Jordan Martirossian

July 1, 2010
Psych 2301

The Story of Me

I am a student. I may seem like everyone else, but I’m unique. I believe that many of the

events in my life have had enormous psychological impacts (strikes) in my life that have molded

my mind and the way I think. So, let me introduce myself and tell you what I mean.

My name is Jordan Prescott Martirossian. That’s a mouthful huh? Anyways, I am 20

years old and was born on May 3, 1990 in the early morning hours around 3 am at Presbyterian

Hospital in Dallas. I was born a twin. My twin is my sister Alexandra Nicole Martirossian. We

were both delivered 7 weeks premature via cesarean section at about 3 pounds 12 ounces (me)

and 3 pounds 15 ounces (Alexandra). Due to our light birth weights, we were immediately put in

the neonatal intensive care unit (NIC). Because of this unusual start to life, we already had

something that makes us unique in life after only minutes of life. But, more would come.

As I grew and slowly developed, my health was not the most amazing thing in the world.

In fact, one could say I was a rather sickly child. I had a hard time keeping food down and had

weak underdeveloped lungs for starters. Also, my vision was already beginning to deteriorate. I

feel bad for our parents because they had to deal with the sick kid. Strike one. But, my health

got better over time (except for the eye thing to be discussed later). The same can’t be said about

my emotional life.

As I developed into a 3 and 4 year old toddler, my life took a drastic downhill spiral. My

parents got divorced!! This was a horrendous thing for me to go through, and it has continued to

affect me today. I still wonder how different my life would’ve been if they had stayed together.

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Because of my age, I’m sure I cried a river over the sadness of the whole ordeal. To a kid at

such a young age, leaving one of your parents and precious guardians is no easy picnic. The

event had to have had a dramatic and life-altering affect on who I am and how I think. Strike

two.

During the divorce, my sister and I were forced to live with our mom and move from a

luxurious home in Grapevine all the way to Wichita Falls. This change in location alone may or

may not have had a change on me, but the change in aura (wealthy liberal city to small city

conservative) probably did. Let’s also add our mom getting remarried. Strike three.

By 1995 at the age of 5, lots in my life have already happened. I had a difficult birth, a

divorce, and then another marriage. The next stepping stone in developing who I am was going

into daycare and school. This brought me out into the open and allowed me to be involved with

other kids and learn how to interact with others. This also taught me how to listen to other adults

other than parents. Strike four.

As I grew and moved on to elementary school, another drastic change occurred that

affected me. My family moved again before first grade to the neighboring town of Iowa Park

just west of Wichita Falls. This was dramatic for me because I had to drop old friendships and

had to form new ones in the coming school year. I wasn’t the most social person so starting off

new would be a challenge. Plus I had my quirks and that probably added to my anxiety and lack

of confidence. Strike four.

As I was beginning to settle down in my new town and school, household troubles began

to surface. My mom and stepdad began to fight and argue more frequently. This was very

traumatizing for me because I needed a warm and safe home to return to. This didn’t happen.

Our stepdad would yell verbally at our mom and began to manipulate and instill in me that

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everything was wrong with our mom and divorced dad. So I didn’t know how to approach that

scenario. Was our crazy stepfather who didn’t have a job and was on drugs correct or were our

mom and dad (who we saw on monthly visits) right? All the backlash and stories trouble me and

I often found myself very sad and disturbed. I didn’t know what to do and thought that our mom

could die at our stepfather’s hands. Fortunately, the relationship ended in divorce in 2000, but

my sister and I were sent to live with our grandparents for two weeks in the summer while

troubles at home were worked out. Strike five.

Life continues on, and a few years later I’m in middle school. This is probably my

lowest point in my school years. As my fellow students and I begin to enter puberty, the teasing

and mockery begins to escalate. Almost everything I did in school (from occasional gas to nose

picking) was the center of ridicule. I was constantly teased and laughed at and had a hard time

relating to the popular kids. But this was also when I wanted to be them and did all I could to fit

in. I tried wearing the clothes, bleaching the hair (because everyone was imitating NSYNC and

Backstreet Boys), and walking the walk. I still wasn’t good at it. I was still too timid and goofy

to be close to popular. So I just stuck with my group of friends until some moved away or

changed schools.

