Shannon Dossett

1. Shannon Dossett Individual Project FHS 1500

2. A Timeline of my Life

3. Past: From Birth to Age 8

4. In the Beginning • Born February 23, 1982 • Born at Sapulpa Memorial Hospital in Sapulpa Oklahoma • Mother Rhonda, Father John

5. Pivotal Moments in Early Childhood • Birth (that’s pretty pivotal). • When I was 2 my sister was born (I wanted a donkey but I got a sister). • Started Kindergarten at age 5.

6. About Me • I grew up very close to my extended family which gave me a very strong support base. • I grew up surrounded by people of many different cultures and races. My sister and I were the only “white” children on our street. I never really knew what racism was until much later in life. • I spent a lot of time outside as a child. • I have always been overweight and shy which lead me to be an introverted child. • I read at a 5th grade reading level when I started Kindergarten which I was teased for as being a “brain”. • I was a lot larger then my sister which led to a lot of jealousy and rivalry between us. • I had a love of books and spent most of my free time reading.

7. I was in Camp Fire, a program similar to Girl Scouts. • I loved cooking, science, art and anything I could do with my hands. • I was baptized but growing up didn’t know much about religion. You either went to church or you didn’t. • There were several community centers that offered a variety of classes for very low prices. I took several cooking classes and joined reading groups. • I took a karate course in Tae-Kwon-Do and received my orange belt just before the age of nine.

8. Age 9

9. The Big Move • Between the ages of 9-10 we moved from the suburbs of Tulsa Oklahoma to Salt Lake city Utah. As you can imagine this was a big change. I went from being one of the only “white” children in my neighborhood to hardly having any color at all where I lived. My mother said the first question I asked when I came home from my first day of school was, “where are all the colored kids?” • We also had our first real taste of religion. Where we grew up most people went to church but it was just that, church. My mom said at one point she had caught us hiding behind a bush while waiting for the bus. When she asked us why we told her it was because we weren’t part of the gang. When asked what gang we replied “the Mormon gang” (No disrespect is meant, we were just the only non-Mormon kids in our neighborhood).

10. Age 10 When I was 10 years old my uncle committed suicide. I really didn’t know what it meant at the time but I do remember watching my mother break down when she received the phone call. It really scared me at the time. It was the first time I had really seen her cry and that really shook me up.

11. Early Teens In my early teens I remember 3 major events. The first is starting Jr. High and meeting my best friend. He has been my constant companion ever since and has been right beside me for over half my life now. I’m not sure I would have survived my teen years intact if it hadn’t been for him. I was a very large girl and still very much an introvert. He got me involved in drama and kept bugging me to hang out with him and his friends until I pulled out of my shell. The second is that we started to attend St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and I joined their ‘Youth Group’. This pulled me further out of my shell and allowed me to comfortably interact with others of my own age. The third major event is my mother graduating from College. She was the first of her siblings to do so and was very proud of herself. Naturally we were as well.

12. Later Teens At the end of my sophomore year of high school my sister tried to commit suicide. She tried to overdose on some prescription medication that was at the house. She got scared before the drugs were in her system for too long & went to my parents. We spent the night at the emergency room & had to watch as they drove her away the next day in what they called a ‘secure vehicle’, it looked like a cage in a van to me. After that she spent several months at the Residential Treatment Center up at the University of utah. We were required to attend family therapy sessions. It was a very trying & dark time for my family, but it also allowed us to grow closer together.

13. In the summer before my senior year of high school we had a house fire. My uncle who was staying with us at the time with his two young children almost didn’t make it out but in the end we all did. It was a big scare. After the fire they needed someone to help them go through the wreckage to find out what could be saved. My mother was too emotional at the time & couldn’t do it & my father suffers from horrible asthma and was also unable to; that left it up to me, I was 17 at the time. I remember how difficult it was, going through room by room to see if there was anything left worth rescuing. My mother later apologized for making me do that.

14. First Job During high school my mother got a job at our church’s preschool. She suggested to me that I should come in the afternoons & read or play with the children. I did, & knew from that moment on what I wanted to do with my life. I have worked at other jobs but always found myself dissatisfied & would return to St. Paul’s Preschool.

15. Prom & Graduation • Not having a date for the prom I went with a couple of friends. • I graduated from Granite High School in the year 2000. • St. Paul’s Preschool became licensed the year I graduated so I filled out the paper-work and became a teacher’s aid full time.

16. Afterwards There were some large-scale events that happened in my early 20’s. • 2002 Olympics • 9/11 bombings • The U.S. invading Iraq And others. Some say that I’m emotionally stunted but while I see these things happening and for many of them think “that’s too bad” unless it directly effects me it doesn’t really “affect” me. Does that make sense?

17. Divorce My parents divorced after I had graduated high school. It was a rough time but I had actually been suspecting it would happen for a while & wasn’t really surprised. I have a good relationship with both parents still.

18. Hospital Stay In 2005 I spent over a month in the ICU/Burn Unit at the University of Utah Hospital. I had somehow gotten an infection in the internal muscles of my lower abdomen (the scar makes it look like I had a C-Section). It was actually a combination 3 different bacteria. I had to lay naked on a table daily as they cleaned it out, it was also a learning hospital so there was always students in the shower room while they did it. For a life long introvert you can imagine how hard that was for me. Because I am not a very open person & it was in such an embarrassing place I put off going in for a long time & the infection was very bad by the time I finally did. I had to have 4 surgeries & the doctor had to remove my lymph nodes because the infection had incased them. He told me at one point that had I come in even a day later I probably would not have survived. It was also at this time that I learned that I was a diabetic & probably had been for quit some time.

19. Diabetes Being a diabetic has had a major impact on my life, I have had to: • Change my diet • Budget for expensive medications • Get regular blood work done • Learn to control my blood sugars • Loose a lot of weight for my health Loosing weight as been the hardest part I think. I have always been heavy & don’t find exercise enjoyable in any way. Joining weight watchers has helped a lot though. I weighed over 400lbs in high school and have lost over 150lbs since (Yay! Go me!)

20. Recent Happenings My sister married a few years ago & I was her Brides Maid. For a wedding gift I wore a dress (I hate dresses with a fiery fiery passion). It also probably says something horrible about my emotional development that I’m just tickled that she’s not that much smaller then I am these days…(shifty eyes) Other then work & school my life seems to revolve around my new niece Madison. She was born in September of 2010 & is the joy of my life. I never wanted children of my own (working in a childcare setting from a teen on will do that to a person) but I enjoy spoiling my niece to death then sending her home for her parents to deal with.

21. Where I Am Now • Still working happily at St. Paul’s Preschool • I have recently bought a car • I have a CDA (Child Development Associates) • Love spoiling my niece • I am going back to school!!