Hello!

Hey everyone! I am excited beyond words to have this! I don't really know what to say in this first post, but I think I will start by telling you a little bit about myself. My name is Maureen, and I am 20 years old. I am a music student at a college in NY. I have a minor in biology, that I crazily decided to declare the second semester of my junior year. So, I will be in college forever, by the looks of it. I am from a REALLY small town in Upstate NY, which has about 2000 people in it...yeah, I didn't leave out any zeros, 2000. My mother and I went to the same high school, and my dad went to the high school a town over. We didn't move very far....

I LOVE my family, and although I have only found closeness with some of them recently, I couldn't live without them. I have a grand assortment of cousins, young and old, many aunts and uncles, great uncles and of course my mom, my dad, and my brother, Nick. I have one living biological grandparent left, but I don't really consider him to be a part of my life, because I have never spoken to him, and he has made no effort to become a part of my life.

My mom and dad are my strength, and they have gotten me through a lot of hard times in my life. They love each other so much, and their love translates to my brother and I. They would give anything to make both of us happy, even if it is at the expense of their own happiness. I hope that when I "grow up", I can give them the same happiness I was afforded during my childhood.

My family is not well-off, but we survive. We live in a small house, on a piece of land that my mom's father gave us before he died. We live paycheck to paycheck sometimes, but they way I see it, where is the thrill of life if you don't have the unexpected? Nick and I aren't any worse for not having the best clothes, or the latest cell-phones...I think it has actually made us better people, learning to appreciate what we have even more, because we have to work and wait for it. We were never handed anything, and I think that is why I strive to work so hard, because I want to see it pay off for me, my family and everyone around me.

My home life is complicated, but I won't go into details. I will just say that right now, for our family, we are having a tough time, but we are holding together through this tough time. I am so proud of us. We are perserving through the hardest challenge that we have had to face as a family, and STAYING a family. We aren't going anywhere, unless we go together.

As far as I go, my life pretty much revolves around other people. I am a Resident Assistant at my college, which basically means that I help residents of the dorms, and make their environment a better place to live and study. I LOVE my job, and I get a lot of satisfaction knowing that I have changed someone's life for the better, by making their year in my residence hall bearable. :)

EMS is also very important to me, I enjoy both the joy of helping people, and the thrill of the unexpected. Somehow, not knowing what to expect when you come upon a situation, gives me a sort of high that I don't think any drugs could touch. I like the feeling of knowing that I can deal with these situation, and really make an impact on someone's life by doing it. I think that this came from the fact that my father and mother were doing this before I was born, and when I was born, it didn't stop. I would go to CPR classes that my parents would teach and learn. I got my first CPR card when I was 11. Yeah, I am a nerd. Don't judge me, you are reading my blog. :)

So now we come to music. Music is something that is so profoundly important to me. I find solace in music, comfort, relief of boredom, release of anger...any emotion that a human can feel, I feel through music. I am currently in school for music, studying voice, and although I do see myself doing something majorly different in the future, I could not honestly tell you that I regret my choice to be a music student. It has given me insight on a world that I would like to be part of, but at the current moment, I do not have the soul to. I would like to eat, sleep and breathe music;but something in my heart is telling me that is not the right thing to do right now. I think being forced to dig so deep into music has thrown me into a bit of a burnout. I don't EVER want to hate music, and when I felt that emotion deep inside, I knew it was time to take a break. So I am. I am finishing my music degree, and then pursuing another passion. Medicine.

Now that you think I am a complete and utter nutcase, I guess I shall end this for tonight. I will give more details on my life ( if you care), tomorrow in Part Deux! ( I don't speak french, I just pretend to...:) )

Talk to you all later! :)

Moe