My name is Julie Lorraine Garces.  I was born in McAllen, a little known town located in the great state of Texas.  When I was little, I loved the children’s program, the Care Bears.  During my childhood, all of my family lived in the same town!  This was really cool; we had the biggest family celebrations and gatherings, to which I now realize played a lot into who I am today.  This was something I looked forward to as a small child.  I had so many cousins that we were always getting into trouble. It seemed that we just had a natural affinity for it!

              One of my childhood memories is of my mom making me wear various types of “frilly dresses”.  Another memory I have is the time my mother worked at a rental warehouse to which she was allowed to take me to work with her everyday.  As a small child, this was very exciting!. Running around a big warehouse all day gave me lots of opportunity to “burn off” a lot of energy.  What made it really fun was the fact that my mother’s boss didn’t mind me being around.  He even set up a play-pin for me to play in all to myself.

              When I was five, we had to move. We ended up in South Bend, Indiana. I made lots of friends, and still got into trouble (to my parents chagrin).  This experience taught me that growing up in another place allows me to gain another perspective of life.  I got to experience things my cousins in Texas probably never will.  I have many opportunities to choose what I want to do with my life, and that is very important to me.

              I recently graduated from Riley High School, which seems sort of crazy to me.  I felt like it was only yesterday I walked into Riley as a freshman.  The years have gone by so fast.  It’s weird because the people I got used to seeing everyday, I will probably never see again.  When you go to school with people practically your whole life, you never think about the day when graduation comes, goes, and then it’s “bye-bye”; you lose touch, forget to call, and its like “Man, that’s so weird”.  But then again, that’s what life is about, right?

              I got accepted to Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  This is good because this was the only college I applied to.  I know that’s bad, to depend on one school application, but I took a chance and it has paid off.  I’ll be starting there in the fall of 2006.  It’s a very nice campus and I like the fact that I’ll be challenged academically.  I want to major in Archaeology and Translation.  I anticipate being very busy, but because the subject matter is what I am passionate about, I am excited about the possibilities it will bring to my life.  I want to learn about ancient cultures, lost ruins, and it’s various histories.  So many of my peers actually care about the past, but I realized a long time ago that one can’t truly make movements in the present and the future without acknowledging the past.  Most don’t even know about World War II, which seems crazy to me. 

              I also want to study Translation because after I graduate from college, I want to join the Peace Core.  I’m hoping that they send me to Africa. I would love to learn more about the various African dialects.  As a result of my Peace Core experience, it’s my hope that I can begin a career as a diplomat to the United Nations (UN).  I couldn’t say whether or not I’ll be married after all of this, but who knows, there’s a chance I’ll meet “Mr. Right”  during my travels.   This is a great possibility, but for now, I want work my plans around this….at least for now.