I’m 14 years old, and I’m living two identities.  I have a life in Chicago with my dad and a life in Mundelein with my Mom and twin sister Kelsey. Also there’s my brother, but he’s in college right now at MSU.  When I was around 7th grade my parents got divorced and my Dad left to live in Chicago, where he now works.  It was kind of hard moving past that, but once I got older I learned to live with it. 

I have a great life in Mundelein,  I go to school there and all my friends live in Mundelein too.  It’s my freshman year and I decided to join a sport, so I joined cheerleading.  I tried out in May of 2016 and made the Varsity team; I was very proud of myself. I remember the day I got accepted on the team.

My phone buzzed and I read, “You have made the Varsity Cheerleading Program!”  My face suddenly turned bright and I had a smile the whole day. When I came back I ran to my mom and said “Mom! I made varsity cheer!”

She looked at me with a proud face and replied, “ That’s amazing sweetie!”  My mom is so supportive with what I do and I’m really happy to have her. Fortunately, I met lots of amazing people, from freshman to Seniors who welcomed me into the program.  I have very close friends that I made from cheer, and I’m very happy I joined.  Back when I was in Middle school, at Fremont, I had three very close friends.  Two of them went to Stevenson, and one of them went to Carmel.  I miss them alot, but I still try to find time to hang out with them, but it’s hard when I have lots of homework and apart of a sport.  Where I live in Mundelein is like a prairie, there’s tons of plants and 2 acres of grass.  In Mundelein, it’s hard to pick a restaurant to eat at because there’s very few, unless we go to a nearby town.   That’s why we mostly cook at home, but to be honest, mom’s cooking is not always the best option.  I love being in Mundelein and being with my mom, my sister, and having all my friends down here in Mundelein.  All of them are super supportive of me, and all the decisions I make.  I don’t know how I could live without them, so good thing I live in Mundelein. 

My life in Chicago is totally different I spend time with my dad mostly on Sundays or some weekends, and even weeks for school breaks.  It’s kind of good that he lives there, so now when I go to chicago with my friends I will know most of the city by heart.  He lives around Michigan Avenue, so there's always something going on that we can do.  I don’t always have friends go down with me because most times I ask kind of last minute, which is my bad.   When I do have a friend come down from Mundelein it’s always so much fun.  We do activities like ice skating, going on rooftops, shopping at the water tower place, and going to amazing restaurants. 

I went Ice skating with my friend Lexi during Christmas time and it was a blast.

“Here we go!” I say in a joking voice, as I walk onto the ice.

“Let’s hope we don’t break anything while we’re at it.” Lexi says as she stumbles on to the ice.

I look at her with a smile and said, “We’d have to be pretty bad to do that!”  Lexi laughs at my joke; her laugh is like a baby, it’s a bubbly laugh.

“Good luck!” My Dad shouts at us.  My dad waited outside of the ice rink because he said he wasn’t the best, but we still had a great time afterward.  I guess I got his genes because I’m not the best either.  I was going so fast, then I suddenly lost control and wiped out right on my face.  It was really embarrassing, and I made a huge scene.  I remember the feeling of my face burning up and turning bright red like a tomato, but maybe it was just the cold.

 When I'm in Chicago, it’s rare that I go to the same restaurant, because there’s so many to choose from.  At night, I love seeing the city lights turn the black sky bright.  My favorite time in Chicago is Christmas time; the christmas lights on the trees glisten with snow, and the decorations put a smile on my face to remind me of the upcoming holidays.  Christmas time in Chicago is like the North pole; It’s full of Christmas spirit and is freezing cold.  I always look forward to going to downtown to see my dad, other than waking up early in the morning to get there.  I most definitely look forward to dinner there. I mean how could you not, it’s Chicago!  There’s so many restaurants to choose from and I’m never upset with the food I get.  There’s so many people roaming the city unlike Mundelein. They’re two totally different places.

Living in two different places isn’t always the best though. I spend most of my time in Mundelein because that’s where I go to school.   Since I go to chicago over the weekends, it’s hard to get my work done because I get sidetracked from the excitement of the people.  I also don’t always love the two hour drives bright and early in the morning, but I make it work with music and long talks with my dad about my week.  When I’m in Chicago on Sundays, I usually have to leave early because I need to get home so I can rest for school the next morning.  When I spent a week at my dads over winter break I had cheer in the morning, so I had to wake up very early in Chicago to get back to Mundelein for practice.  It’s times like those where being in Chicago is very inconvenient. 
Living in two different places is pretty fun, It’s like I'm two different people, a city girl and a suburban girl.  My days at mundelein are the complete opposite than my days at Chicago.  My typical day in Mundelein is that I wake up early and go to school, then after school I would go to cheer practice, and later work on homework and go to bed.  On the other hand, my typical day in Chicago is that I sleep in and walk down Michigan Avenue and go out to dinner.  In my life I have two totally different parts of my life that makes me, me.