  By: Fernando Fernandez

 It was May 27, 1994 when my mother gave birth to me in a small town in the Dominican Republic. I was born with 7 and a half pounds and tended to be very active; always moving around and making a mess. I was always surrounded by family and friends so I had a great childhood.

 Since I was a small child, I loved going to the beach. My favorite dish was always steak, and I always enjoyed eating lots of fruits. Pineapple, watermelon, and mango’s in particular. I also enjoyed riding bike and going rollerblading; which I learned go to do when I was only six years old. I have have a very big family, 4half sisters and one half brother.

 At the age of seven I moved from Dominican Republic to New Jersey. I lived with my father my brothers and sisters and my stepmom. AT first I didn’t like living here but then I realized I had to get used to it for my own good. As a child it was hard for me to leave my mom in D.R. But then I felt lucky I had the chance to go back to my country every year during the summer. It fells very good to get to see my family and old friends every time I go.

 Unlike most people now days I don’t like video games or sports. I play them every once in a while but it’s not something I usually do. A short time ago I was always rollerblading but then I stopped. It was something I really enjoyed. My favorite movies are comedy movies like Meet the Spartans and horror movies like Orphan. My favorite show is Spartacus. A show that depicts the Roman times. Although it may not look like it in class I love laughing and laugh at almost everything. However I don’t do it much in school except in lunch because I will disrupt the teacher and distract other students.

 I would have to say I have very few dislikes. One that annoys the most is when people are constantly calling out my name(my sister and father in particular). It just boils my blood when I hear FERNANDO!! Over and over again. I also dislike when people try to rush me out of the shower. Every time I take a bath someone has to use the bathroom. I enjoy taking a long hot peaceful shower where I can escape everything. Every time at feel a ease my sister knocks. However I can’t complain because I tend to do the same thing. The last thing that I dislike is when people stare at me. My step mom and her mother love doing that, especially when am eating. Normally when you stare at someone and they look back, they tend to look away. In this case though you can look back at them and they’ll still stare. Because of this we had a really big argument last year with my stepmom’s mom.

 My favorite novel we read was The Scarlet Letter. I enjoyed reading it because everything was so descriptive that it felt as if you were inside the book. I also liked the symbols and symbolisms. This book also taught me about how people back then reacted when someone took certain actions. For example when Hester committed adultery. Perhaps the only thing of this book that can relate to me is that like Pearl, Hester’s daughter, I was separated from my father when I was about two years old until I was 7 years old. Besides this we have nothing alike, probably because of the such different time periods the same things don’t happen.

 At first, my dream was to become a dentist or a surgeon because It really grabbed my attention to work in the medical field. It was something that I enjoyed a lot and it pays a very big salary. I also got interested in it because my mother herself works in the medical field, and when I would go to her job, I was always interested in what she was doing. However later in the years I realized that what I really wanted to do when I graduated High school was become History teacher in middle school hopefully in Perth Amboy.