Where am I?

Where Am I?

I am a Skorniak, my ancestors are from Ireland, Germany, and Poland. My grandma will sometimes teach us how to say certain words in German. Whenever anyone sneezes she says ‘bless you’ in like seven different languages. It’s fun. Whenever I would visit my great grandma at the nursing home, she would talk to us in Polish. She would teach me basic words like dog, tree, and girl and would always laugh when I couldn’t say it right. 

Throughout my seventeen years of life I feel like I’ve already been everywhere, but at the same time I feel like I still have yet to be anywhere.  I’ve spent my life growing up in two different towns, thirty minutes away from each other.  The settings of both towns were very different but yet still similar in a way.

St. Libory was where I lived first - a very small, boring town. In fact, it was so small and boring that we called it, along with everyone who lived there; the village of St. Liboring. We had a very small three bedroom house with a big fenced in backyard.  All of us kids used to play all sorts of games in that backyard. That’s where we made some of the best and some of the worst memories together. I will never forget how the girls always seemed to compete for dad’s attention. We all wanted to show him that we were just as tough as him. I think that I won those competitions every time because I was never afraid to get my hands dirty. We have countless home videos of my dad and I working outside on the car or in a big bucket of fishing bait.

Another memory from that town was never having very far to walk to get to one of my friends’ house. The farthest one of my friends lived from me was a little less than a mile. We would always get together a couple of friends and play “Ghost in the Graveyard” at the local cemetery. I always loved playing this because I was an adrenaline junkie so playing in a cemetery at night time was really fun. Since we were all no younger than 10, we were content with almost anything. Just riding bikes around or playing in someone’s backyard was all that we needed to have tons of fun.

My parents were (and still are) the best parents a girl could ask for. They taught my siblings and me so many great lessons and morals that we will grow up and teach our own kids. One of those lessons is to respect authority. There would always be consequences whenever we disobeyed one of them. Although we didn’t have chores (thank the Lord), we still loved to help my mom with dishes and my dad in the yard. Sometimes after school I would get on my bike and ride over a block to visit my dad at work. All the guys there were like family to us and still are, literally (my dad’s brother in law and his two brothers). I always looked for something to do in the corn bins or in the big shed.

When we moved to Aurora, not much changed. I finished out 2nd grade in St. Libory and then started 3^rd grade the next year at Aurora. I remember feeling excited to start at a new school and meet new friends but sad that I had to leave all of my friends in St. Libory. My first teacher at Aurora Public Schools was Mrs. Leech, a 3^rd grade teacher. She was so nice and welcoming! I didn’t have a very tough time finding friends here because everyone was so friendly so I felt like I fit right in.

This town is still small enough to be classified as a “small town”. I love it because it seems like everyone knows everyone and all in all, it makes the community so much stronger. Everyone knows the cops in town and whether they’re nice and lenient when it comes to giving tickets or not. You can just say “the hill” and people know exactly what you’re saying.

I feel like the way that I was raised has really influenced they way I carry myself now. I don’t necessarily care what people think about me, but I care enough to carry on the Skorniak name with a good reputation.  I love living in small towns. Whenever I go visit family in bigger cities I’m amazed at how easily they find their way around so easily. When I grow up, I want to raise my family in a town just like this.

 

 

 

Who Am I?

Who am I? I don't think anyone can fully answer this question at this time in their life. Although I have found myself a little bit, I feel like I still don't completely know who I am. Although I’m eager to find out, I like to think of my life as just a big open book. For the most part, I share everything with everyone. Whether I’m extremely happy or extremely sad, I want everyone to know. Sometimes this gets me in trouble, but other times it shows people my true colors.

I grew up in two different centuries. The first one was a conservative; don’t talk back to your parents century. I was raised not to cuss, not to disrespect authority figures, and to just enjoy every day like it was my last. I was definitely a daddy’s girl, and I still am. I always loved to be outside with him working on the car or fixing stuff in the garage. We have many home videos of him and I doing stuff together. I was raised to think of the consequences before you do something and if they aren’t something that you like, maybe you should rethink it. I was raised in a small town where everyone knew everyone and everything. If the people down the street got a new dog, the whole town knew. I loved this so much. I had friends everywhere I looked. My family lived right in the middle of the town, and we lived in front of Danielle’s friends, right next to my friends’ house and their grandparents’ house and diagonal from another one of my friends. We didn’t have any way of communicating except for the house phone or just running over to one of their houses. We carpooled home from school with a family that babysat us, and we would always sit in the trunk of the car and wait for our stop to get out and go on with our day. I remember how we always had a sit down family meal at least once a day and we always attended church on Sundays followed by CCD. When my brother was born, our house became a bit too small for us, so we packed everything up and moved to Aurora. Moving here has definitely been a big change for me. I went from a class of 8 to a class of 100, and a town of 400 to a town of 4,000. I wouldn’t exactly say that I would choose St. Libory over Aurora, but there are definitely some pros to both that I value.

This new century is completely different – technology has taken over. I wouldn't say my values have changed, but the way my parents discipline and enforce their rules have changed. They are still big on respecting authority and living conservatively, but I’ve noticed that over the past couple of years, they’ve become more lenient on what they let us do. Now as a teenager I’m not exactly complaining about this! My parents got divorced in December of 2010. This wasn’t a big surprise to us kids as we had talked about it before it happened. At first I didn’t really mind not having my parents living together but as the years go on, it’s gotten tougher. I think that all in all this split has made my relationship stronger with both of my parents. I now respect both of them a lot more and I value my time with both of them equally because I know that we aren’t guaranteed a tomorrow. I like to think of myself now, as an independent, smart, and funny person. I always enjoy making the people around me happy; if I sense that someone is in a bad mood, I try my best to cheer them up with a joke or just a silly face. I would rather have a few really good friends than have a lot of really fake friends. I know how and when to keep a secret and everyone knows that I always have their back. I don’t like drama and whenever there is any, I like to steer clear of it. I absolutely love to be around my family and my friends. Whenever I’m feeling down I know that I can always call up or text someone close to me and my day will instantly get better! My faith is very important to me. I always try to make it to youth group every Wednesday night and I even help my mom with her elementary class too. I love teaching young kids the simple prayers that are just like second nature to me. It’s so cool to see how much knowledge about their faith that they soak in every week!

So there you have it, an 800 word essay about who I am. Although I could probably type out 800 more words about myself, I think I’ll just let you ponder on these interesting facts about me. Like I said before, I haven’t found my true being yet, but I am so eager to find out what God has in store for me and the rest of my life!