where I come from

for the first eight years of my education, I attended a pretty small Catholic school. I think at one point, the size of my class increased to eleven kids. when I attended St. Joe’s, we would go to Mass together as a school once a week, aside from my final year, when we went twice a week. I also went to Sunday Mass with my parents every week growing up, and I continue to do so. I was an altar server for - I believe - six years, and since then, I have been assisting {and now sometimes teaching} Children’s Liturgy of the Word, which is kind of like Sunday school, for the past four and a half years. my strong Catholic background definitely plays a great part in my beliefs today. maybe this is a decision that was initially made for me when I was baptized at a month old, but twenty years later, it is a decision that I continue to make for myself. do I have to attend Mass every Sunday? no. do I have to teach the future generation about God and his love for us? no. but I do both of these things anyway.

so here we are in first grade {let's all ignore my outfit... what was my mother thinking?!}

I actually think that public school changed me the most. I mean, I was kind of thrown into it, and I didn’t really want to be there. but I made some friends, and I grew, and I had different life experiences, and then I was done. and now, here I am at a different school that I don’t really like, but I just need to remember that I’m almost done there and every little thing is going to be alright.

eighth grade class picture. give or take a few people, this is who I spent five years of public school with.

moving on. where else do I come from? my family, of course, plays a large part in where I am today. maybe things aren’t going the way that I had imagined that they would, maybe my family structure isn’t ideal, but my family is still my family no matter what. one of the things that I’ve learned from my family, especially this past year, is that things don’t always turn out the way that you want them to be, but you can make the best of it. things change, and maybe that isn’t what you wanted, but it’s what you were given and you need to find a way to deal with it.

Christmas 2010 - my dad's side of the family

another place that I come from is Door County. you know, the thumb of Wisconsin. it’s pretty tiny, and everyone seems to know everyone else and everything about every other person. I guess that’s pretty annoying because it’s like high school never ends and everyone always has to have the top gossip on what’s going on, but it’s really pretty here. I’ve come to appreciate the beauty of this glorious place in the past couple years. summers and autumns up here can get pretty busy and crazy with all of the people who flock to “the Cape Cod of the Midwest” for their vacations, but once winter hits, it gets quiet and cold. it’s still pretty, but it can get pretty sad-looking after a while.

ahhhh classic Door County

the final place that I come from would definitely have to be the place where I work and all of the people who have come into my life because of that magical building. because of that place, I’ve met so many different individuals. not one of their stories is the same as someone else’s, and they’ve all touched my life. I’ve learned so much from those people, and they are one of the best things that has ever happened to me. thank God for those people - my second family.

photo by Len Villano, February 2013. and this is only a small fraction of those wonderful people...

I guess maybe the moral of all of these rambling is that I come from change. things change all the time, and we just have to roll with the punches and pretend that Teresa isn’t just rambling on about who knows what.

xoxo.