Finally in middle school, I played clarinet. Because I was the only guy on clarinet, I was

considered the sissy and loser of the class. I was very unhappy with this status but couldn’t

change it. So just endured the mockery and continued to play the clarinet (or flute as some

ignorant kids called it). Middle school was strike six.

During the Christmas break of 2004, my family moved yet again. This time we moved to

Springtown to begin life anew. Our mom got a new job at the Decatur hospital and we entered

the Springtown school system for the second semester of eighth grade. This was another

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difficult transition because now I had to end old friendships of 8 years to start new ones. But this

was difficult for the first semester in a new school so that didn’t go too well. Strike seven.

In 2005 as a freshman in high school, I was finally able to begin opening up to more

people (especially to older juniors and seniors). This was helped by being in the marching band.

It’s a common band idea that band people stick together and look out for one another. This was

definitely the case as I came in with much more confidence and formed tons of friends almost

instantly. As I became a junior in high school, I was accepted into our marching band’s

leadership team which includes section leaders and drum majors. This was probably my biggest

morale booster as I had to take responsibility and lead. It was also required of me to stay late

after band competitions and games to help clean up the band hall. Oh how the hard work and

teaching builds character. And I did this for two years. Strike eight.

The final step to building my character was moving to college in the fall of 2009. Since I

was finally moving out and going to live on my own in Austin away from Springtown, I knew

I’d have to adjust myself again for the moving process and living away from family. Plus on top

of that, I had to make the grade to achieve my goals of medical school. But coming from

Springtown as number four in my class, I was expecting college to be easier than it was. BIG

MISTAKE. I learned real fast that college is extremely different from high school and that

grades aren’t given to you and that there’s no room for drama and laziness. How quickly that

sank in. Plus the change in diversity from mostly conservative whites (Springtown) to diverse

Austin (gays, Asians, blacks, atheists, etc) opened up my eyes even more to the world. Strike

nine.

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 So, these strikes have been the essential building blocks of my life. They’ve helped mold

me into what I am today. But what about the mortar that helps hold it all together. My

personalities and how it relates. That lies more within mind and interests.

One thing to know about me is that I love family and respecting others. This comes from

my overall experience with family. I’ve grown up with a large family. The entire family

comprises over 100 members. The closer family is probably a third of that. And the immediate

family composes about 10 people. With a family this big, one is raised accustomed to the love,

warmth, and sheer magnitude of a family. This is from events and dinners and all sorts of family

vacations. So I believe having a large family has allowed me to develop a healthy brain that’s in

constant need of family. But, in every family, there are also problems.

As was mentioned earlier, I’ve been through two divorces and three marriages (our mom

was married twice and our dad was remarried in 2006) and it’s been a long road since. These

splits have opened my eyes to domestic troubles and violence and what can result. Our first

stepdad was a violent and (in my opinion) a clinical psychopath. He just went crazy (from too

many pills) and was constantly upset and yelling at our mother while trying to manipulate my

sister and I. So this first stepfather and second marriage was a failure. Because of this, I believe

I’m very unaccepting of new family members due to marriage. My second stepfather since 2003

has been much better than the first so I’m already more comfortable but still somewhat

unaccepting. This distance seems like it’ll last for the rest of my life.

Because I’ve grown up with a big, friendly family, I’ve come to know that despite

domestic problems, the family is a warm place.

Another characteristic of mine is that I’m an avid science/nature/biology/astronomy

lover. These roots are much easier to trace than others. My mother’s an internal medicine

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doctor. I’ve lived in the country most my life. I’ve always had pets. I’ve always had beautiful

views of the endless dark sky above. I could continue but I think it’s clear where I’m going with

this. I’ve had tons of influences that has allowed me to greatly appreciate the sciences as well as

the intelligence (from my doctoral mother) to understand them. And as I’ve grown, my love for

astronomy has probably been the fastest growing of all my interests. That’s not to say I don’t

have other science interests, but that astronomy is the strongest. I think this is because of my

first encounter with Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. I was with family in Big Bend National Park

when the comet came overhead into naked eye view. With the incredible views I had of the

comet, my interest only grew until I got my first telescope and astronomy books. From there, my

passion has continued since. So my environment has also played a key role in affecting my

interests. I can only wonder if I had lived elsewhere what my interests would be.

