Before I go any further into my upbringing, I think it's worth mentioning how my parents met and also dive more into my parents' journey before they found each other...

So fun fact, both my parents met each other because they both had strong musical abilities to the point where they both had jobs as tribute artists of famous singers in the local entertainment industry! My dad did Elvis Presley, my mom did Patsy Cline, as well as some Dolly Parton and other older artists from the 40s & 50s decades especially.

Anyway, my mom had mentioned to a fellow local Patsy Cline impersonator she knew that she was looking for someone to perform with her at gigs... Long story short, my mom's friend ended up meeting my dad one day when he was trying to sell nuts where she worked. He told her about how he performed as an Elvis Presley impersonator, they started working together, and the rest is history—they fell in love!

Before my parents met, my dad had quite the interesting journey from being raised Catholic to becoming a Jehovah's Witness!

For those who don't know, Jehovah's Witness is a religion which some describe as a cult where people believe in God and worship Him like other Christian denominations, but unlike most others, they don't celebrate any holidays except anniversaries! So no Christmas, birthdays, or Halloween were celebrated! Can you imagine?!

I'm lucky my dad found his way to the Seventh-day Adventist Church shortly before he had me!

My dad's son & my half-brother, however, wasn't so lucky! He spent his whole childhood (from what I know) not celebrating any holidays like other Jehovah's Witnesses. Given how much he's into skulls and stuff now (growing up from such a young age in a completely different lifestyle from most of the general population), I can't imagine just how hard that must have been!

While I was never allowed to watch Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Pokémon, or Ninja Turtles, my own brother never really got the chance to celebrate Halloween, which my dad thankfully let both my twin sister and me celebrate from when we were like three years old and onwards.

I have heard that my dad let my brother watch vampire films growing up cause my brother has told me about that!

I can say for myself that I am happy to not ever see Lord of the Rings, Pokémon, vampire stuff, or Harry Potter for the most part! Lord of the Rings looks boring to me, vampire stuff sounds boring and kind of scary to me (the older it is, the more boring it is to me), Pokémon I never really understood from the one time I watched it when my dad probably wasn't around, and I watched a clip from Harry Potter a while ago on YouTube of his aunt floating in the air and thought it looked weird and creepy.

Really, the only association I have ever had with Pokémon is the red Pikachu hoodies me and my twin were shown wearing in pictures when we were younger, and the fact that now I sometimes buy Squirtle stickers at comic conventions if they look cute enough for me (I love turtles!). Also, my ex-boyfriend loved Pokémon (more on him to come!).

It's also worth noting that I did watch the newest animated Ninja Turtles film that came out a couple of years ago (I asked my dad and he said yes), and I thought the film was alright. The animation looked a bit weird, but it was also cute and nice to see as the turtle lover I am now :33!

My dad never likes to talk about his ex-wife, so he rarely does... But if there's one thing he has told me about her that I remember, it's how he described their relationship: "She said if she saw me again, she would wanna run me over with her car!" Talk about dark, but also kind of funny in a dark way ;-;.

My dad also had two stepdaughters when he was with his ex-wife, and with at least one of them, he saw her go through something so dark that I might not even get into details on here—though thankfully she's alive today!

My mom's childhood with Christian stuff was kind of the opposite in a sense because while she was baptized Catholic as a baby, they never really went to church growing up.

Thankfully, my mom still believes in God and tried going to church with us when I was little, but unfortunately had to stop after having some bad experiences there and having a hard time understanding what was being taught (and with some of the rules!).

Life growing up really was interesting to look back on because like lots of kids, I grew up going to church, but unlike most Christians, I went to church on Saturday, which as Adventists, we believe is the Sabbath Day—"The Day of Rest"—because that's when God rested from all the things He created when the earth began.

My parents have always been very caring and supportive of both my twin sister and me... We both have had our own difficulties growing up with most of the same neurodivergent diagnoses (except for my mild intellectual disability and extreme panic attacks), but we always had each other for the most part, and our parents always cared so much about us (and still do!).

However, there are some reasons and ways I've noticed growing up that my parents have sort of given my older sister a bit more attention. Though I also can't forget that over the years there's been the obvious running gag of them giving me the boy version of character duos we were gifted growing up! There were the old-fashioned Mickey and Minnie plushies, Brother and Sister Bear from the Berenstain Bears, Raggedy Ann and Andy, etc.

Getting briefly into the attention my sister got growing up, it's really quite hard to say just why she has turned into the person she is now...

A thing worth mentioning for starters is that from the time we were in the womb, she always had to have more than me (coincidence or not). Cause when she and I were still in our mom's belly, rumour has it that my sister hogged most of the nutrients, and so that's part of the reason (if not the main reason) why I was in the hospital for a few weeks more than my sister was to catch up on things.

My mom has told me quite a bit that my sister always liked to have the bigger part of things growing up and also always wanted things to be fair... For instance, if I hugged somebody, she had to as well.

I could go on about my sister a bit more, but I think this is enough reading for people until next time... Stay tuned for the other parts to this blog!

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