Living in Ashburn your whole life can give you a skewed perception of the world- I can attest to this as I’ve been working to undo such perceptions as I’ve been getting older. I am so lucky to have the life I do. I don’t need to worry about providing for siblings, making up for parents who work all night and day, how we’re going to get food to eat, and infinitely more problems that come as givens for me. I had my aunt as a nanny while my parents were at work during the day, which has been a truly invaluable blessing to our entire family. My parents both have good, consistent jobs, and we live in a nice house in a lovely neighborhood with lots of great academic and extracurricular opportunities. My mom and dad love each other, and are celebrating their 19th wedding anniversary today! I could continue listing the privileges I have grown up with indefinitely. However, I have been too plentifully blessed to not at least become aware of the struggles of others, nor to use my advantage to share with those less fortunate than I.

My wonderful mother is the youngest of four girls, raised in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Her family lived in a beautiful but small home. Grandma was a teacher for a while but mostly stayed at home. Grandpa was home from work at 5:30 everyday, then worked in workshop. Grandma sewed all the time and made lots of my mom’s clothes. Grandma was a indifferent cook, but loved cookies and fudge. She taught my mom how to sew, which is a huge part of her life today. My mom and her sisters sang in the Methodist church choir. My mom had an intrinsic self-confidence that I don’t have because she was a lil crazy, according to her. She hung out with the weirdos and didn’t care. In Greensburg, there were much fewer opportunities. She didn’t have dance, and that was something she would have loved to do, which is why she danced as an adult. Grandpa loved my mom and her siblings, but was a bit hands off because he was an only child and didn’t know better. He loved them in his own quiet way. Her mom was a screamer, clinically depressed, and a dreamer. They didn’t have a lot of money, but they didn’t know it because Grandpa managed the money so well. My aunt Katie thinks my childhood was extended. The Bray girls learned independence early, which Katie feels was an asset rather than hardship. Grandma had undiagnosed depression, they probably didn’t receive the attention/love that they needed. Their childhood was good in that they learned responsibility at a young age, though bad because her parents were emotionally unavailable and probably didn’t love on them enough. According to Katie, “Jeanne and Connie got all the love because Jeanne was cute, and Connie was a raging bitch and upset the whole house and everyone turned on her emotions.”

My fantastic Dad is the oldest of three. Him and his family lived in basically the same place until he was 17. My dad and his siblings all went to the same Catholic elementary school, and my dad attended Catholic schools until 12th grade. Faith was always very important, with mass every Sunday. Papap was strict and a screamer, and if he was mad everybody knew. Grandma was a screamer too, but not as bad. During the summer in New Jersey, they went to the beach every day. Growing up, there was always lots of friends and things to do, so him and his siblings were outside a lot- different from now, where electronics and information provide a lot of distractions. He thinks the world has become smaller. His parents didn’t have to deal with all the negatives of the information age that my sister and I are exposed, which have altered how kids grow up. People are more polarized and more intolerant than ever, in his opinion. At 17 my dad moved down to an apartment in Arlington with Papap while Papap worked and looked for a house in Virginia for the whole family to move to. A couple months later Papap bought a house in Vienna. In Vienna, it was pretty much all regular high school stuff. The End.