About Me
Scaredy-Cat
I love listening to scary stories; whenever friends sleepover, or I hang out with someone new, the inevitable question of, “Is your house haunted?” Or, “Has anything creepy ever happened to you?”Will come up. I really can’t help but to ask, and I think it’s that morbid loving psyche of ours that craves to hear all the creepy experiences of someone's life, kicking in my head. I love watching those top 10 creepiest places on earth videos, and I tell myself I’d love to visit them sometime in my life, even though I’m a massive scaredy cat. There’s a place on Long Island called King’s Park Psychiatric Center that was state run from 1885 to 1996. Some of the buildings have yet to be demolished and its just so creepy who wouldn't wanna see it. Half of it’s for exploration while the other half is just that human curiosity of maybe encountering something creepy. 
However, I always chicken out because I’m an over thinker. When I watch a horror movie or something a little too morbid it stays with me, I guess I have an overactive imagination, I think over things until it eats me alive, I guess that’s what got me so interested in Edgar Allan Poe. I was introduced to Poe in 8th grade when my class read, “A Tell Tale Heart.” I was immediately enthralled by the man who claimed to be sane in the beginning of the story, only to become more manic and tense as he retold his tale of chopping an old man into bits. His guilt slowly ate at him up until he confessed to his crimes, ripping up the floorboards to reveal his the old man’s mutilated corpse. 
All of Poe’s stories make you think afterwards, the twisted aspects of Poe’s stories making a lasting impression on people far more than a happy one. I think that’s why people name hurricanes and not sunny days; we remember the horror and the unwell because we secretly crave it to break the mundane of our regular lives. Researching Poe so extensively only made me love and appreciate Gothic horror even more. Even after this project is over I’ll still be thinking of Poe and his works, his life was so rich and interesting, filled with sorrows and hardships that I’ll never forget it.
I’ve spoken about my love for scary stuff, but my interests of course go farther than that. Aside from watching scary things, I also play them. I love video games like Outlast, and The last of us, the kind of games are packed full with fear and plot, something to make you think while it scares you. However, I also love the Kingdom Hearts series, it’s a really adorable game created by Disney, Square Enix, and other gaming companies. The game revolves around it’s main character Sora who explores new worlds with Donald duck, and Goofy. The game sounds pretty childish but it’s actually really fun and beautiful, it really gives the gamer a flash back into the past, making all the worlds you explore famous Disney movie worlds, like The Lion King and Aladdin. 
Speaking of movies, I really love to watch superhero movies like The Avengers. My dad was always big on comic books when he was younger and I guess I kind of took after him with my love of Marvel movies. My favorite superhero is Iron man, he’s really funny and witty and I love his actor Robert Downey Jr. I actually got really into Sherlock Holmes because Robert Downey Jr. played as the detective in the 2009 and 2011 movies, and I was delighted to find out that Poe’s own detective short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” inspired the original Sherlock Holmes novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 
Another love of mine influenced by my dad is my love of The Beatles. As a child I grew up on the animated movie Yellow Submarine and grew to love The Beatles a lot, I’m kind of bummed out that I’ll never be able to see them in concert though. My member is Paul and my favorite album by The Beatles is Revolver, although I enjoy some of their earlier classics like, “She Loves You” and “A Hard Day's Night.” I also really love The Beatles movie “Help” which I got as gift from my dad on my 16th birthday. 
Aside from The Beatles I really love music in general, I’ll listen to anything with a good beat, even language doesn't get in my way. I’m a big fan of a South Korean group called BTS, they produce hip hop based music and are really talented in dance, as well as rap, and singing. There are seven members in the group, Namjoon, Yoongi, Jin, Taehyung, Jungkook, Jimin, and Hobi, and they can actually speak English pretty well. My favorite member of the group is Yoongi, he's an amazing rapper and recntly released a solo album under the name AgustD. BTS recently got nominated and invited to the BBMA’s for Top Social Artist Award, which will be their first US award ceremony ever! It’s really heartwarming to see 
will get the chance to see them in concert again.
I’m also really creative. I’ve been drawing since before I can remember, and I always find myself doing doodles whenever I can. Going into college I knew I didn't want to make a career out of art, However I am taking a drawing 101 class as a general education course and it’s really nice to be able to sharpen my skills as an artist again and learn new techniques from a professional artist.
