I think the question of who I am is becoming more difficult as I think about it rather than easier.  When I think of who I am, instinctively, I think of who I want to be, not who I am.  In thinking for so long about this question I've come to a conclusion: who I am consists of three things.  The first thing I will talk about is my past.
       I was born in Albion, Nebraska on September 26, 1993 to Scott and Deana Ransen.  I dread discussing most of my pre-school years because of the confusion which surrounded them.  To put it simply I was passed back and forth from Norfolk, Nebraska to Menesha, Wisconsin to Albion, Nebraska till I was old enough to go to school.  Divorse has a tendency to do things like that.  After some years of constant moving and a change of last name, me and my newly mended family found the lovely town of Aurora.  From there on I had the normal childhood of playing on the monkey bars and switching friends every other day.  Until middle school where I hit my mildly depressed phase.  Anyone in my class that was around back then would agree that black was the only color in my daily wardrobe, and there were a few questionable rumors going around about my hobbies.  Once I reached highschool I decided to "clean my water".  I started distancing myself from the friends I knew weren't headed in the right direction.  It was difficult for me at the time but I know that I wouldn't be the same person that I am now if I stayed in the envirnment.  Since then my life has been very similar to how it is now.
       The second thing I think that makes me who I am is where I want to go.  I have many goals for my future and I do what I need to accomplish those goals.  This is why I think it is so important in explaining who I am.  My more generalized goals are things like so many of my classmates want: go to college, start a family, and have a successful career.  I intend to go to a smaller private college where I can get a degree in either sociology or biopsychology.  By the end of my life I hope to obtain my doctorates in whichever field of study I decide to pursue.  Next I want to start a family.  I know that no one has much control over this aspect but I know the few things I have control over I want to maintain control over.  Such as the age that I decide to start a family at.  I figure why not break the family tradition and actually wait till I'm an adult to have children.  Crazy expectation, I know.  Realizing that keeping balance between things is hard, I still hope to be able to keep a successful career and a family.  Hopefully eventually I can get reasonable hours so that I can raise my children the way I want them to be raised.  Some other random goals I have are learning sign language, go skydiving, travel the world, parasailing, and meeting an amazingly famous person.
       The third is the few facts a know about myself.  I'm aware of how strange that sounds but to me who I am is mostly what others see in me not what I see in myself.  I know that I love almost all Mexican food.  I think they know what they are doing and that us Americans should take some good notes to try to do the same.  I also know that I love mystery and all things that are unknown to me.  I'm fascinated by the "why's" of the world, the things that no one really has proof of.  Death is a very interesting topic to me because of it's mystery.  Also I would probably be the first to die in a horror movie because I would have to investigate the mysterious sound that I heard coming from the dark.  I'm not afraid of very many things.  Off the top of my head all I can think of in heights, but I still love all the giant rides at the fair, and looking down on the tiny people below me.  I have a pretty high pain tolerance, love scary movies, and I'm huge.  I think that's pretty much everything but I'll end with a quote because "I'm huge" doesn't sound very good. "You can close your eyes to things you do not want to see but you cannot close your heart to things you do not want to feel."-unknown

 My family doesn't have very many traditions.  One of the few we have is going to cemetaries on Memorial Day.  First we go to St. Ed, Nebraska and watch their service.  We also go their to visit my grandparents' grave.  Then we go to every small cemetary in the area finding all relatives, usually starting with the ones we were closer to and move on to the one's that were only alive in the stories our grandparents told.

Me, far right, and my three sister at my grandparents grave in St. Ed,Ne.

BEST SONG EVER!