My parents named me Jonathan at the hospital
in Ventura. I was given
my name by my mother after Jonathan from the Bible. I am glad I have a unique
name because no one else in the family has that name. I am also the only left
handed person in our entire family, which is a special trait to me.
My birth was not as eventful as other
births. I only know that my parents were having a fine dinner alone that
night and then my mom had to go to the hospital. The dinner was ruined. I
remember my youngest brother was born, having born leg first so he could have
died! Luckily he came out in time. I also remember when my mom was in the
hospital with my other brother that I went to McDonalds to by her a meal and I
always remember the Dumbo toy that I got with my Happy Meal. I am the oldest
sibling in the family and have two younger brothers. When I was little and an
only child, I would travel a lot with my parents, mostly to
San Diego. Because
my grandparents live in Bakersfield, it is hard to spend time with them.
However, I did spend one summer traveling to
Seattle with them by train. It
was a great trip, except that my camera broke, and so all the good pictures
that I took were gone.
One thing that is unique about my family is that my mom
lived in two different countries before coming to America. She was born in
Vietnam but because of the war, she and her family left to America. Then, they moved to
New
Zealand but decided to move back to California, where they lived in
Bakersfield. My dad also was born in Vietnam and went with my mom to Sunday
school together but left Vietnam because of the war. He also lived in
Bakersfield when he came to America. Unlike most other families, my relatives
live in many other countries. One of my aunts and uncles live in
New Zealand,
and another aunt and uncle lives in Australia. In our family, we don’t have
special holiday traditions, except for the annual Christmas day Nerf gun fight
or the watergun fight on birthdays. We don’t celebrate Easter by having eggs
or bunnies and we don’t have Santa Clause or the tooth fairy. One of the most
memorable family holidays I remember was the year when every relative from my
mom’s side came to our house. That included
the relatives from
New Zealand and
Australia. Being ten year old kids, we were
obsessed in playing Army and we’d
run around in the helmets and costumes and shoot at each other. We did that
the entire Thanksgiving Day and I remember when we finally ate dinner, we the
kids sat in this rickety plastic picnic table that
Toys R Us sells for three
year olds. It was one of the best holidays I had.
I have lived in
Oxnard for all my life, but I have been
to Bakersfield for over a hundred times (literally!) because a lot of my
relatives live there. We also go to Los Angeles often, and I think we have
already passed the one hundred mark. My parents go to Los Angeles mostly to
shop for food in Chinatown or to visit my uncle. Both cities I am already sick
of going to, but now I don’t mind as much. If I had to choose which city I
liked the least, it has to be Alhambra, a small city in L.A. that we’ve gone
to over a hundred times. The place is really dirty and the people are not the
most polite people in the world, though the stuff there is cheap. However, one
city I really like to go to that we go often is San Diego. We’ve probably gone
there fifty times or more, but I never get tired of San Diego, because there
is always something new. I used to always enjoy riding the city trolleys that
took us to the mall or Old Town, the trolley seemed like a park attraction to
me.
I like participating in sports at school.
We need to do more in school than just study all day, and exercising both
helps your fitness and gives you a break from studies. It also teaches you to
get along and teamwork if you are part of a team. However, there are some
things I also dislike about school. First, I don’t really like all the
teachers. For example, my geometry teacher hardly taught us anything the
semester so I could only manage to get a C+ in her class. I also don’t like
teachers that just talk all period and make the period seem like eternity. If
it weren’t for boring teachers, school would be much better. I participate in
a couple groups and teams. For sports, I participate in the wrestling team.
Although the school season is over, the coach still has after school club
practice that keeps me in shape and remembering the techniques. Another group
I participate in is the CSF club. I really don’t care about the club but my
parents say that it helps my scholarship, but so far, I haven’t seen anything
amazing, except selling items for the club. Basically, I don’t really like the
CSF club, but it helps with my scholarship.
My favorite subject in school is P.E., or
wrestling, because I don’t have to really think about math or English or
science. I enjoy weight lifting and practices and occasional games. Wrestling
period is like my break period from schoolwork. My worst subject is definitely
chemistry. The teacher wasn’t exactly the best teacher and I had a hard time
remembering all those formulas. The teacher was so boring, my friends around
me slept in class! I have to admit it was hard focusing because he would drone
on forever! I haven’t received any awards yet in high school but throughout
the years I have always received perfect attendance and in middle school
received a Most Improved award for wrestling. Every year I get an award for
the state testing.
I would like to attend to
West Point
because I am very interested in the military and would like to be an officer.
I chose the college because there
really isn’t any other college that helps
you get into the military. After college, I would like to take one or two
years to spend time with my family, friends, and continue my hobbies. After
that, I would like to join the military,
because somehow, the army fascinates me. If I join the military, I would like
to be an officer, because being a marine or army trooper is too risky and
being an officer is safer and higher ranking than a trooper. I also like
architecture, so if I do not make it into the military, I might choose
architecture as my career field, but unless something really big changes my
mind, I plan on joining the Army.
