I was born and raised in Boise Idaho. Though most of my childhood was spent in Cascade Idaho. I think that I was raised in a small town friendly environment with people that would give a stranger the shirt off of their back. The family and the people they chose to have around me influence me as a person for the better. I was aloud to see the people I never wanted to become and those I aspired to be like.

I always really loved reading fictional mystery books. Or those books that depicted crazy hardships of teenagers, such as drug abuse. I read plenty of non fictional books school. As I got older I enjoyed reading autobiographies or biographies of people that had really hard or different lives then I did. Stories from other countries, the wars on human trafficking, drug king pins in the US.

I think friends and family is where I would get most of that information. Some times I will read news articles and websites that I know might be biased, like MSN news. As much as I should I don’t keep up with everything going on. If there is something I hear that I want to know more about or find out the unbiased facts, I will go looking for answers. I don’t take time every day to go over what is happening.

I spend all of my off time with family, riding dirt bikes, hunting, camping. I know that there are injustices happening all around the world everyday, but my priority is my family here and now, any free time I have is spent with family, I choose to focus on them rather than the other things happening around me. Obviously I know there is an importance in being aware, but I only have one life and have no idea how long it will be.

I don’t think I have a religious or spiritual journey. I do have the view that as long as what you are doing doesn’t harm me or another living creature it doesn’t hold any weight in my life.

Both my parents came from the same culture.

When I was little I can remember have night terrors about flying to see family after 9/11, I was an extreme worrywart. No doubt do live in a bubble in Idaho unaffected by the injustices happening around me, and I think there is a lot of bad in our world, but in mine, here in my bubble its good.

Growing up I was not aware of the animal abuse and injustices that occurred. I wasn’t aware of the amount of dogs euthanized because of overpopulation or how society chooses to ignore it because they don’t having voices to scream for help. Anywhere that I can give dogs a voice I will. If that means telling the people that are looking at the puppies in the Cabela’s parking lot about the genetic deformities that land these dogs that were bred by back yard breeders in our human societies I will. If it means calling some one out for abusing animals in public I will.
My parents were essential to shaping the person I am now. Giving me a chance to have a voice even on something we might disagree on. I was never silenced as a child for speaking on a topic I believed in or against. My parents allowed me and my sisters to experience things that some parents might have otherwise sheltered their children from. That alone helped shape who I am and what I stand for.

Hey y’all! My name is Pete and I’m planning on majoring in Civil Engineering. I am 19 years old, a Freshman here at Boise State, and without further adieu here is a little about me!

• Where did you grow up, and how did that place, as well as the people around you, influence you? I grew up in Boise first for 6 years, then Mountain Home for 4 years, then Prairie for 6 years. I was influenced in Mountain Home by friends, sports, school, my parents, family members, etc. I became very interested in sports such as football, baseball, wrestling, basketball, soccer, etc. My mom was the receptionist at Hacker Middle School in Mountain Home as well so I was really involved with the Middle School and helped out at many events, helped teachers, knew a lot of the teaching staff, etc. I learned some hard lessons after being curious about what my friends were talking about in school such as adult content, etc. which also helped to influence me to change those actions. When my family moved to Prairie I became much less involved with my influences from Mountain Home, because it is a very small town up in the mountains located about 50 miles from Mountain Home and Boise. I learned hard work ethics from working on our family ranch up there, such as never giving up on a task, working till the job is done, working with cows and horses, building and fixing barbed wire fences, digging ditches, bucking/ feeding hay, etc. I also became very involved in my community and helped many people in Prairie with any job they asked me to help with, and I did so without expecting pay. I earned a good reputation as a hard worker and a good kid in Prairie and that has helped me to see myself as successful and ready to tackle any obstacle that comes my way.
• What kinds of books or other texts did you read in school? On your own? The books I have read in school are The Old Man and the Sea, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Great Gatsby, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Othello, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, A great book about President James Madison, and some other good ones that I can’t really remember the name of. I have read books on my own such as the Cirque Du Freak series, Old Yeller, When the Whistle Blows, some Gary Paulsen books, many of the Goosebumps series and other R.L. Stine series books, books about sports, historical and historical fictions books, etc.
• Where (e.g., specific website, television news channels, friends and family, church, etc.) do you learn about what’s going on in the U.S. and the rest of the world? I learn about what is going on in the U.S. and the rest of the world through family, friends, the news, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, etc.
• How do you spend your leisure time, and how might it shape your view of the world? I spend my leisure time relaxing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, going home to my family on the weekends and helping/hanging out, and also hanging out with friends. These activities might shape my view of the world by showing me how much more we have to enjoy in the U.S. such as freedom, much less hunger, less poverty (for the most part), more leisure/recreation, etc. than in other parts of the world. I also feel like we might take it for granted because most of us grew up with a lot and never knew what it meant to be poor, or have to grow up with little material possessions.
• How has your religious or spiritual journey influenced how you view other people and their decisions? Yes I am a Christian but I wouldn’t consider myself to be religious per say because I don’t follow a certain religion. I would say that being a Christian I view other people and their decisions with both sides in mind. I don’t try to judge anybody by my first impression of them, I look at their good and bad, I don’t point out every little thing that somebody does that I consider to be wrong, and I am very polite and considerate of other people. I am a firm believer in the golden rule, “Do unto others as you want done unto you.” I am respectful, caring, honest, and many other good traits.
• Did your parents or guardians come from different cultures? If so, how did these cultures appear in your home when you were growing up? No, my parents didn’t come from different cultures. My mother and father both grew up in Idaho from families within the U.S.
• How has your perspective on the world changed as you have matured and gained more life experience? My perspective on the world has changed as I have matured and gained more life experience by I now see things that I didn’t know of or see much before such as heated topics on same sex marriage, gun control laws, abortion, U.S. involved wars, celebrity scandals, world events, mass shootings, local, state, and nationwide elections, videos on the internet, etc. I now see the world in a much broader view and I have my own thoughts and ideas on issues that didn’t matter to me when I was younger. I pay attention to major issues now and I have opinions on these issues.
• What specific experiences—e.g., events, conversations, chance meetings, courses, etc.—have made you shift your perspective or change your mind about something? I would say that my sociology class that I took last year in high school definitely made me think differently about certain subjects and topics in the world. I learned about how we are shaped as an individual, certain factors that influence our behavior, how a good person can do bad things, how solitary confinement is probably not a good solution to handle criminals, and many other very important thoughts and ideas.

Are there people or experiences that you consider formative in your life—that is, they are or were essential to shaping the person you are today? Explain. My Mom, Dad, Grandpa Nathan, Grandma Mary, Grandpa Pete, Abuela Reyes, Great-Grandma Priscilla, Granny Black, Uncle Luther, and a few other people were all very essential to shaping the person I am today because I have learned all that I know from each and every one of these people.