Hello my name is Rachel. I am 17 years old and am a senior at River Falls High School. I live in a rented house with my dad, step-mom, stepsister, and brother. I work at Burger King as a cashier. I have a dog, named Cheko and a cat, named Kiton. I enjoy one TV show called Gilmore Girls that is on every Tuesday night at seven o'clock.
      My brother's name is Mitch. Mitch has been going though some tough times as of late. He has been kicked out of schools and has been charged for various vandalizations. My little stepsister, Moriah, has a slight weight problem. I fret about her from time to time. She is always sneaking food. I try to stop her, but it never works. There is also my evil stepmother, Tracy, who is a constant pain in the butt. She is one of the meanest people I know. I try to excuse her faults, which are endless, and surpass them on as her depressions. I don't know. I think she is a very dejected person with how her existence has turned out. She in addition, is over weight and well, just unintelligent. She is the main cause of all the disturbances in our household. She is yelling all the time and slamming doors. Lastly there is my wonderful loving dad, Ron. He cares about us more than anything. I know he wants the best for us, and he is funny too. He has a great sense of humor, which is always a good quality for a person to have. I love my dad very much, and I worry about his health. He has been though countless rough times in his life. He had a heart attack when I was in fifth grade. He is on a million heart pills, and recently has had this crazy blood flow blockage in his legs. He might need surgery, which scares me. Then also recently, my grandma "disowned" him for visiting his father's relatives or something. I don't know much about the story. Anyway, my mom lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has lived with this guy Dearld for like nine years, but he won't marry her. I am pretty sure she has asked him to even, but for some reason he still denies her. It is so sad.
      My parents have been divorced since I was five years old. I don't remember much from back then. I am sure my mind tries to block the bad memories. I remember once, around the Christmas holidays, a friend of my aunts was babysitting me. Amber was her name. I was six years old or younger. She was a schizophrenic. She had not taken her medications or something, and she was going all crazy. She told me that there were tons of rats in the house, and that she had to break one of the front windows of the trailer, with a rock, so they could escape. After she broke the window, she took an angel ornament from our Christmas tree, and gave it to me to hold. We walked all around town, into the dark cold hours of the night. I know I was scared, especially because I did not see any rats at all.
      I also have close ties with my extended relatives, mostly on my mom's side. We all go camping every summer. There is my aunt Kim with her husband Cory. They have a daughter, Callin. And now they have a two-week-old son, Kash. There is my uncle Ronnie, and his daughters Nina, Julia, and Melanie. And there is my mom, her boyfriend Dearld, and my brother Mitch. My aunt Wendy and her two boys, Jaime and Dylan go camping with us sometimes. Wendy brings her boyfriend, Steve and his two kids, Ken and Heather once in a while. As well as other friends of the family that I do not even want to begin naming. Those are just a few people that go camping with us. We usually go in the summer months. I have gone in the past for a whole week. It is always the best because everyone is all stinky and we just hang out and eat junk food for a week straight. The adults usually stay up and drink alcoholic beverages, while we children make fun of them and eat lots of junk food, and play games. One time we actually met boys! It was always the thing to happen, to meet some random boys our age at our campsite. Well, one summer we did meet two boys. Nina and I were like a couple of silly girls flirting with these cute boys. Julia hung out with us too, and they had some younger siblings as well. We all we all played 500 and flashlight tag at night.
