I'm a full-blooded Filipino, born (on October 4) and raised in Hanford, CA. It's a small and humble town. One of those "where everybody knows your name," type-of-places. I still visit quite often. I'm the oldest of my siblings. I have one brother and sister, both younger than me, whom I love very dearly.

Growing up I was very close to my family. There were four particular cousins that I always hung out with, since they were closer in age to me, than my brother and sister. My cousins and I were always close and for that reason...we were dubbed, "the get along gang" after a cartoon that aired during my childhood. Our favorite thing to do when we were at one my aunts' houses was to chill in the living room and watch "Kids Incorporated." We were dorks, I know. =) Sometimes we'd chill in the back yard on my cousin's swing set, Jacuzzi, or break out the slip-n-slide if it was hot enough...which in the San Joaquin Valley, it usually was. My grandmother would take us to the local flea market almost every Monday and treat us to some churros, or raspados. I miss those days. Especially the one's where we used to walk to the close-by grocery store with Grandma, and she would buy us lemon drops and lifesaver candies, and the cute little 6 oz. cans of coke.

I always got good grades in elementary school, quite the nerd. I enjoyed sports and even took part in the school's track team, and cross-country team. In fifth and sixth grade, I was the girl that all the popular, prettier girls picked on because they had crushes on my boy pals. I guess they were jealous because I got to hang around with them and they didn't.

Junior high was the stage where I had an identity crisis.(I guess you can say that) I was tired of being the goody-goody. For a short time, I was even embarrassed to be Filipina because everyone seemed to pick on the Asian kids. Then, I realized my ethnicity is part of what makes me, me and I'm proud of my heritage. I did start getting into trouble, though, but I still managed my good grades. I don't know...maybe something inside me said that I needed that education. I was never one much for partying, though. I usually stayed at home, cooped up in my room like a hermit, talking on the phone with friends. I do however, remember smoking weed, occasionally drinking alcohol, getting into fights, and skipping school to chill at home while my parents were at work...and by high school, everything that I've done wrong started catching up to me. My grades were falling- not drastically, but they did drop. Compared to the usual straight A's I was used to receiving...these grades sucked. I had gone from a GPA of 4.0 to a new average of 2.5. Luckily, I was still early in my freshman year of high school and could fix the problem before it got any worse, or before it was too late.