My Past, Present, and Future Donna Ebner PSY 202 Nadia Hasan December 15, 2012

1. What my family is like? A. My Mom B. My dad C. Youngest of three children 2. What things I remember from childhood? A. Summer vacations B. Christmas time C. Pajama days 3. What jobs I had in my life? A. Sales clerk B. Receiving C. Childcare aide 4. What are my personal, professional, and academic goals? A. To become self sufficient B. Becoming a preschool teacher C. Earning my college degree

My mom is more like a best friend than my mother. She is an inspiration to me when it comes to going back to school and exceeding my own expectations in life. My mom had gotten married when she was only 18 years old. My mom has a passion teaching children who are autistic and severely disabled. She takes time out of her busy day to spend time with me and take me out to different places to have a good time. She always knows what to say to me when I am not feeling good. My dad means the world to me. I don’t know what I would do without him in my life. My dad is the most generous person that I have ever met in my life. He will help anyone out with whatever they need. My dad is the associate pastor of our church and is a very active member in the community. He is on the board for feeding the poor in Philadelphia and takes time out of his very busy schedule to help someone in need. My dad is always there for me when I am struggling with stuff in my life. I am so very proud to call him my dad and have him in my life. I am the youngest of three children. I was born on January 27, 1984 on a snowy winter afternoon at 4:30 in the afternoon. I was a very sick baby when I was born that I needed to stay in the hospital for a very long time. I had pneumonia when I was first born so I had to sleep at 90 degree angle in an oxygen tent to help me breath. I have an older sister named Jessica and an older brother named TJ. My sister gave me my name because she was going around telling everyone that my mom was having a baby named Donna in her belly. She even named her dolls Donna so my mom decided to name me Donna. My mom couldn’t tell my sister who at the time was three years old that my name isn’t going to be Donna so that is how I got my name. I sometimes didn’t like being the baby in the family because my brother and sister would blame me for every little thing they did wrong. My favorite childhood memories are family summer vacations. My parents would take us to Ocean City, NJ for a week and we each would be allowed to bring one friend with us. We would stay at our friend’s shore house for the whole week. My family and I would spend the whole day on the beach and have lunch on the beach. Sometimes we would go out for dinner on the boardwalk or to a restaurant nearby. We would sometimes stay in the house for dinner and do food shopping so we can eat at the house. We would go on the boardwalk at night time to shop or to ride the amusement park rides. We all would wake up real early in the morning to ride bikes on the boardwalk and have breakfast on the boardwalk. My parents would sometimes take us to the Cape May Zoo for the day. When the weather wasn’t so nice outside we all would stay in and play card games with each other. My favorite time of year is Christmas time because I get to see all my relatives at the same time. I would spend Christmas Eve with my dad’s side of the family and we would have dinner together then exchange gifts. My relatives on my dad’s side would have a Chinese auction which is where we each buy a gift to put in the auction and we each would take turns opening a gift in the pile. If you decided that you didn’t want that gift you opened then you could trade it for a gift that you liked from someone else is hand. I would spend Christmas day with my parents, brother, and sister with their families. We would have dinner together then we exchange presents afterwards. I love watching my nieces and nephews open their presents. My parents would take me and my nieces and nephews to look at people’s houses that are decorated with Christmas lights. This Christmas is going to be very emotional and upsetting because last year we pulled the plug on my 21 year old cousin four days after Christmas.

When I was little every Saturday my dad would decide that it was pajama day. We all would stay in our pajamas and get comfy with a good book to read. My favorite spot to read my book is curled up on my bed with a cup of hot chocolate to drink. I always loved it when my parents would say it is a pajama kind of day. We would all stay in our pajamas and watch movies together after dinner. I remember that on pajama days my mom would make her homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner served with stewed tomatoes. My mom and dad taught us at a young age the importance of reading books. Now that I am grown up I still have days where I just stay in my pajamas and get real cozy with a good book to read. I enjoy reading a good book and act like I am there in the book. My very first job was working at a Pet Shop in the mall. I was a sales clerk there and also took care of the animals that we sold there. One of my jobs was to give the dogs a bath and groom them, which I enjoyed doing. I also had to clean the animal cages out so it wouldn’t smell bad in the store. I was great at convincing people to buy the animals and I would sell at least nine animals in a day. We would make commission on every animal that we would sell to a customer. I really enjoyed taking care of the animals and getting them ready to go to a good home. I remember seeing how happy the animals were when someone bought them and how excited the kids were when they would play with the animals. I use to work at Sears in the Montgomery Mall in North Wales, PA in the receiving. My job was to unpack all the items in t he warehouse to prepare them for the store to sell them. I would have to put ink tags on them and put price tags on the items. It was only a seasonal job for me to do during the holidays because that was the busiest time of year so they needed me to help out. I only worked part time there but I did the best job that I could do. I also had to put the priced tagged items on the right clothing racks. My longest job that I ever held was working for the YMCA after school care as a childcare aide. I worked there for two years at the Fort Washington Elementary School in Fort Washington, PA. I really enjoyed working with the children from grades k-5th grade every day after school. I would help with their homework and plan different crafts with them. I enjoyed playing games with them and doing arts and crafts with them too. My job was to come up with activities for them to do to keep them active. I would go on field trips with them to the Philadelphia Zoo and to Franklin Institute. This was the one job that made me want to become a preschool teacher in the first place. I had learned a lot while working on this job as a childcare aide. I really want to become a preschool teacher because I have the passion and desire to work well with young children. I have always helped with teaching Sunday school at my church and babysitting the young children outside of church. I enjoyed looking after them and teaching them new things for the first time. People from my church have told me that I would make a great preschool teacher and that I would be a positive influence on young children. I chose this career path because I wanted to make a difference in this world especially to our future generation. I decided that I wanted to go back to college to get a degree in Early Childhood Education so I can become a certified teacher. I also wanted to prove to myself that I can accomplish anything that I put my mind to. My decision to go back to school was for me to feel like I have done something on my very own. I also wanted to be able to become more independent and self sufficient on myself without needing to rely on other people to help me out financially. I believe that education is very important in society today especially in this economy. My favorite saying is that of Sidney J. Harris, who said: “The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” It means to me that when you look in the mirror you see all your flaws and when you turn it into a window you see what the world sees of your success and confidence. I had learned a lot about myself while taking this class. I learned that there is several different learning techniques. The one theory I liked was Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences. I could really relate to his theory by knowing how I learn from people. I also learned how health and nutrition play a major role in our lives and how it effects our learning.