Another key aspect of who I am is my sexuality. I know most people would have no

need to talk about their sexuality, but I feel compelled to do so. I’m a brave soul so I’ll let you

know. I am a bisexual. Now contrary to popular belief, bisexuality is real and not just someone

who is “confused” about who they prefer be it men or women. Because of my interests in both

and crushes with both, I can honestly say it’s all too real of a preference style. Now, I’ve always

kind of suspected I was different from an early age. As a kid, I would look upon my peers with

more than just friendship. I would look at someone with interest thinking they’re more than just

good looking. At the time I didn’t know what my feelings meant, but I knew I liked both boys

and girls. As I continued to grow, I continued to develop my conservative views (from living in

Texas in a churchy town) as well as my views of sexuality. In school, I had plenty of open

crushes on girls, but secret ones on boys. This was because of the conservative environment of

the school and town (for reasons mentioned earlier) that would limit acceptability.

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 As time passed and I grew into middle school and high school, I would do everything I

could to maintain a strictly heterosexual façade in public. I still maintained girl crushes,

wouldn’t dress the ‘gay way’, and certainly would deny any allegations or questions concerning

my orientation. But as time passed, I knew I would eventually have to come out. If not

completely, at least to close friends. I knew the consequences might be negative (since I’ve lived

a religious lifestyle in a religious Baptist home), but I knew it needed to be done. By the time I

was a freshman at UT in Austin, I felt convinced the time had come. In a mass e-mail to my

immediate family, I told them the news. This sparked lots of questions and deep concerns that I

was being influenced by my liberal environment or that it was a phase I was in. But I knew deep

down it wasn’t the case. I was born that way as a bisexual individual with the same personality

as before but with a twist on sexual orientation. And I know from experience, books, and

psychology class that orientation is a matter of biology. I’ve learned that hormones, chemicals,

and brain structure all play key roles in orientation. It wasn’t any choice or decision or influence

seeing how I grew up in a conservative, anti-gay environment all my life. Plus, who would want

to be discriminated against?

My final personality trait is my love for adventure, travel, and ethnic culture. I’m going

to have to give credit for this love to my mother and father. In giving credit to my mom, she’s

been a busy lady who’s done much travelling in her life from an early age. She’s been to Hawaii

as a kid and India as a medical student. She’s been to Cyprus in the Mediterranean in her first

marriage and has always spent lots of time near the water. And because of all her travels, she’s

developed an appreciation and love for ethnic culture (like food, music, and artwork). I’d like to

think that much of that interest is genetic or at least a factor in the womb. Even when my sister

and I were fetuses, our mom travelled. So this must show a correlation to interests of the mother

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being passed on to her kids. Another contribution of hers is, in my opinion, a love for the beach

and water in me that no one else has. She’s taken me to the beach almost every year since I can

remember and often taken me to the lake. She’s allowed me to take swimming lessons to get

accustomed to the water. So if all that water time growing up doesn’t spark a love for the water,

I don’t know what will.

Also, I believe our dad helped developed a love for travel and ethnic diversity by being

ethnically diverse himself. He was born in Iran of Armenian parents and family. Once he had

my sister and I, he did all he could to open our eyes to the world. He’s taken us to the Bahamas,

the Windward Islands of the east Caribbean, to Mexico, to Hawaii, and other places in the

continental United States. He’s also taken us on a Disney cruise when we were 11 years old in

2001. So all this travel has provided us (or at least me) with the desire to continue to travel the

world and stimulate our minds with new cultures and ideas. He’s also been the key person in

opening up our palettes to ethnic food. Growing up, his mother would always cook Persian food

for my sister and I so we quickly learned to appreciate variety. Also, he took us to festivals that

provided ethnic food (further broadening our palettes). Finally, all the travel destinations helped

to that cause. So he’s been pretty big on broadening our horizons.

So in review, I think it’s safe to say there are lots of traits to my personality and who I am

as an individual. I’ve had a complex, varied life full of adventure and drama, laughter and tears,

and fun and boredom. So to say that Jordan Martirossian is a shallow individual with an easy

story to tell would a huge stretch that’s far from the truth. We’ll just have to see how the rest of

my life plays out.