      Since I am on the subject of cousins. I would just like to say that Julia, Melanie, and Nina, feel like sisters to me. I have spent all of my childhood with those girls. They mean the world to me. Without them I would not be the wonderful person I am today. Actually to confuse you a little, Nina was actually adopted, and her biological dad is Dearld, the guy my mom lives with. Sounds messed up, but it is really not. I see my cousins regularly, at least every two weeks. There are four of them that live with their mom, Mary, in Stillwater, Minnesota. Mary has five daughters. The oldest, and also adopted, is Maggie. She lives in an apartment with her boyfriend and already went to college and is a dental hygienist. She was always older then the rest of us, always acting more mature then us. I never really got close to her. Nina is the next in chronological order. She is my best friend. She knows everything about me and we both care about each other more than anything. She is eighteen years old. I love her to death. She has gone through some tough times herself lately. But she has gotten a lot better; I hope she gets what she wants in life. Next in line is Julia. She is fifteen years old. She is in ninth grade and is the cutest girl I have ever seen. She does not think so all the time, but I make sure to tell her that she is beautiful. I tell her that when she finds love, it will be real, and perfect, and that she will be ever so happy. Then there is Melanie. She is thirteen years old. She is home-schooled by Mary, her mom, which I do not approve of. No offence, I love her mom, she used to be an aunt to me, and still is there for me, but she is a burnout hippy from the seventies. She is not on any drugs anymore, but let's face it, she's gone like the wind. Not a credible teacher, in the least. Lastly there is Sunny. She is the youngest of the five girls. She is four years old. I am under the understanding that she too will be home-schooled, which I find rather repulsing. Mel's excuse for not being in public school is because she does not get along with the other kids. I think Mel should have to deal with it, just like everyone else. Dealing with people you do not like is what life is all about. If Sunny is home schooled right away, she will not even have the chance of meeting new people. She definitely will be cheated in any kind of proper education. I think it would be extremely not fair to Sunny to keep her from public school. She should at least be able to experience it for herself, to see if she likes it or not.
      My bedroom is my favorite place to be. If I could, I would bring it with me where ever I go. When I go off to college, I wish I could just bring my walls and room with me. I have spent lots of my time in my bedroom. I have decorated it to my true unique personality. You walk in, and you say wow, this room reflects the awesome personality you have Rachel! I love having new friends come into my room for the first time. I love having them ask me questions about my things, and I like explaining them. I love to talk about myself, and my belongings. I collect stickers. My dresser is covered with stickers. Some from parades, dentist, doctor, Lisa Frank, barney, I have them all. I have a quilt on my bed that my friend Abby and I made in clothing class this year. It is green, blue, yellow and off white. It is magnificent. I also sleep on the bed that my dad bought from my best friend, Ashley, when they moved away in fourth grade. I loved that bed so much. It holds many grand memories. I have 5 huge posters on my walls, Sum 41, Eminem, Limp Bizkit, and two Blink 182. There is little magazine cut out ones, of many　random people that I love. I also have pictures of my friends and family on my walls. I mix them in with the others. So it is one huge beautiful collage of pictures on my walls. I have a door in my room that goes right outside. I just bought a new stereo, and it has great bass. I did not have a CD player in my room for at least a year. I saved up all my Target gift cards, and I chipped in a little bit of extra cash, and I was able to buy myself a beautiful silver stereo for about two hundred dollars. I am really into music as well. I listen to Eminem, Limp Bizkit, Shakira, Alanis Morissette, The Beatles, The Offspring, Blink 182, and Green Day. I could go on forever with the list of different bands I listen to. I love them all. Music is a wonderful thing. I do not think I would be the person I am today if there was not any music in my life.
      Now there are a couple miscellaneous items about myself I still need to share. My favorite color is lime green. Don't ask why, because I just do not know. I love pizza, bread, and cheese. I live in Wisconsin, so that is to be expected. Face is the nickname my dad has given me, and a couple of my friends call me bread. My favorite thing to do is make people laugh. I have been told I am quite good at it if the time is right. I have had a couple of boyfriends. I have been in love once. I have had a broken heart a couple times. And I have lots of good friends who love and care about me. I do not like doing homework, and I love to stay out late and sleep in late. I like roller coasters, kittens, swimming in lakes, and warm towels right out of the dryer. I like to party, go to movies, stay up late, and have deep conversations with strangers and loved ones.
      I plan to go to college, and get a good job, in the field of Health Information. I've always thought about being a nurse, or a teacher, but I do not know how much patience I have with kids. Also, by being a nurse I would have to look at people in the eyes as they tell you what is wrong with them. I do not know how comfortable I would be with a man telling me about his sexually transmitted diseases and symptoms. So by being a information specialist or other health information professional, I will still be helping people, just not directly with the patients themselves.
      All in all, I am a wonderful person and everyone should love me because I am cute. I have brown hair and brown eyes. I love my family and friends. They are what make me unique. I am a person of not many talents. But I do enjoy making people laugh, and that makes me happy, so that is all that really matters.