My Life
My Life:
An Autobiography
Carol Yanez
EDUC 111: Introduction to Teaching
Professor Eastman
September 17, 2009
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My Life
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My Life:
An Autobiography
On a stormy night in Merida, Venezuela a woman suffered the pains of childbirth
without any medications or even an epidural. Caught up in all the excitement of a new addition
to the family, the parents were oblivious to the loss of one of the greatest American Western
writers of all time, Louis L’Amour. After four painstaking hours of labor, a seven pound three
ounce baby came screaming into the world. The name given to me, Carol Gabriela Yanez, was a
combination of my parent’s names; Carlos and Oly Yanez.
From the start, I have lived a fairly interesting childhood. I have a sister that is four
years older than me who had to be punished several times for taking me out of my basinet and
trying to dress me in her doll’s clothes. She has been my best friend ever since. My mother and
father both worked when I was only six months old so I spent a lot of time with my aunts. They
have been a part of my family, which is the most important thing in my life. A new addition to
that family, my brother, was born when I was three years old. My older, more mature, sister of
seven kept me from making the same mistake of trying to play with my newborn brother. We
made up for lost time, after he was about a year old, though. Around that same time, I
discovered the new love of my life; school.
The fun times I had in school have been a shaping factor in my life. From the start I was
infatuated. Being a middle child, I had a lot of experience with my siblings. I had to watch my
sister go off to school every day. I imagined she was going to a magical land that only a few
lucky people could discover. The key to this world was her uniform. When she put it on she
became a new girl. She told me about her teachers, friends, and generally exciting days.
Needless to say, when the time came around for my first day of school I could hardly contain
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my excitement. Surrounded by children of my own age crying, I boldly told my parents to go
home and let me have my fun. I had a blast making new friends and learning exciting new facts
about the world I lived in. I spent the next three years with my new friends, whom I thought
would be with me forever. I was in for a real shock.
When I was seven my life was turned upside down and took a course that would change
it forever. My father accepted a scholarship to the University of Iowa to complete his
Philosopher Doctorate degree in Modern Languages. Our family was stripped to the core, with
only my mother, father, sister, brother and I moving to the United States. We left behind my
aunts, and my pets, who had become like children to me. I had a dog named Italy, a tortoise
named Rocket, and a large group of birds. Animals had become a part of the family a when I
was five years old and we moved into our first house. Leaving behind my pets, family, friends,
everyone and everything I had ever known was heartbreaking.
Life in the United States was very different for me and my family. We had become so
used to having our friends, aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents only a two hour drive away
that it was very hard to get used to only being able to see them once a year. To make it worse,
I had to learn a whole new language. Because my father was an English teacher back in
Venezuela, I knew a little bit of the language. It was very different trying to speak it with the
neighborhood kids, though. I was lucky to be young enough to learn very quickly using my new
found friends as my teachers. I also picked up a lot of the American culture.
One of my biggest struggles was blending my Venezuelan and American cultures. The
two countries are very different. In Venezuela, for instance, people did not get upset when I
was late. Set times were more of a suggestion than anything so it was a big adjustment when
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we moved to the United States and time dictated every aspect of life. The move changed the
way I looked at time and when I returned to Venezuela a more prompt person my friends were
often annoyed. Also, Venezuela has a different look on many laws. Because the government
had lost a lot of its effectiveness, gorillas and gangs took over much of the country. Speeding
was not looked at as a bad thing so when we moved back to Venezuela when I was twelve, I
had to look forward to learning a different style of driving. Because I had learned to drive in a
place where laws were mere suggestions and people were crazy drivers I never learned the very
structured driving of the United States. Driving, however, meant the same thing in both
countries; freedom.
When I started driving, I entered a new chapter of my life. I had become a sub-adult.
My early childhood experiences had shaped my personality. I was an easy going, fun loving
person that could not get enough of school. I had developed a strong dislike of snakes, the
spaces between all the areas of interest in large countries, and another United State’s special;
winter. Part of what I hated about winter was the fact that it took away turtles and butterflies,
which had become two of my favorite animals. I had also developed a strong love for
chocolate. The culmination of my sub-adult life had been my high school graduation. I had not
known at the time, though, that it would not be the last of its kind.
Shortly after graduating high school in Venezuela, my father accepted a position
teaching Spanish classes at Arkansas Tech and we had to move back to the United States.
Leaving my friends, again, was one of my greatest disappointments. Another disappointing
factor had been the fact that I was forced to retake my senior year in high school here in the
United States. I did make a few friends, though, that stayed with me through the next year as I
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had transitioned from high school to college. I realized very early that college classes were
different than anything I had ever experienced and felt resurgence in my passion for school. I
attended Arkansas Tech for one year before my father’s career had us on the move again.
At age twenty, I had found a steady home. My father took a job teaching Spanish
classes at Manchester College. When I first arrived in North Manchester, I was disappointed in
the size. The day I met the man of my dreams though, had changed my mind. Only two weeks
after moving to Indiana I stumbled across a cute redhead while I was on a walk. The chance
meeting I had with Beau Beard changed my life forever, again. After a whirlwind romance we
were engaged. It had only been two months. I found out a month later, that he had given me
the greatest joy of my life. I had my son Colton Beard on June 25, 2009. He had become my
whole world the day he entered this Earth.
The circle of life can be a funny thing. Mine had begun on a stormy night in June and
was changed forever on a stormy night in June twenty-one years later. I had been told at the
hospital that the change in barometric pressure was to blame for my water breaking, but I think
there is more to it than that. My life had shaped me into an animal loving, school obsessed,
family oriented, mixed cultured woman. I had no idea what to expect when I entered this
world, and I have no idea what is in store for me.