My Art
Travel
France, Italy, England, China. These are all places people dream of visiting someday and places I’d like to visit again. I always used to ask my parents, “What’s the point of taking your kids anywhere when they’re too young to remember it?” Apparently I’ve been to Disneyland, but if you’d ask me, I wouldn't even be able to tell you what the place looked like. That’s not to say I don't remember seeing the Louvre in France, or riding those double-decker buses in London. I just wish I’d gone at an age where I could appreciate it more.
The reason I had such a rich travel history in my childhood is because of my dad. My dad used to work for Polar Air Cargo, which is an American cargo based airline in New York. The corporation operates cargo planes in North America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. My dad ran his own hanger with a huge cargo plane and everything, he even let me and my friends stand inside the plane’s jet, it felt like a giant hamster wheel.
Thanks to this job my dad got a promotion, which meant we’d have to leave the US. My family and I lived in scotland for 4 years. I attended school at Doonfoot Primary from the 3rd grade to 6th, in a town called Ayrshire. Everyone there was super nice and were really excited to become friends with my older sister and I because we had US accents. My best friend there was Jenny and she lived just across the road, so I could run to her house and hang out anytime I wanted. I could run to all my friends houses, and the neighborhood was in mid development, so there was a lot of untouched forests and farms to explore, we even had local castle ruins near by, my favorite was Greenan castle, an old ruin by the sea. When I read the Poem "Annabel Lee" I imagined the castle they lived in to be Greenan.
Another fairy tale like attraction we had in Scotland was the Brig o' Doon. The Brig o' Doon is an old medieval bridge created sometime around 1514; it's a beautiful cobblestone bridge spanning over a rushing river, truly to an 10 year old version of me it was something out of the story books, and became even more sore with the tale told behind it. I'd often go visit the bridge to play with my sister when we'd go out to eat in the inn near by which also happened to be a reception. One the front of the inn holds a plaque with a poem by Robert Burns.
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. The Brig o' Doon is mentioned in Robert Burns Poem Tam o' Shanter. The poem involves a man being chased over the Brig o' Doon by a witch. In the stories I was told as a child, people said the man was being chased because he had witnessed a dark ritual being preformed by a few witches at the local church. The church in the story is called Alloway Auld Kirk, built in 1516 and is situated about 50 yards north of the Brig O Doon . The Alloway church is where Robert Burns had his father buried. The church is in ruins now and as a child the adults would warn us not to set foot in it or we'd be cursed by the witches, although that was probably just to keep us off historical property. Anyway, as the story continues in
the poem, the man running from the witch sees the Brig o' Doon and because the witch could not cross the running water. The man is just able to escape the witch by crossing the bridge, narrowly avoiding her attack as she is only able to grab his horse's tail which comes away in her hands. This story amazed me as a child and still does, I was always fearful of fully crossing the bridge because of the witch, and if I ever visit the Brig o' Doon again I would really like to attempt it.
Living in Scotland gave me some of the best times of my life, however every good thing must come to an end. Moving back to New York was pretty disappointing to say the least. There wasn't really many places to explore, and the kids just weren't as nice. The culture difference was a shock and it was also the end of our family travels.
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| Greenan Castle |
Another fairy tale like attraction we had in Scotland was the Brig o' Doon. The Brig o' Doon is an old medieval bridge created sometime around 1514; it's a beautiful cobblestone bridge spanning over a rushing river, truly to an 10 year old version of me it was something out of the story books, and became even more sore with the tale told behind it. I'd often go visit the bridge to play with my sister when we'd go out to eat in the inn near by which also happened to be a reception. One the front of the inn holds a plaque with a poem by Robert Burns. 
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. The Brig o' Doon is mentioned in Robert Burns Poem Tam o' Shanter. The poem involves a man being chased over the Brig o' Doon by a witch. In the stories I was told as a child, people said the man was being chased because he had witnessed a dark ritual being preformed by a few witches at the local church. The church in the story is called Alloway Auld Kirk, built in 1516 and is situated about 50 yards north of the Brig O Doon . The Alloway church is where Robert Burns had his father buried. The church is in ruins now and as a child the adults would warn us not to set foot in it or we'd be cursed by the witches, although that was probably just to keep us off historical property. Anyway, as the story continues in 
Living in Scotland gave me some of the best times of my life, however every good thing must come to an end. Moving back to New York was pretty disappointing to say the least. There wasn't really many places to explore, and the kids just weren't as nice. The culture difference was a shock and it was also the end of our family travels.
