The Formation of a Gatormouse
I was born on March 12th (year I might enter later), in Pensacola, Florida. I’m the youngest of three kids by a wide margin, with a twelve year and eighteen year difference between my sister and brother respectively. As such I have two nephews and a niece that are only two, four, and six years behind me in age. It’s a bit odd but I’ve always been closer to my nephews/niece almost more than my siblings due to the generational difference. My dad is one of twelve kids on his side of the family, so I’m one of eighty-four grandkids to my grandfather on my Dad’s side of the family. So to summarize, I’m part of a huge family with some very interesting age differences.
My Dad was in the navy when I was younger, so we moved to Memphis and then later Orange Park, Florida by the time I was four. I lived in Orange Park until coming to University of Florida (UF), though I still consider Orange Park my home more than UF right now. Regardless, I’m a native Floridian and proud of that fact. I went to Orange Park High school and was a member of the marching band. I normally played oboe, but during marching season I was part of the sideline percussion or “The Pit”. I graduated from OP High and ended up going to St. John’s River Community College and then Florida Community College of Jacksonville to get my Associate’s degree. With that I applied to and was accepted into UF and that’s where I am today as a senior in English.
College has been a wonderful experience and allowed me to explore a lot of myself, which I talk about in the identity section. So what else helped shape me today? I think one thing is being an avid reader since the age of six and being able to speed read naturally. I’ve also been thoroughly engrossed in video games and later table-top role-playing games, both of which I still enjoy today and spend a lot of free time participating in. Beyond that I enjoy writing, such as web pages, journal entries, and stories, so I plan on being a novelist one day and I’m working on building my writing skills and confidence in those. Of course there is much more to me than these three simple paragraphs can cover, but I find this to be a good summary and starting point.