Although I have lived in Ohio for the past ten years and have been molded by the experiences I have had in the small town of Mount Vernon, I can still fondly remember everything about where I was born and raised. I was born on May 29th, 1998 in the small town of Irving, Texas. Growing up in Texas gave me a concept of how big this world truly is, with the seemingly endless drives to visit family members across state or the incomprehensible size of the Dallas skyline. Visiting my aunts in Texas and living with my grandmother during the first months of my living in Ohio taught me valuable life lessons and morals that
I carry with me to this day. Irving is around a 20-minute drive from Dallas and my family would often drive through it on the way to visit my Aunt Caprice. Irving was also the home of Texas Stadium, which was the arena where the Dallas Cowboys played in. I fondly remember my mother taking my brother and I to tour the stadium a few times until its demolition in 2010. These visits to Texas Stadium led to my fondness for football and becoming a fan of the Dallas Cowboys. My family lived near downtown Irving in a small suburban area. This led to me being friends with many of the ther kids who lived on my street.
Although I had many friends, my best friend at the time was a boy named Michael, who lived down the street from me, I would go over to his house to play Dragon Ball Z games on his PS2. Spending time with him led to my fondness of video games which continues to this day. My Aunt Debbie also lived in Irving about ten minutes away from where my family lived. My father would take me over there often and I would spend time with my cousins Anthony and Emma. My Uncle “Nacho” as we called him, would teach me about our Mexican heritage and would bring my brother out nto the woods where I shot my first gun.
My cousin Emma was diagnosed with autism, seeing her struggle through her disability taught me the value of compassion and taught me how to value what I had in my life. I also remember my cousin Anthony teaching me how to play one of my favorite games which I still play to this day. I have fond memories of visiting Aunt Debbie and her family, I learned about where my family came from while also learning to appreciate what I have in my life. My mother’s sister, Aunt Caprice, lived about 25 minutes away from Irving in Grapevine, Texas.
My Aunt Caprice owned a large house and a couple acres of land which my brother and I would roam anytime we visited. Every Christmas Eve my mother would drive us over to Aunt Caprice’s house to visit her family and other close family friends. My Uncle Roger would take me around the property and let me collect chicken eggs for him. This taught me the value of hard work and was a humbling experience for me in my youth. My cousins, Bryan and Brent were very close to my brother and I, we would often hang out in the backyard either jumping on the trampoline or playing video games with each other.
Some of my favorite memories were spent at that house, especially on Christmas to see family or just to go over and watch Dallas Cowboys games with her. It was around 2004 that my parents were having trouble with their relationship and decided that it was in their best interest to end it. My grandmother lived in Mount Vernon, Ohio so my mother put my brother and I on a flight to Ohio. Iwas in second grade when I first moved to Ohio, my mother enrolled me in Columbia Elementary where I had to make new friends.
This was a difficult time in my life as I had to adjust to not having my ather as a constant in my life as he still lived in Texas. The difficulties my family and I faced in our first months in Ohio were immense, my mother struggled to find a stable job that could support my brother and I and having to live in such a cramped space proved straining on us. I found solace when I found that my father would visit for a week every few months. During his time here he would reassure my brother and I that he was doing everything in his power to be able to move up here so we would not have to live without him influencing our lives.
Our eginning months living in Ohio were tumultuous but I am glad events played out the way they did, if they had not I would not have known my grandmother as well as I do or have met some of the people who molded me into who I am today. My brother and I would come up with a nickname for my grandmother during our time living there that has stuck with us ever since, “Memaw”. Memaw was and more than likely will always be one of the stubbornest people I have met in my life, she would argue her point with us until the sun set even if she knew she was in the wrong.
This led to my brother and I coming o believe that she was hateful towards us as children. As we grew up and in recent years, both of us have come to realize that our grandmother has always wanted the best for us and the best of what this life has to offer. My maternal grandfather passed away when I was an infant so I never got to know him well, but there was another grandfather-like figure in my life. “Pawpaw” as my brother and I called him, was always a hard- working man who taught my brother and I the value of working hard. The most memorable thing about Pawpaw was the way he would cook steak and baked potatoes on the grill.
Even after my family moved out, we would always get excited when we heard my grandmother was having a cookout because we knew some of our favorite foods would be served. With the recent passing of Pawpaw, my brother and I consistently visit my grandmother to keep her company and to reminisce over the cookouts and close memories we all had with him. My grandmother taught me the value of family, and how I should always put family first. She opened up her home to my family when we moved up here and I do not know where I would currently be if she had not cared for us during the hard times.
The lessons that I have learned from my family have molded me into the man I am today and drive me to better myself in any way possible. Compassion and humbleness being some of the core values I follow thanks to my cousin Emma. Hard work being another value driven into me by both my Uncle Roger and Pawpaw. Although these morals have shaped me, none has influenced me the way that my grandmother’s and father’s love for their families have. Both have shown me that when all else disappears in one’s life, it does not matter if they are 15 minutes away or perhaps thousands of miles away. Family is where home truly is.
