The aspect of myself that I am picking is class. I guess for most of my life growing up I was in the lower-middle class classification. My Mom and Dad were divorced when I was a baby. My Mother raised me for the first sixteen years of my life. I remember struggling for everything we had. I didn't have fancy clothes or any extras. We had a television but no cable. The media had a big impact on me. I would see commericals for really neat toys and know that I could not have them. I remember one year we didn't even have a Christmas. School was not so bad. I think there was a good mixture of poor people and not so poor people. The hardest adjustment I had with school was moving so much as a child. I went to 10 different schools growing up because my Mom changed jobs so often and got bored staying in one place. I think that had an impact on my self esteem. As an adult I can see the impact that being in this particular "class" as a child has had on me. I spend way too much money and only buy the best of everything ~ even if I can't afford it. I have vowed never to move my children around from school to school. I think there is some good and some bad in that. I believe that stability is good for children. It enables them to build long lasting friendships and also builds their confidence ~ things that I lacked as a child. As for the spending....I am working on self control.

Patty Tejeda