Who am I?

     Who am I? My first reaction to this question is the thought that it is a stupid and obvious answer. I am Rachel Miller of course! But thinking harder, my mind flies through a ton of answers. So many answers that I confuse myself with who I really am. It sort of makes me feel like a special person because it makes me realize how much I am. I am a sister, a daughter, a granddaughter, a friend, an athlete, a child of God . . . so much!

    I think a big part of who I am, is myself. Sounds stupid right? Well, I think there are a lot of people in the world who could say that they try to be somebody else other than themselves. I used to be the same way. It took a while for me to realize that I could never be like my sister. When I was little, my sister got so frustrated with me because I would copy her so much. I wanted to be just like her, but the fact that the copying annoyed her tremendously was a bonus as well. I always heard the saying that you should always be yourself and all, but I counted the sister act as being myself since that was who I wanted to be. Copying her never really stopped until I was in junior high. I finally started to realize that I would never be like her. Although I absolutely love my sister and still look up to her, I am glad I gave up being just like her. I started to develop my own opinions and likes and dislikes. Now, I am obsessed with farm life. My sister enjoyed living on the farm, but she didn’t enjoy nature and farm work as I do. I no longer try to be as funny as her, which is probably a big relief to the rest of the family. I’ve learned when to be quiet, when to give input, and when to just sit and listen. I learned to be my own, smiley self.

    Another big part of who I am is activities. I love being involved in sports, riding horses, hanging out with friends, and being adventurous. Adventures are never too hard to find when you live on a farm. Growing up, my dad always found random critters to show us kids. I still don’t know how he found so many random animals. Most people would see the animals and pull out a gun right away. Well, not my dad. We have never even owned a gun and have maybe been around one a few times. My dad would catch the animals, usually babies, and bring them home for his four eager, little children. Having pet raccoons was normal for us. Sometimes we’d even get a baby fawn to have for a few days before we would release it. Even I have started to bring baby coons, hedgehogs, and ducks home for family show-and-tell.

    Finally, I am a family member. Family is extremely important to me. They have taught me all I know and they are one of the few things in life that I can say I will have forever. A smile always lines my face when I think about my close-knit family. It’s so hard to say we aren’t a perfect family, because I know we have our moments and all, but we are definitely one-of-a-kind. Growing up on an organic farm, we all learned what true work really was very quickly. Mom and Dad taught us to never complain, and always be thankful. Sitting down at the lunch table is a great example of how this motto fits us. Each of us kids always would compete for who could say, “Thank you for the food mom, it is very good!” first.  Just a heads up, make sure you actually take a bite of your food before you say this, trust me, parents are smart. You might be wondering if we lie and say we like the food, when we don’t. No worries, we don’t lie. We just say, “thank you for the food mom!” and just leave the ‘very good’ part out. That worked great until the parents showed their smartness yet again, and figured us out.

    Hopefully this essay tells you a lot about who I am. I have so much to be thankful for! I look forward to experiencing new adventures that will add to who I am. There is always the question, who will I be, but for now, I can have satisfaction and enjoy who I am.