Development Over the Lifespan I Third Quarter Psychology Project Christina Contravening I 3/24/2013 | My full name is Christina Seasons Contravening and I was born March 23, 1995 in Bridgeport Hospital located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It was a little city and a small world since a ton of people would know each other. My parent’s were in an arranged marriage and were both moved to the United States from Laos during their high school years. But I’m actually half Laotian and Thai since my mom’s side is Thai from Thailand although she was born in an Asian Southeastern country called Laos.

I’m the second oldest out of four children with two sisters and one brother. The order goes from Sarah, Christina (me), Kenny, and Anita. From my very first baby photo, I was described as a giant tomato because my face was red like one. My first words were like any baby can typically say: mama. Since my parent’s spoke mostly Laotian at home, saying mama would be “amah” (Language Development). My infant years around 2 or 3, I was considered a curious one. I’d always liked to climb on top of chairs to see what were on the tables and I tended to dig through drawers to see hat kind of items I would find in there then chew on it.

My favorite thing to chew on was a Barbie doll ( Pigment, Seniority stage). I was pretty clumsy as a toddler and my parent’s weren’t very affectionate towards me (Trust vs.. Mistrust). I remember then until now we had strained relationships. If I did anything wrong or if any of my siblings did, they would hit us as punishment. Wooden spoons were usually used, getting our hair pulled, and getting the side of our face smacked or punched. In my childhood years, I wasn’t always a good kid. At age 4 or 5, I used to constantly steal hinges I liked.

I didn’t know better of course and I would be one of those children who were curious and dug through their mother’s purses. In my Kindergarten class, I saw what fascinated me which were toys and things other children had that I don’t. They were mostly those TTY beanie baby stuffed animals or Lip Smackers chap sticks and lip glosses. I found ways to sneak those into my cubby. Eventually I got caught because one day, one of my classmates told the teacher but I deserved it. My teacher told me how wrong it is to steal and how that would hurt someone’s feelings.

Since hen, Vive stopped paying attention to what other children’s belongings in order to stay out of trouble (Goldberg, Hedonism, stage 2). Also the other children avoided playing with me during recess and I barely had any friends At home, I also wasn’t even close to my family even as a kid. I followed my older sister around and thought of her as an archetype. I used to copy her too whether it’s tastes and interests. She usually feels irritated by it and we would fight a lot verbally and physically most of the time. I used to nave imaginary trends that I Jump on my parent’s bed and pretend someone is Jumping along with me.

I don’t remember all of their names but one of them was “Cheese”. I gave Cheese his name because cheese is one of my favorite things to eat and use as toppings. In the third grade, I transferred schools. I went to Edison Elementary School to High Horizons Magnet School. High Horizons Magnet was a school mostly for gifted children as in an intellectual way. It was one of those schools that went from grade K-8th. I was known as one of the shyest and most silent in my classes. I was new though so I wouldn’t know any of my new classmates yet. The first friend I made was a girl who was new a few days later named Valerie.

Later in time, we’ve grown close then I considered her my first best friend. Although she was popular among the class because of her looks she still treated me better than most classmates. The students in that school weren’t really that nice. Most of them cursed at such a young age and I started curing because I got influenced. But when I started cursing at home, I usually get smacked in the mouth by my parent’s as a punishment (Goldberg, pre-moral morality, stage 1). My little sister Anita was born at the time and having a baby sibling around made me feel like a big kid or a parent.

I loved holding her and feeding her with a bottle my mom taught me to do while she worked at a night shift (maturation). My fourth grade year is probably the time I went through the most out of my elementary school years. I found out things were getting hectic between my parent’s. I would see them fight almost every day about money, cheating, and where did they go in their free time. One night when my mom came home from grocery shopping they were verbally fighting and yelling at each other. I heard it from the living room and I went into the kitchen to see them. All of a sudden,

I Just saw my dad pushed her into the ground and started beating her. She eventually escaped from his grip and ran into my sister’s room. She called the police and they came and arrested him for assault. I couldn’t do much because I Just stood there witnessing in shock. They divorced in October while it was the beginning of my fifth grade year. I started to go through depression since the whole thing happened. I grew bitter, unmotivated for school, and even crueler towards my family and animals. I had terrible grades in my report card and I tend to get embarrassed with my teacher yelling at me.