I think if we hadn't lived in Scotland I wouldn’t have seen the world as much as I did, because we lived in Europe we were closer to all these fantastic places. We moved back to the US because the company sadly, had to let some people go, fortunately my dad got a job with the FAA (Which stands for Federal Aviation Association.) Now he inspects plane crashes and does federal inspections on companies like Jetblue, where he inspects employees who do maintenance on the plane, and the plane itself, in order to prevent life threatening accidents. My dad was actually there to inspect the place crash of flight 1549, the plane that landed in the Hudson River. 
However I did get the chance in 10th grade to visit china with our school mandarin class. My best and first friend from New York, Anne was taking the mandarin course in our school and told me that since I was in AP history I would be able to go as well. I didn't understand the language but it didn't really matter when I had a whole class full of people with me who did. China was really amazing, I climbed the great wall and saw the 
I’ve always loved travel and airports/planes. My dad is always trying to convince me to become a pilot or a member of the FAA like him, but my real passions lie in film and media, I’m planning on attending The College of Saint Rose up in Albany next semester. A Lot of my friends are up in Albany and my sisters is in her 4th year at Saint Rose. She recommended me their communications in media program and I’m really excited not to be commuting to school anymore. Saint Rose has great camera equipment and recording booths that Farmingdale doesn't offer, while also still offering up other options in case I change my mind on what I’d want to do with my life. I don’t believe in putting all my eggs in one basket and so I wouldn't want to go to a school just for film. However if I did decide to work in the travel business for a little while like my dad wanted, I was thinking of becoming a flight attendant for a few years, just to sate that need for exploration.
Roots
All my life I’d only known half of my family tree. My dad was adopted from Florida in 1962 and was raised by my grandma Judy Salomon, who recently passed. The adoption was arranged with my grandma before my dad was born, so he was taken home to New York right away. My grandma never kept the truth from my dad and he always knew he was adopted from the Estep family. For the longest time my dad never knew who his birth parents were, he tried to look online but the internet wasn't as developed as it is today, so it was no use.
Next he hired a company called Omnitrace, that was advertised on The Oprah Winfrey show. Omnitrace is a company that helps people find their birth parents, sadly the search was inconclusive. After that my dad almost gave up looking for them, until he tried an ancestry DNA test. The test was successful and had matched him up to someone on the website who turned out to be his biological second cousin. After contacting her on Facebook, she confirmed this with her grandmother who said that her sister had given her baby up for adoption on 1962 in Miami.
After discovering our whole new biological family my dad, sister and I are planning to meet up with them in July. They live West Virginia and I’m super excited to meet them. My family has always been very small, only consisting of my dad, and two sisters. My mom moved to Florida after my dad and her got a divorce, so I don’t really see her that often. After my grandparents on my dad’s family passed we only had my mom’s side, but they all moved to Florida to be close to us when we lived there for 8 years. I don’t have many cousins my age and the family on my dad’s side is altogether estranged, so getting to meet new relatives should be interesting.
The most important thing in my life though is my friends, to me friend are family, and you only find so many real friends. My five friends, Anne, Joey, Mikayla, Megan and Ryan are my best friends and have helped me through so much. Moving back to New York from Scotland was very tough on me; everyone kind of already had their own group of friends, so it was really a miracle to find people who would accept me. I also really cherish my pets, my cat Coda and my dog Taffy have been with me since I moved back to New York and are super lovable. I guess it’s true when people say animals are therapeutic. My cat Coda is 7 and my dog Taffy is 11; my family actually bought Taffy on a farm in Scotland and we had her shipped to the US with us, she is a Scottish lab.
In the end, I’m just excited to see West Virginia and meet new family. I’ve traveled all over the place outside the US, but funnily enough I’ve never been anywhere in the US besides Florida, New York, Seattle and New Jersey. I hope this experience will be a fun and memorable one, and hopefully I’ll be able to make some lasting relationships with my new relatives.
All my life I’d only known half of my family tree. My dad was adopted from Florida in 1962 and was raised by my grandma Judy Salomon, who recently passed. The adoption was arranged with my grandma before my dad was born, so he was taken home to New York right away. My grandma never kept the truth from my dad and he always knew he was adopted from the Estep family. For the longest time my dad never knew who his birth parents were, he tried to look online but the internet wasn't as developed as it is today, so it was no use. 
