My Childhood in USA

Angelica is from California, USA. Below she talks about her childhood.

California, USA

My Childhood in USA

My earliest childhood memory was moving from my father’s cousin’s backyard shack into our new apartment.

My family was homeless when I was born, and we were allowed to live in the shack until my parents saved up some money to move into an apartment in a cheaper city.

For breakfast, I mostly ate cereal for a quick and easy breakfast, but on some special occasions my family and I would eat carnitas tacos, gorditas, tamales (during the Christmas season), or menudo (only on Sundays).
I enjoyed a stuffed bear and seal that I would play with and go to sleep with; however I accidentally left them behind when we moved from California and Texas.
There were only ever 4 people living in my house; my father, mother, my younger brother, and myself.
Growing up, I spoke two languages – English and Spanish. My parents are immigrants and only speak Spanish, so I mostly spoke Spanish at home or with Spanish-speaking friends. I learned English when I began school, and it is currently my primary language.
Growing up, I wanted to be a scientist in a laboratory in Antarctica with a pet penguin (I know silly dream, but I was only 8 at the time).

As I grew up, I had a variety of other dream jobs such as doctor, private investigator, lawyer, voice actress, game designer, and business owner; but working in a biological field still always lingered inside of me.

What scared me the most as a child were heights, needles, and animals. When I was six, I was attacked by a neighbor’s dog that got loose; I was able to evade, but it took years before I was able to conquer my fear of animals. Heights (I can’t get on a ladder without shaking, yet ironically I want to go skydiving) and needles (I’m afraid at looking at a nurse prick me when blood is drawn) are still fears that I possess.
Most games that I played as a child were typical playground games such as tag, hopscotch, basketball, tether ball, and imaginary games such as pretending to be Pokemon trainers, business owners, or daredevils.
My favorite television shows were mostly animated such as Rugrats, Dragonball Z, Pokemon, and 90’s and early 2000’s American cartoons. Although I did pick up The Amazing Race and other game shows in my mid-teens.
I didn’t read much other than fairy tales as a young child, but as a teenager, I began to read dystopian novels and biographical books, after we were assigned to read them in our English class. Some of my favorites were 1984, Animal Farm, Brave New World, and while not factual, I loved the style of Khaled Hosseini’s Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.
I usually went to bed at 8pm, and it get extended to later times in my adolescence. However, sometimes when my parents were tired they would make us go to bed earlier.
Overall, aside from some cultural differences with me being a Mexican-American, I would not consider myself different from others around me; we work hard and like to have fun.
In Houston, it mostly seems that teenagers like to go to the mall and other stores, or play sports (Football, basketball, and soccer are popular here in Texas).
I didn’t know many countries growing up, but I knew I wanted to see the world. When I was given an encyclopaedia set, I saw pictures of other countries and was interested in Spain, Japan, China, New Zealand, Egypt, and Brazil.
The only place we ever traveled to as a child were to visit family in Mexico; other than that, as a family, we never went to any other country or place.