I wrote an autobiography in 1988 at age 14; here it is.
Complete with the original grammar and spelling
3/22/88
The Life of John Ryan Rumsey
My life began when I was born at approximately [birth time ] on [birth date]. I was born in [birth city] at [hospital in city]. At birth, I weighed 6 pounds, 4 ounces and was 19 inches in length. I had dark blue eyes and light brown hair.
Some of my favorite toys when I was young were my musical mobile and my pet, Neal (a stuffed animal frog). I had two dogs name Boozer and Jigger. I also had a horse named Sassy Suzie. Actually, the horse belonged to my dad but I considered it my horse too.
At my first birthday some on my friends were invited and had a nice time. My friend, Scott and I decided to try eating the candles first before the cake and we didn’t do so good. At my first Christmas I liked to play in the boxes rather than with the toys.
My first nursery school was Catalina Methodist Day School. My teacher was Miss Laura. My best friends were Scott and Kevin. My best subjects were coloring, the ABC’s, numbers, and solving puzzles.
When I was three we moved to Phoenix into an apartment because we were waiting to have our house built. A year later my sister was born and I got to feed her just a few hours after she was born. While my mother stayed in the hospital I stayed at my grandparent’s house. While I was there I went bike riding with my grandfather and my foot accidentally got caught in the spokes, so I ended up going to the doctor too.
When i was five, we moved to Peoria, Arizona into our new house. I started kindergarten in Orangewood School. My teacher’s name was Mrs. Kutchen. I found four new friends who lived nearby and their names were Grady, Scott, Josh, and Charissa. I had many other friends at school and I enjoyed school very much.
In the middle of first grade we moved to Mahwah, New Jersey. We rented a house until we found one to buy (about six months later). When we found the new house, I went to Betsy Ross School. I still live in the same house on 31 Armour Rd. I’ve enjoyed Mahwah since I moved here but someday I want to move back to Arizona.
Ten words best describing me are probably thoughtful, enjoyable, fun, intelligent, curious, interesting, short, nosey, naive, and independent.
My dad is hardworking, quiet, naive, nice, fun, tired, enjoyable, forgetful, caring and great.
My mom is strict, hardworking, intelligent, nice, fun, interesting, pretty, tall, terrific and thoughtful.
My sister, Cari, is soft-spoken, bossy, nosey, hardworking, caring, nice, intelligent, sleepy, curious and boring.
In five years I expect to be in college, working on my studies. In ten years I hope to be in medical school learning to be a doctor. I twenty years I hope to be working as a doctor specializing in orthopedic surgery. I would like to become a professional in this type of work.
I spend my time on weekends going over to someone’s house or someone coming to my house. If I don’t do that, I’ll go skiing in the winter, baseball in the spring and soccer in the fall. I also do chores before I go outside.
I like to ski the most because it’s something that I’m good at and enjoy. It sets me free and I have no worries. The least favorite thing to do is playing on the computer because I have played all of the games a lot of times.
The qualities of adults I respect and admire the most are being enjoyable and having fun because with all the worries of adults it’s remarkable to see them have fun and let go of all worries. The quality I least respect is when adults misunderstand you and yell at you.
My best friend is Scott. He’s my best friend because we’ve known each other for our whole lives. We get along and enjoy each other a lot. Some things we have in common are the same sports, interests, and qualities.
My favorite sports are skiing, running, and baseball. I like skiing a lot and I enjoy it. I like running because it’s good exercise and it’s fun trying to better your time race by race. I also like baseball because it’s fast and action-packed. I like these sports because they’re fact and you don’t know know what to expect.
My favorite television shows are Night Court, Growing Pains, and Cheers. Night Court is my favorite because the characters are great. John Larroquette is so funny I can’t stand up straight. Growing Pains and Cheers are also wonderful because of the laughter. I love the way Ted Danson tries to get a date with anyone.
I enjoy reading Sports Illustrated and National Geographic. I like Sports Illustrated because I’m a big sports fan and I like to read the articles. I like National Geographic because I enjoy reading things about nature and people around the world.
Friends enjoy my company because I don’t make a fuss or complain if they want to do something other than what I would want to do. I feel that I am fair to all my friends and trustworthy also. I know that I am not bossy and I hope I’m not a pain in the neck.
Major goals I am working for right now are finishing high school and college and getting a good job. I hope to go to a good college and study to be a doctor. If I decide not to be a doctor, I wish to be working in the field of mathematics and science. If I get a decent job I will try and move up to higher levels of the job and hopefully be able to retire by the age of 65 and move down to Arizona to buy a ranch and race horses.
Friendship is a big thing with me because I think life is too hard to live without friends. Friends are someone to depend on when you’re down in the dumps. Friends are people who respect you and have a good relationship with you. Friends don’t con you into doing things your don’t want to do. I believe friends are one of the top five dependents of life.
School is very important to me because without school it would be hard to make a living. I also like school because it gives me a challenge to better myself and my grades. School affects your whole life because if you don’t get good grades you might now be able to get a good job your whole life. Even though it isn’t my favorite thing to do, I’ll probably look back and think thank God I went to school.
I’m sometimes content with myself if I try my hardest. If I don’t try my hardest, I wish that I would have been better so I wouldn’t be upset with myself. I feel like if you don’t try your hardest you shouldn’t be able to succeed and achieve your goals.
I like to spend my time after school doing things I like to do. I enjoy playing with my friends or watching T.V. In the spring I’ll play baseball with some friends at the baseball field. Sometimes I go to a Chinese restaurant and play video games.
Right now I’m 14 year old and loving every year so far. My family just came back from our first trip to Florida. It was great. I loved the sights and Disney World. We stayed at Disney World for four days and we met our friends, Mr. and Mrs. Downs and Matt and Melissa Downs. Matt and I went on every ride in the park at least twice. We also went to Sea World which I like because I love marine animals.
When we weren’t at Disney World, we stayed at my grandmother’s. When we were there, my grandmother took us to the NASA Space Center. It was real neat. My family is also planning a trip to Cancun, Mexico in December. I can’t wait.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my autobiography as much as I’ve enjoyed my life. I hope that the rest of my life will be an enjoyable as the first 14 years. I hope to live a healthy and long life to its fullest.
By Ryan Rumsey
A+
Ryan,
I certainly did enjoy your autobiography. I hope that the rest of your life is as great as the first 14 years!
You write very well and certainly get the reader’s interest. Your pictures are great!
Commentary
I feel SO much empathy for teachers after reading this. It’s quite clear the assignment had a minimum number of words and I maximized my ability to say the same thing in order to make that minimum. Teachers are true heroes for reading through 20 of these on a regular basis and telling us we’re talented. :)
By far, my favorite part of the autobiography are the ten words describing my family and I. It’s clear I was copying and pasting, except for the few words I really felt were relative at the time. We’re all naive, except for my mom who was strict. I was independent while my sister was bossy and boring. My dad…forgetful and tired, which I now am.
I want to thank my mother for finding this gem. It brought a smile to my face and so many memories of a child who had his whole life in front of him.
