Once my grandma heard of the name Shelby in a movie she
had watched, she fell in love with it. At that time my mom was pregnant with
me. My grandma decided to put the name Shelby on me. Since my early months in
my mom stomach everyone was already calling me Baby Shelby. My dad also loved
it, but my mom wanted April. On my moms baby shower day I was ready to come
out. At the hospital my mom and dad argued about which name I should have, and
they finally came to a decision, which is why my name is now Shelby. My mother
gave me my middle name which is Whitney. She gave me that middle name after
singer Whitney Houston because she was so in love with her famous song “I Will
Always Love You”.
On April 16, 1993, my mom had to leave her baby shower
early because she was going into labor. She was in the hospital for the day
and at one in the morning I took my first breath of life. Most of my family
was there. My aunts, uncles, grandma and great-grandma were there. It was a
long night for everyone and after three days in the hospital I was able to go
home for the first time. At that time my family was living in
Ventura. In our
apartment it was me, my mom, my dad and my only sister at that time.
As the days went by I was growing. Unfortunately about
three weeks later I had to go back to the hospital because of some illness I
had in my lungs. I was there for about a week and on life support. Luckily I
was strong, pulled through and managed to survive. Since then I haven’t had to
go back. I grew up as a very shy and energetic girl. I have always been fond
of animals since I was a little girl. My favorite thing to do was play with my
stuffed animals and horses. The toy I had most were toy horses because
horses have
always been my favorite animal. I didn’t care
about Barbie’s and dolls. Once when my uncle was spending the night at our
house he woke up in the middle of the night because he heard little noises. He
was walking around the house in the dark looking for the noise and when he
looked under the table, there I was. I was up playing with my horses and
dinosaurs. I had a very imaginative mind. The person I was closest to the most
was my grandma. The reason I was so close to her is because she would always
be with me and take me everywhere. She would take me to work, to the store, to
buy something to eat, pretty much everywhere. I think the real reason I always
enjoyed going with her was because she would always buy me something at any
store we went to.
When I was six, my little brother was born. I was a
little jealous of him because he took my grandmother’s attention from me. Soon
we moved from Ventura and moved to Oxnard. Then a few years later my mom had
my little sister. Out of all of my siblings she’s the only one that has green
eyes, which she got from my great-grandfather. About a year ago my new little
brother was born. So I have a big family, a family of seven. I only saw one of
my siblings births and after that I never wanted to see that again. I didn’t
get to spend much time with my grandparents. From my dad’s side I’m not close
with them. From my mom’s side I was very close to my grandparents and my
great-grandparents.
My
family is a mix of Mexican, Italian and a bit of Greek. What I love most of my family is that it’s a big loud
family. We’re mostly close with my mom’s side of the family. Our family always
gets together for the holidays. The biggest one is Christmas because there’s a
lot of cooking, laughing, family, and love. This is the holiday that everyone
attends to. We mostly celebrate it either at our house or at my aunt’s house.
I love all the holidays though because no matter what our family still gets
together and we all have a good time.
Right now I'm living in Oxnard. I’ve lived here since
third grade so it’s been about 6 years. If I could choose to live either in
Ventura or Oxnard, I wouldn’t e able to choose. Although, I love Ventura more
because of its beaches, the ocean breeze, and the many places there are to go
and all its unique stores and locations. To me, Oxnard doesn’t have much to
offer and I would rather spend the day in Ventura walking around, going into
the stores and exploring. I like Oxnard more though, because I have memories
here, and I grew up in the house I'm living now.
What I like most about school is being able to hang out
with my friends and
meeting new people. I also like school because of sports
and being able to watch our school play. Most of all, I like making memories
at school with the people I love to spend my time with. I don’t like all the
drama and arguing that goes on in school. Also sometimes I don’t like the
teachers because some are very mean and hardly have a sense of humor. What I
dislike the most of all is all the homework and the testing we do. I love to
play sports and the one I love to play the most is soccer. I have been playing
since I was about 6 years old and I’ve never stopped. My favorite team is
AC Milan. Another activity I
like to do is go horse back riding. Right now I’m playing
off season with a team out of school.
My favorite subject at school is history. I
like history so much because I have always been interested in what happened in
our past and how people lived. My favorite part in time to study about is
World War II. The subject I really cannot stand is English and math, because
I’m terrible at them. I’ve received trophies and medals from playing
basketball, soccer, and tennis. I’ve also received a few awards for
improvement and sometimes for having a good attendance.
At the moment I’m not sure what school I want to go to
after high school. I haven’t planned or looked it over yet. What I do know is
that I would like to open an animal shelter or have a job that involves caring
for injured and abused animals. I want to be a cop for the
ASPCA, to help mistreated
animals. I’d also like to be a care giver for wild
animals, or work in a zoo. Most importantly I want to work with abandoned baby
animals whether they are wild or domestic. The reason I want to work in these
jobs is because I have loved animals since I was young and I want a good job
so I can get the house and ranch that I’ve always wanted and raise a family.