I cried over the smallest things that would happen in class. People started giving me sympathy but then got tired of it because it happened often. Around the winter time my mom started to talk to someone on the phone almost every single day. It was a man who I somehow knew in the past but I couldn’t recall. She explained to my siblings and I later that it was someone new she’s seeing and he’s coming to visit over our break time with his kids. They all visited during our break. They were all friendly and I recognized them from the time we visited their home in Virginia for a family party.

Then news came out and my mom decided to move to Virginia with the man and his kids. We all became a family. It was tough to move out of a state of where I was born and kind of raised in for 11 years. Despite from all the things that happened, I missed the places in Bridgeport. I moved to Spoliation, Virginia in the year of 2006. Living there was a bit hectic with a total of eleven or twelve people living in the same house. I was nervous to start my whole school life over starting in the sixth grade. I slowly gained and lost friends in the process throughout my middle school years.

But I started to academically improve and got nor roll tort the first time in the sixth and seventh grade. One to my step siblings started to notice that I grew taller and that I need to wear a bra since I never noticed I was developing breasts (Physical Development). I barely cared about my appearance in my preteen-teen years. In fact, I was a tomboy. I had a reputation of being mistaken as a boy since I had haircuts that were short length with bangs that are usually a little below my eye brows, dressing like one, and I loved what guys usually like: video games, sports, and talking about anything humorous (Gender

Development). I slow made some new friends in the process but some moved at the end of the year. In the seventh grade, I took a language I was interested in that doesn’t revolve in general speaking but that will help me a lot in some areas and I still take today which was Latin (Language Development). A ton of people that year weren’t really nice to me. People in one of my classes would take my things without asking or stomp on me like I’m a push over. I was called a nerd, little Chinese girl, and ugly most of the time. I was even made fun at home of because I had crooked teeth.

I also did something I never done before which was singing in front of a crowd. It was a contest thing like American Idol in my choir class and I decided to participate in it. I was still a beginner at singing and I wasn’t even prepared. I didn’t think before I acted so I chose a hard song to sing. It was “Bleeding Love” by Leona Lewis, during the time I was recorded and sung in front of everyone it turned out terrible. I sounded like I was tone deaf and the Judges gave me zeroes as my score. I felt humiliated, embarrassed, and ashamed. Since then, I thought I would give up on impressing people after I see everyone laughing at me.

After I turned thirteen I started to gain responsibilities and learned a little more of what is right and wrong from my stepfather’s mother. She taught me a lot like how to sweep the floors properly, how to clean bathrooms, and always telling me to keep an eye on my sister’s bus when she comes home (Goldberg, conventional morality, stage 2). I made a lot of mistakes before I learned, like doing things that made me lie to people in order to protect myself. Vive done things disrespectful like talk back to adults and write in urinals about people who made me upset.

But I eventually started to think before I act or speak but sometimes I do forget (Erikson, Industrial vs.. Inferiority Latency). In the eighth grade, I started to feel comfortable with people in my school and made close friendships with a few. I was no longer known as the quiet and shy one. In fact, some people thought I was sort of annoying. I also had my first real crush that year. I would always act differently towards him than other people. Progressively though out the year I found out he never liked me like that and he avoids me constantly. Someone told my secret to him and I was unaware of rumors going on.

I also realized I wasn’t the type to move on quickly, so it was hard time seeing him with the girls he dated. I later learned from someone’s advice and common quotes like “There’s more fish out in the sea. ” And informer young so you’ll learn later in life what kind of partner you need”. I Joined my first sport team which was soccer during that year but had transportation issues. It motivated me to keep myself in shape and focus doing better although my coach thought I was a pretty worthless player. I thought about that throughout my high school years. I would say my freshman year was the worst out of my high school years.

My stepped bought a house up in Woodbine because it would be a closer drive to his work. He comes back and forth with the house in Spoliation and the one in Woodbine. My mother decided to move in there with my little brother and sister because they had a hard time living with my steamily. My older sister already moved out with her spouse during that time and things grew bitter in that house. My stead’s mother constantly complained about me living there with them. I didn’t want to move out so early because I developed bonds with people at my school that I couldn’t lose.

