My #name Childhood     I grew up with 2 brothers and one sister. My sister is 4 years older than me, my older brother is 2 years older than me, and I have an identical twin brother. My father left us when I was about 2 weeks old and my mom raised us by herself until I was about 10, when she remarried. My childhood was pretty much uneventful. We grew up in poverty, but always had food on the table and clothes on our backs. My mom made sure of that. I've lived in Toledo my whole life and actually never even travelled out of Ohio until I was 15. That was a time my older brother and I decided to go to Florida... without asking. Needless to say, we did come back, with the help of family funds.     Our family was very close knit and we were a very happy family. I tended to suffer ridicule when I was young, mostly for my unique last name. As I grew older I took ridicule for my large nose, of which has since been surgically reduced. But I took it all in stride, still had a lot of friends and girlfriends who weren't concerned with names and noses. I think all children go through a phaze where older kids pick on them and the love I received at home more than made up for the rejection at school.      The relationship my mom had with her second husband turned abusive and she ended that when I was about 14, at which time we moved and started our lives over without him. My mom eventually remarried a wonderful man and has celebrated 19 years of bliss with him. He has proved to be more of a father to us than my real father or my previous step-father. Eventually my childhood drew to a close and it was something I could look back at without regret. There were and are many happy childhood memories; and we all have a few we'd like to forget, but I won't go into them here.

My Education