Myself

My name is Leah Bernstein and I was born on July 11th, 1994.  Iv'e spent my whole life living in the small town of New Paltz, just an hour and a half north of New York City.  I spent the first 5 years of my life living with a single parent.  My mom was everything to me and I was everything to her.  Yet she didn't let me hold her back from anything, instead she brought me everywhere, whether it be sneaking me into r-rated movies or having someone watch me at the bottom of the cliffs while she rock climbed.  Even though we didn't have much, sleeping on a mattress on the floor, we still had each other and that's all that mattered to me. When I was five, my mom got married.  A lot of things  changed that day, no longer where we a unit of two.  We became more of a family, settling down and buying a bigger house.  We didn't go on  many adventures and we stopped moving from house to house.  In a way I was more content, I could finally decorate my own room and feel like I had a place of my own, but losing the adventure and spontaniety aspect of my life deeply saddened me and still does.  My brother came along when I was 6 and a half, halfway through my first grade year.  He brought so much love into my life.  I treated him as my own baby, feeding him, bathing him, and tucking him in at night.  He has made me into a much more loving and understanding being, because I would do anything for him.  I have lived through many different circumstances and experienced a lot of change.  All challenging me to become a stronger person.  Even though my life hasn't necesserily been the so called norm, it has shaped me and prepared me for what is to come.