I was treated like an outcast when I was the only one living there who wasn’t blood related to any of them. I was always stuck in my room reading and studying on the weekends although I did hang out with friends once in a while. Fortunately I stayed until the end of my freshman year. And during my ninth year, I was cyber bullied. There was this website called forming. Com where you can ask people questions or anything anonymously or not. On my friend’s account someone posted anonymously about me with a bunch of curse words and ailing me retarded.

They also said I have no chance with the guy I liked that year. After reading that, I started to go through insecurity, desperation, and depression. It made me believe that those things were actually true about me and I won’t have chances with any fish out in the sea in the future. Sooner I talked it out with people and it did make things better by always telling me those things aren’t true. It was kind of hard to leave the friends I knew since middle school at the end of the year. But I know that I could possibly make more in my later school years.

In the summer of 010, I visited my dad in Connecticut with my little sister and we haven’t seen him for years. I earned a temporary Job at my older cousin’s Thai food restaurant he owned which was called “Sigma’s Orchid”. He trained me how to serve food and water to customers and how hosts should speak to the customers. I felt like this would be a good preparation in order to earn some Jobs in the future when I’m older (maturation). It was great although he gets angry at me most of the time since Vive done a lot of mistakes like spilling water accidental on the customers.

In the end, my work paid off by getting twenty bucks a week. In the beginning of my sophomore at my new school called “Forest Park”, I was isolating myself from people since I’m usually shy and didn’t know a single person. But there was one person that randomly talked to me and we became friends. I got to know her other friends too so even though it was a fresh start; the year actually went by pretty well. Her name was Shirley. Being friends with her at first was uncomfortable because when she got to know me and anything I would tell her she Judges and corrects me on it.

I usually feel irritated inside whenever she does, but when I learned a lot about and from her it Leary motivates me to improve. I used to become Jealous of her because my mother always would compare me to her and talks about how wonderful and talented she is. It brings my self-esteem down because I’m not what she is. I know I’m not as smart as her, friendly, and she’s not awkward like me. But she did help me on my problems and grades. She kind of stands out in my life because I made a lot of improvements and knew what I should do that’s important to me in life from her help.

And I now know what is right or wrong (Goldberg, conventional morality, stage 3). I did lose intact with my old friends but I learned that life goes on and there will be new people to meet. I decided to choose on who my real friends are because I did lose a few close ones that sent cold texts about me. In the summer after sophomore my mom made me participate in volunteering that I later liked doing. It was at the Mary Washington Hospital down in Fredericksburg. I was questioning myself on why would she make me do this. I learned later on how people were working at hospitals.

I talked and got to know some nice people and we talked about how they liked working s a pharmacist, a nurse, or even a volunteer. This made me realize that I might want to become part of this. I screwed up on my Junior year of high school because I chose the wrong classes that would be unnecessary for my career for the future. But at the time I still had a hard time deciding what I want to do. I kept asking myself: “Am I better fit for being a nurse as what everyone else agreed that’s something I would be good at? ” “Should I become some photo Journalist because it’s something I enjoy? ” “What should I do it’s almost time for college! I took the SAT for the first time and May 2012, and I wasn’t prepared. I got a score that was so low that I felt insecure and when people asked me about it, I didn’t want to be honest so I told them a score that wasn’t above average. I didn’t have good grades that year and got a low score on the SAT, so I doubted myself that I will get into any colleges. During the summer after junior year was done, I had my first kiss. It was with someone that is a couple of years older than me but I only gave him a chance because I felt bad for turning him down while I he was infatuated with me in the past.

I didn’t feel anything except Just lips couching so it really wasn’t that great. In the beginning of my senior year, I see everyone getting prepared to apply to colleges. I finally decided what I wanted to do but now I regret on how my grades were and how I was for the past four years. I’m still working hard but I feel really bad that I had to lie to people when they asked on which colleges I got accepted to. I knew I wouldn’t get in so I didn’t apply to any. I should’ve been honest about everything and I regret it. Right now, I’m trying to earn good grades and have fun senior year.

Since I turned 18, my mom and I have been eating along better. We still quarrel about everything we disagree on, but we eventually make up and get over it. I learned to forgive my parent’s from the past and move on. An event I participated called “The Coffee House” where you can show off you artistic talents, I actually sung well this time. In the past years where I sung in front of people it sounded tone deaf and I embarrassed myself but now I’m pretty proud that everything got better. I’m looking forward to graduate and work toward to earn my degrees. And hopefully be happy with my life in the next decade or so.