Culture of one.

I come from a very tight knight family.  My family consists of my mom, dad, sister, grandma, and grandpa.  Originally my name was going to be Patrick after my grandpa, but my parents decided that it would be too confusing when they yelled Patrick in the house, and we were both there.   They decided to name me Jacob because they like the name Jake, but nobody calls me that, and I actually like being called Patrick or JB, my initials.   Three of the biggest aspects of my life that shaped my culture are my Grandpa, middle school, and high school.

My grandpa is known for being  generous.  He constantly is sharing whatever he has and is doing whatever he can to give to others.  One of his best friends, Daryl, and he do all sorts of projects like working on Daryl’s home, RV, or boat.  My grandpa, despite being sent to the ER numerous times due to Daryl’s mishaps, still goes back to help him each time.  My Grandpa had taught me about the value of sharing.

My middle school experience felt unique.  My sister went to the same school that I did, but it was a very different experience for both of us.   My middle school was experiencing a transition period. Hellgate Middle School, the unfortunately named kindergarten through eighth grade attended, was in the newspaper several times because of the severe bullying problem it developed.  The peak of the issue began when I was in seventh grade.   We had kids who constantly had to switch to different schools, and one kid was bullied so bad causing trauma resulting in him having to go to an institution in Colorado. After kids started leaving the school and the negative publicity, the school administration decided enough was enough.  At the end of seventh grade and continuing through eighth grade, we had to take in essence, what was a class in kindness.   I was always a compassionate kid, and was really invested into the idea of justice and equality, but I never considered it in a global perspective.  We learned about race, mental health issues, classism and poverty, sexism, racism, conflict resolution, and ways to treat others with respect.  My middle school had displayed issues where people were not being treated fairly and created a culture of viewing problems on a larger scale.

    This really helped me when I got to high school.  Ironically, my high school was named Hellgate High School, but was not affiliated with the elementary and middle school I attended.   Hellgate encompassed areas of families living in poverty as well as very affluent families.  This school in contrast to the school I used to go to was very kind.  People tended to be very open about themselves and the kids got along very well.  Because of where the school was though, I got to see the struggles of people with different backgrounds than me.  I ended up doing more research and found out that one in six people in my hometown struggle with food insecurity.  This inspired me to develop a project to help  obtain donations of food and money for the local food banks in Montana.  I enjoyed this so much, I started volunteering at both food banks.  I had developed into a culture of taking action for a cause.  

Thinking back to my days at Hellgate Middle School, the classes we were required to take every week on global mindedness pushed me towards thinking about how my actions affect others, and my grandpa taught me that sharing is the best way of caring.   The high school I went too showed me that there is ways that you can take action.  All of these shaped my culture, how I see the world, and prepared me for being a responsible, kind human being.