Introduction to Me : Pre-Class 8.30

 Hello everyone! My name is Illyanna Taylor, but you can call me Illy. I am so excited to get to know everyone over the course of this sequence, but first here's a little crash course on me. First off I am from Three Rivers, MI, a small to midsize town very close to the Indiana border. As of right now I am majoring in BioMedical Sciences with a pre-professional focus on Pre-Med. Hopefully this track will lead me into Psychiatry, but with the wide world of med school you never know where you will end up. 

My reason for taking this course is that it hits pretty close to home. My mother is originally from Salvador, Brazil; and most of my family still lives in that area. When I was younger I never quite grasped the learning of Portuguese, even though I can speak a small amount of the language. We as a family try to visit as much as possible, and each time my love for my culture grows. However, I have noticed recently that there is a lot I still have to learn about half of myself. I was taught all my life about the history and making of the US, but never about Latin America. My mother has always been open with the fun facts that she knows, but the emphasis is on fun, she rarely ever touches on the difficult and controversial facts of her homeland. In this class I hope to learn and better connect with that half of me. 

As I said before, my family travels to Brazil often, however we also love to travel to other countries as well. I have been to Europe twice and love that culture as well, but nothing compares to the excitement of Latin America. When traveling in Mexico I learned that there are so many similarities and differences that surround Latin culture. 

When it comes to pet peeves, I really don’t know. In my experience I don’t really comprehend what annoys me until I am in the moment. One of the worst things that a classmate can do to annoy me is to blame everything on someone else. For example if they fail a test and blame the person who set the curve, or if they don’t quite understand something they blame the professor instead of asking questions.

An interesting fact about me is that I actually played 16 seasons of sports in high school while also participating in theater and our band/choir program. I love to have a busy schedule.

Thank you for reading, and I can not wait to meet you!