Veronica Minar Mr. Brazelton English 1 (1) 23 April 2024 Heritage Confidence Strong, compassionate, dedicated, hopeful. These are just a few of the words I would use to describe my mom, Margarete Minar, born on a chilly December day in 1973. Living in Southern California with her Hispanic mom and German dad, she had a warm, sunny childhood, and this aspect of her life really manifested into her personality growing up. To this day, she’s one of the most joyful, optimistic people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. Her bright personality has blessed many people throughout her several decades of life, including her childhood next-door neighbor. My mom told me that her first memory was when she was two. She rang the doorbell of a house, wanting to play with the kids that lived…show more content… Past her toddler years, she also remembers being active in many churches in her home town of San Diego. It was 1988, my mom was 14, and she had started to go to a new church with her family located in the same part of San Diego she grew up in. A lot of the parish there was made up of second or third generation Slovaks, and that exposure to a completely different culture gave her the opportunity to dance in a Slovak folk group. In reality, she didn’t have much of a choice, as she was recruited on the spot one day to begin practicing with the group. Her ensemble met often, sometimes up to four times a week, and in no time at all, my mom had become fully integrated and comfortable with her new classmates. Looking back, she remembers, “That whole experience gave me a lot of confidence.” Most of the members in the ensemble, which was about ten, were older than her, and it made her feel happy to be a part of something so fun and diverse. Throughout her childhood and teenage years, my mom flourished among her peers, but she never could have imagined where her life would lead her
