Rylee Curtis

SLCC FHS
Period B2
May 13, 2016

Final Project
My name is Rylee Curtis. I was born October 10th, 1997 at 2:32 PM in Salt
Lake City, Utah. Im 18 years old. My parents names are Michelle Vigil and Dustin
Curtis. I have one sibling. Her name is Joie, and thats pronounced as Joey. Im
currently a senior at Murray High School. I went to Viewmont Elementary and
Riverview Junior High for previous schooling. Ive lived in places in the Salt Lake
area. Such as Murray, Sandy, Holliday, West Valley, and Taylorsville. I work at The
Law Offices of Kirk Cullimore. Im really easygoing and friendly.
My life as been pretty average. It has its ups and downs. I was an only child
up until I was almost six years old. Joie was born unexpectedly after my mom had a
20% chance of getting pregnant after me. Soon after my sister was born my
parents got a divorce. In 2008, my father had a heart attack. I would have to say
that these events have affected my social/emotional development, cognitive
development and some physical development.

July 26, 2003 is the day my baby sister was born. She is now almost 13 years
old and shes growing up. When she was first born, it was rough for my parents. It
was extremely unexpected. My moms doctor had told her that she had a 20%
chance of having any kids after she had gave birth to me. According to the
textbook, 1 in 7 couples are infertile. (Berger, 2014) Her ovaries were turning to
mush at the and she only had one working ovary. Later on she had a hysterectomy.
I wasnt the best child to my parents when Joie was around. I was
extremely jealous that she was getting all of the attention. I would act out and in
the textbook it is explained as externalizing problems. Its defined as difficulty
with emotional regulation that involves expressing powerful feelings that are
physical or verbal outbursts, as by lashing out at other people or throwing things.
(Berger,2014) I believe this affected my social and emotional development because
I was so jealous in the beginning.
Not long after my mother had Joie, my parents got a divorce. This was the
worst thing you could hear as a child. In the end of it all, Im glad they arent
together anymore. As I grew older, I understood more of why they did. Few of the
many reasons for the divorce are stress, work, Joie and I, and they were both
young.

According to the textbook, it says On average , children fare best,

emotionally and academically, with married parents.... On average, divorce impairs
childrens academic achievement and psychosocial development for years, even
decades. (Berger, 2014) I totally agree with this. I was six years old and going
into the first grade when my parents got a divorce. I had troubles at school for
the first couple years as far as being antisocial and doing poorly on tests, which I
still have troubles with today. I started getting anxiety problems around 13 years
old. This affects me on a daily basis. I think this affected me more than my sister
Joie because she was so little and she didnt really grow up with my parents being
together. She grew up being raised by my dads girlfriends or my moms boyfriends
being around. Where for me, I didnt ever replace my parents spot with their new
girl/boyfriends. I knew who had that title and I wasnt giving it to someone who
didnt deserve it.
In May of 2008, my father had a heart attack. I was almost 11 years old and
was at school when I found out. The doctor that had operated on my dad said that
it was from all of the unhealthy foods that he consumed on a daily basis. Such as
energy drinks, fast food (McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell), foods that are high in
cholesterol, etc. According to WebMD, it says Most heart attacks are the result
of coronary heart disease, a condition that clogs coronary arteries with fatty,

calcified plaques. In the early 1980s, researchers confirmed that the immediate
cause of nearly all heart attacks is not the obstructive plaque itself. Instead, it's
the sudden formation of a blood clot on top of plaque that cuts off blood flow in an
already narrowed blood vessel. (WebMD representative, 2016).
I think that my fathers heart attack affected me physically and
emotionally. I was lucky that my father survived that day. After he got back home
and back to normal. We had to adjust our eating habits and start eating healthier
when it was his week with Joie and I. We had to limit our intake of salt, sugar, and
saturated fats. It was hard at first because all of those foods we couldnt eat
were so convenient. The foods we had to eat were expensive and were usually
individual foods you had to make a meal out of. Some example foods would be
things such as fruits, vegetables, protein foods and simples foods such as rice. In
the end it was beneficial because I was getting the nutrition I needed to have.
According to the textbook, it says obesity causes your metabolism to decrease by
one-third between the ages of 20 and 60. It also says that Obesity increases
with each decade of adulthood until old age. (Berger, 2014).
There are many of life events and choices ive made that have affected my
social and emotional development as well as my physical development. That is why I
chose my top three events. Those are the birth of my sister Joie, my parents

divorce, and lastly, my fathers heart attack. In conclusion, my sister changed my

social and emotional development for jealousy and having her as my baby sister for
the rest of my life. My parents divorce affected my social and emotional
development academically and physiologically. Finally, my fathers heart attack
affected my physical and emotional development by eating healthy and I still get to
have my relationship with him still today.

References
Berger, K. S. (2014). Invitation to the Life Span (2nd ED.). New York, NY:
Worth Publishers
Steinbaum, S. R. MD (2016). Heart Disease Health Center.
http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/guide/heart-attack-causes-treatments?
page=4