RaeAnne Dunnuck
Professor Stetzel
EDUC 111 B
January 7, 2011
My Life
I was born on August27, 1991 to Robbie and Rebecca Dunnuck, in Warsaw, IN. I was the wonderful couple’s first child. When I was born I was perfectly healthy and I had two great parents to take care of me. Shortly after I was born a few things became apparent every time my mom would feed me I would get sick and when I would cry I would start to have a lot of problems breathing. When the Doctors checked out all of these problems they discovered that I was allergic to breast milk and I had really bad asthma but with time things would become better for me and my family. The first couple years of my life were hard for my parents because I was in and out of the hospital and they had to buy special soy formula so finances were very tight.
When I was two my first sister was born. Today I joke with her and tell it was the worst day of my life but in reality it was probably one of the best. My mom said the first time I saw Rashell (my younger sister) my eyes lit up and from that moment up until the time I turn 13, and wanted nothing to do with my sister, I would follower her around and make sure nothing bad happened to her. A year after Rashell was born my mom had another little girl. So I grew up with two younger sisters who liked to steel my makeup, my clothes and would never leave me alone. But for the most part I was a lot of fun.
My mom quit her job when Rashell was born because she felt like she needed to stay home with her girls and my dad had a job changing tires. Needless to say we had no money and our house didn’t have an air conditioner so when the weather was nice we had to be outside. When I started school my mom started to go to college to get her nursing degree. This was somewhat hard on my family at the time but in the long run I believe it was the best thing for us. When my mom graduated I was in second grade and suddenly things became a lot easier. I was able to participate in summer leagues and we were able to go on family vacations.
Another thing that makes my family very unique is some of thing we have been through together. My Uncle was mental handicap and he was my best friend. My mom cleaned my grandpa’s house and she would take my sisters and me with her. My uncle would take me on lawn mower rides and out to the pig pens to feed the pigs. When I was in second grade we had to write a story about our valentine and he was my valentine. Unfortunately my story had to be taken off the wall early because that winter he died. That was the first time I ever lost someone I truly loved and I believe he is part of the reason that I want to teach special education. Shortly after my uncle died my grandpa had a major accident at work. My grandpa was a truck driver and he was unloading his truck when something fell off the truck and crushed his legs. I was getting ready for school when my dad got the phone call telling him that his dad was in emergency surgery in Indianapolis. That was the first time that I ever heard my dad curse in his life but it was also the first time I ever saw him pray. Luckily my grandpa made almost a full recovery and is still living today that is the one moment of my childhood that I will never forget.
When I started school, at Akron Elementary, I struggled a little bit with the whole raising your hand and using an indoor voice but as time went on things started to get better. I loved school. I liked it so much that when I would come home from school I would play school with my little sisters. But something changed around fourth grade. I felt like there were better things to do than homework and reading. My two best friends started to be mean to me because I was gaining weight and I was really into sports. But when I got to middle school I started to enjoy school again but the only reason was if I went to school and got good grades I could participate in sports. I loved to play volleyball, basketball, and throw shot put and discus. I also loved to play softball, which was something my dad got me into when I was 5 years old.
When I was in 7th grade, at Tippecanoe Valley Middle School, my science and math teachers really knew how to reach me. Mr. Landis was the best math teacher ever. We would go to class and everyday he would begin by telling us stories and then would find a way to connect it back to class. He would come up with little ways to help us remember the steps to a problem. For once in my life I wanted to go to class for more than the opportunity to play sports. When I went to science my science teacher would answer our questions honestly but at the same time she made us figure them out on our own. I really loved going to school and I wanted to become a person who could make children love school.
In 8th grade I met the best guy in the world. His name is Sam Kimmel. I sat beside him in Typing class. The funniest part about the situation was his mom taught the class and sat me beside him because she thought I would be good for her son. Sam and I fell in love and became each other’s best friends. I spend as much time with him as I can and to think that it all started over a few words that were said in 8th grade. Currently we are still together but he is attending Rose-Hulman in Terre Haute so we are trying to make our relationship work even though we are three hours apart. So far it has been really hard but at the same time I think it has made me stronger.
During high school I was an A-B student and graduated 7th in my class but I really didn’t put a whole lot of effort into my school work. Looking back I wish I would have worked a little harder but at the time I thought if I had A’s and B’s it didn’t matter how much work I put in. Even though I didn’t do a lot of studying, I still found myself with little free time. I was a cheerleader, swimmer, football manager, and softball player. I ended up with ten varsity letters and 4 academic letters.
By far my favorite sport was softball. Not only did I play for my high school team but I also played for a year round travel team. My freshman year I played every J.V. and Varsity game. I had the best Earned Run Average and the most assists on the Varsity team. By the time I was a junior it was determined that I was one of the best pitchers my high school ever had. My junior and senior year our team had the best records in Tippecanoe Valley softball history. My team was only the 2nd team to end our season above 500. Looking back at my stats I seemed to get worse as the years went by. From my freshman to senior year my ERA changed drastically. My freshman year I pitched 80 innings on varsity and my ERA was a 1.82 and my senior year I pitched 60 innings and my ERA was a 2.95. I feel like if I would have worked a little harder in the off season my ERA could have improved a little bit but instead it declined.
On the weekends that I wasn’t playing softball I was spending time at the racetrack working on my boyfriend’s 600 micro sprint pit crew and I still spend my weekends at the track with hopes that one day I can put my own kids in a racecar. I love racing because I love the feeling of working as a team to solve a problem. If Sam wrecks or the car is not running right we have to work together to find a quick way to fix it. I also love the fact that you can drive fast and not get in trouble for it. Although I like most types of racing, I really like dirt track racing. I feel like I have learned more than just mechanical things at the track. I have learned how to manage my anger after someone spins out Sam, how to problem solve, and how to manage 7 year old that like to throw footballs over your head while you are trying to work on the car.
My senior year was full of decisions. With a major chapter coming to a close and a new one beginning I had a lot of choices to make that would make a big impact on my future. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with the rest of my life all I knew was I was going to college. I didn’t know where I was going or what I wanted to major in. Since I was young I knew that I wanted to help people and I thought about teaching but I didn’t really know if I wanted to teach special education, high school or elementary. When I was a sophomore I volunteered in the special needs class room during my study hall and I loved it but when I was a junior the special needs girl I was really close to died in a freak accident during P.E. and I didn’t go back and help until my senior when I thought I would try it again. My first day back into the classroom I feel in love with it and right there I decided I wanted to either work with elementary students or students with disabilities.
The next step was finding a school that offered a degree to teach special education and figure out which school would be the best. Several times during my senior year I thought about changing my major because every school that offered me a softball scholarship or talked to me about playing softball didn’t have a special needs program and I really wanted to play softball. Finally I decided that I was going to attend Indiana State University so I could major in special education. By Christmas I thought I knew I was going to get an apartment in Terre Haute with one of my girlfriends and then I was going to get married by my junior year of college.
But shortly after softball season started I realized that I didn’t want to give up softball and I had applied to Manchester College as a backup plan. When I started to really look at Manchester College I realized they had everything I wanted. It was 25 minutes away from home, it was small enough that I could play softball, and they had a degree that would allow me to teach special needs. Then I made my decision to play softball and attend classes at Manchester College.