led you to get here.''

Growing up in the entertainment industry, I have a true love for storytelling and for the performance. Living in LA was such an incredible time for me. I grew a backbone. I met amazing people. Being surrounded by dreamers was an incredible gift in my 20’s. I also saw many unhappy people in their intimate relationships. I allowed the impression upon me to be.

own happiness in the old days. I am lonely, my father was gone and my children are not

(Origin) When thinking about my family and our roots I identify my family’s places or origin as Germany and Ireland. A majority of my family is of German ancestry and the one exception is my grandmother and she is Irish. I identify these too places as where my family came from due to stories that I have hear from family members and to the traits that each member of my family carries. A majority of my family are all blonde hair, with blue or brown eyes which have a lot of similarities to people from Germany. My family as very few of the traits from the Irish side but the only ones the I have been told are that some people in our family freckle a lot

Admittedly, this is me romanticizing a bit. Well, not a bit, a lot. I long for the times of the past, not so much so that I travel to that time (maybe in my dreams, but not in reality), like Owen Wilson's character in Woody Allen’s Magic in the Moonlight (though, compared to me, I’d say the dear man had a mild case of nostalgia, while I have a severe and

I was born in New Zealand but my ancestry ranges from all over the world but the main four are: Dutch, Danish, Scottish and Chinese. Ethnicity is seen as an affiliation with the country you have ties to. While deciphering my ethnicity, I looked at my identify as well; my traditions, beliefs, customs and expectations. Starting off with my last name ‘Bouwmeester’ it is Dutch decent which my father brought over from Holland as well as the language, but since we live in New Zealand we don’t speak or practise it. Even though I have a Dutch influence I find my actions and habits I have retained are more influenced by my mother’s side which is Kiwi/white European. As I identify my Ethnicity as a Kiwi, there are certain customs I practise and I affricate myself with such as Christmas and Easter guy Fawkes and Halloween. Christmas is a huge celebration for me and my family on my mother’s side we gather the family around, eat a traditional pavlova (even though my aunty has to ty 2-3 times.) and we have to buy a fresh Christmas tree to represent the celebration of another year together. Another significant symbol is language, a white European Kiwi’s main language is english but my roots go back to Maori a iwi in Wellington. Even though I grew up learning Maori in school and lived around the language I don’t practically practise it but hearing it constantly where I live shows it’s the traditional language of New Zealand. A big ethnic realisation was when I was living over in