After discovering our whole new biological family my dad, sister and I are planning to meet up with them in July. They live West Virginia and I’m super excited to meet them. My family has always been very small, only consisting of my dad, and two sisters. My mom moved to Florida after my dad and her got a divorce, so I don’t really see her that often. After my grandparents on my dad’s family passed we only had my mom’s side, but they all moved to Florida to be close to us when we lived there for 8 years. I don’t have many cousins my age and the family on my dad’s side is altogether estranged, so getting to meet new relatives should be interesting. 
The most important thing in my life though is my friends, to me friend are family, and you only find so many real friends. My five friends, Anne, Joey, Mikayla, Megan and Ryan are my best friends and have helped me through so much. Moving back to New York from Scotland was very tough on me; everyone kind of already had their own group of friends, so it was really a miracle to find people who would accept me. I also really cherish my pets, my cat Coda and my dog Taffy have been with me since I moved back to New York and are super lovable. I guess it’s true when people say animals are therapeutic. My cat Coda is 7 and my dog Taffy is 11; my family actually bought Taffy on a farm in Scotland and we had her shipped to the US with us, she is a Scottish lab. 
Lbs.
A woman's weight may seem likes a sensitive or often taboo subject to bring up; I mean to be honest no one really likes their weight, there's always more fat to lose, more muscle to gain and a lot of people bend the truth a little when talking with others. Just like a woman's age her weight must never be mentioned, a number one guide rule that most men follow. However having come so far on my journey through weight loss, I feel don’t ashamed about revealing my current weight, maybe to some it may just seem an average size but to me who’s been heavy my whole life, it really is something to be proud of.
The heaviest I’ve ever been was in 11-12th grade and at that point I knew things needed to change. Looking back at old pictures of me, I’m always marveled on how different I look now and it makes me realize the self distortion people place upon themselves. Have you ever notice when you are losing or gaining weight, that sometimes you won’t notice the difference? Well that’s because you see yourself everyday. I’ll admit even now after losing over 50 pounds my view is still skewed. I’m 134 lbs and I still see myself
as heavy, when I look in the mirror I feel as if I haven't changed. That’s not to say I haven't noticed. Looking at pictures makes me proud. Self love is hard and some days you feel it while other you don’t, but the end result is that I’m happier and healthier than ever, even if I don’t see it all the time.
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| St. Patrick's Day 2016 |
Losing weight has opened up my world in more ways than possible. I’ve always wanted to cut my hair short, and finally I was finally able to, and I could also wear clothes that I felt too self conscious in before. All these examples sound kinda girly and a little shallow, but I lost the weight for these simple pleasures. Seeing the scale is what started my journey and friend’s and family are what helped me put my nose to grindstone.
I started out losing weight by changing my diet. Cutting out carbs like bread and chips had a massive effect and helped me lose the weight a little faster. It was tough at first, but eventually your body thanks and rewards you for the healthy eating. However diet isn't the only actor to weight loss, exercise is the other 20%. My family has an elliptical in our house and it came in great handy for weight loss. I’ve always been a bit shy and was hesitant to exercise around other people so the gym wasn't an option, all I had were some ten pound weights given to me by a friend for my birthday
last march 2016 which was when my weight loss really began.
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| St. Patrick's Day 2017 |
I remember being so excited to have lost my first 10 pounds, screaming about it to my friend while we watched the st.paddy's parade in the city. Each 5-10 pounds was like a level, and I soon became motivating myself by making it a challenge. I picked people in my life and asked their weights. “Beating them” became my goal. I guess I’m a pretty competitive person because of that. My elder sister had always been the healthy one in the family and so she sort of became my rival. Its excited to think I’m at her level now!
People think losing weight is hard but with dedication and drive anyone can do it. Our bodies truly want to get healthy. It takes many calories to maintain a high weight mass. Calories are units of heat mass and are found in the food we eat, thy keep us fueled and give us energy. However people should only take in just enough calories to keep them fueled, unnecessary amounts end up being stored away by our bodies and converted to fat for later use; that’s why when people are stranded on an island they come back all skin and bones.
To keep track of my own calorie intake I was recommended an app called My Plate, it's amazing and I still use it everyday. The app scans bar-codes and knows brand names, it can also tell you the calorie portions, protein, fat, and carbs of any given food. The app also keeps track of how much water you drink a day and how many calories you’ve burned. After inputting your weight and height and activity levels, the app gives you the appropriate amount of calories you should eat in a day in order to lose, gain, or maintain your weight. I highly recommend this app. As I said in the beginning people are constantly striving to improve themselves whether with health, knowledge, or appearance and even after losing all this weight, I’m still striving to live a healthy lifestyle setting new goals for myself everyday.
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