Culture of One

I grew up in the small town of Poulsbo Washington (a small Norwegian town on the bay) living with my mom, dad, and younger sister. My family means the world to me and have been more than anything I could ask for. They are so loving and supportive, they both came up from not the best backgrounds as far as parenting situations but leave no signs of it.

 The location of my upbringing had a very large impact on who I am today. As far as I know back my family has been in this town and has earned a name in it. One of the main streets through town is Jensen Way after my great grandfather. This being said family has been a huge part of my life as we all live so close. Growing up as the oldest child and grandchild I have always received so much support from my family whether it was athletics, racing, school, or general accomplishments they were always there for me and let me know how proud they were. This has pushed me to work very hard in everything I do and try to be the best I can be as I have all this support. I grew up having great friends and family in that town who I still stay in touch with everyday. Friends and family are have had such great impacts on me in my growth as a person and have always been there for me.

Racing is another this that had a very large impact on who I am today. I started racing dirt bikes at the age of 6 which forced me to learn a lot at a young age and become very tough. In order to race you are going to crash and crash hard and I had to learn to get back up and on the bike every time I went down. One memory that stands out to me is there was a really big jump and my dad told me that we weren’t leaving until I cleared it. We were there for 30 min with me crashing and coming close over and over again and he just kept telling me to push it and go faster. Finally, I came out of the corner with the throttle pinned all the way up the jump and did it. This really opened me up and I look back and realize that “the sky is the limit”, sometimes you have to break that barrier of fear and just push yourself a little harder to obtain your goals because anything is possible if you give it your all. My dad knew it was something the bike and I could do he just had to get me to push myself in order to get it done.