My first few years of life

I have had many life changing experiences in my life that has made me the person that I am today. I was born on March 27^th, 1990 In Utah at the Alta View Hospital to a loving mother, father and four siblings and was given the name of Jaclyn K Smith.

My first years of growing up were the same for most other children. I started to crawl which eventually lead to walking; I said my first word in which soon lead to saying sentences and so forth. It wasn’t till I was four years old that the ordinary life I was living chance drastically. On May 11, 1994 my dad at the age of 42 and whom I called my hero and looked up to the most decided to return to his heavenly father. The death of my father had a huge effect on my family. My mother was left to raise five confused and lost kids from the ages of four to eighteen on her own.

The picture below is one of the last pictures we took together playing tea party:

Elementary Years

When I was eight years old my first niece (now out of 13 nieces and nephews) Anika was born. My sister was not married at the time so to save money and get the support she needed in having a baby she decided to live at home with my family. This meant that I had the opportunity to help take care of Anika and to learn all the basic skills that I needed to be the best babysitter that I wanted to be! I was counting down the days when the neighbors would as me to babysit and I knew that by helping out with Anika it would help me get that much closer to being able to :).

Another major life changing event took place when I was around the age of nine. My grandpa and grandma decided to build a cabin up a canyon in Utah called Parley’s Canyon for a gathering place for my family. There was a time when all of the family decided to spend the weekend up at the cabin and a cousin that was older than me decided to bring some Motorcycles up for the family to enjoy. My uncle was getting ready to take my cousin (his daughter) for a ride when the bike started to move without him fully on it. He was unable to get control of it which resulted in him and the motorcycle going off a small cliff and the tire of the motorcycle landing on top of him which caused him to be paralyzed from the neck down.

The last life changing event that took place that has had an impact on who I am today is the death of my grandfather. This was the end of my fifth grade and I had just turned eleven. My grandpa was a great example to all that he came in contact with. Everyone loved his spirit and the positive outlook that he had on life. He was such a great role model, His death made me realize that I needed to start living life to its fullest and give to others instead of receiving. My grandpa was the person that I wanted to become when I was older and I knew that I needed to start then to be able to be just that.

I had the special opportunity to have my grandpa baptize me as a member of the Church of Jesus Chirst of Latter Day Saints when I was eight years old:

Middle School

Middle School was a really hard time for me. These were the years where I was trying to figure out who I was. I dressed in all sorts of different ways and went through a stage where I LOVED wearing black. I became really close to two girls who didn’t live the same lifestyle as me and wasn’t raised to have the same standards as I was raised to have. After some time my grades started to fall, and I started acting and doing this that I wouldn't have done earlier in the year or previous years.

Highschool

My first year of High School I was still trying to figure out who I was and what I stood for. I was still hanging out with the same group of friends. It wasn’t till my junior year when I had achieved one of my long-term goals of making it into Ladies Ensemble choir that I realized they weren’t the friends for me.

Choir Tour:

Changing friends was one of the hardest decisions I had to make throughout my life but I am so grateful that I did it.

Here is picture of the new friends at a halloween dance:

There was definitely some hurtful things that were said about me that year and even part of the following year after that. It wasn’t till the towards of my senior year that my old friends were able to understand that the change that I had made was for the better and was able to forgive me and be on good terms.

Throughout high school I helped a lot with different special needs activities. Through interacting with these great people I came to find out that I had an overwhelming love for children with disabilities and that it was where I wanted to be. I wanted to help the community become more of a welcoming place for these kids and to help prepare them for life experiences.

Life after GrAdUaTiOn

I graduated in June of 2008 and after high school I really wanted to attend college. Both my parents and all of my siblings and taken some college courses but none ever graduated. It was my goal to be the first in my family to graduate with my associates’ degree and then continue my education in receiving a major and so forth. My goal had almost come to an end when I realized that we did not have the finances to support me through college. We then found out about financial aide, which was and has been my way of getting through college! While focusing on my studies I also worked very hard as a dental assistant, salesman at a furniture store, nannied, and also worked at Xcel Fitness.

In May of 2009 I met my sweetheart, Jon when I met when I was least expecting it but am so grateful that it happened! Our first date ended up being a blinde date set up by my cousin and from there we hit it off and never dated anyone else from then on.

Where I am now!

The place that I am at now is a place where I have been married to the love of my life for 5 months, my husband and I have continued our journey in Maryland where Jon is an eighth grade mathematics teacher for an organization called Teach For America.

I am currently a stay at home wife and am focusing on finishing up my associates’ degree by spring of 2011.

Where I want to be in the future~

I want to go many places in life but my main goal is to start a family when the time is right and to also be the first in my family to not only graduate with my associates but to also major in special education and become a special education teacher.