Michelle L Crain

Cultural Belonging  Both sides of my family are Irish/Native American. But no one in my family celebrates or even acknowledges their heritage. We basically just coexist as Americans. As far back as I can ask, my family has been in America. No one can pinpoint who and when my ancestors came to America. I identify myself as American.  Anyone who is close to me says they can tell I am part Irish because of my attitude I often get, but I just associate that with being a parent of a nine month old who has already hit her terrible two’s stage.

Languages  My family and I speak English and most are not bilingual. My husband can speak little Spanish and I have three Mexican American cousins. I cannot speak any other language but English, although, I do one day, wish to become fluent in Sign Language. It is not extremely necessary for me to learn another language where I am from. There are not many Hispanics in South Arkansas, mostly Caucasian and African American, who speak English.

Family Gatherings  My family gets together for cookouts any chance we get: birthdays, holidays, and just because we haven’t seen each other in a while.  We all get together for major holidays such as Easter, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. Generally there is a bonfire with food and drinks. Personally, I do not drink, I am and always have been the sober one of the family.  Each of these holidays have their own special events. Easter, we go to my grandparent’s house and spend the day hunting Easter eggs. Memorial Day, we go to River Fest in Little Rock, and Fourth of July, and New Year’s has always been spent at my uncle’s house with food and fun for the whole family. Every year on Labor Day, we would go to the lake and spend the four day weekend on the boat. Thanksgiving has always been a time for family to be together and enjoy food with everyone together. For Christmas, we always get together and make Christmas cookies a few weeks before and spend the day at my grandparent’s for lunch, then spend the rest of the day with other family and friends.

Family Gatherings cont...  Now that I am married and have a family of my own, family traditions have begun to change. My husband is in the military so we have moved away from home to Las Vegas. We plan to go home as often as we can, but sometimes plans change. Now, I have two families’ traditions to uphold. A few holidays have changed for us and new traditions have been added. For example, for Fourth of July, we like to spend it in Indiana going to the Haynes Apperson Festival in Kokomo, where my husband is from.  I have a nine month old daughter who we will take trick-or-treating for Halloween.  Our two most family-oriented holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas, will be spent together as a small family and we will try to go to Arkansas or Indiana if we are able.

Life Experiences  I was born in October 1992, when Clinton became president. I do not remember anything from when he was president, but I learned a lot about his terms as I got older.  I grew up in East End, Arkansas and went to the Sheridan School District, which was and still is mostly Caucasian. Sheridan is not a very diverse town, however, there were many foreign exchange students.  I started working at age 16 and continued to work until last June. It is hard to believe that next week, I will have been off work for a whole year. When working in high school, I worked in department stores in the mall.  After high school, I went to the University of Arkansas and officially became an Arkansas Razorback where I majored in English and joined the Alpha Delta Pi sorority. In college, I waited tables at Hooters.

Life Experiences  I worked at Hooters in Fayetteville while I was in college.  Once I moved back to Little Rock, I continued to work at Hooters where I met my husband and worked until I was six months pregnant with our daughter.  I have also considered going back to work at Hooters here, while I am in school.

Life Experiences cont...  In the South, football is like a religion. Everyone goes to every Friday night football game and we all get up on Saturday morning and either go to, listen to, or watch the Razorbacks play.  I, like most everyone else from Arkansas, am a die heart Razorback football fan.

Life Experiences cont...  I come from a multi-military family. Personally, I never thought about joining the military myself. Both of my grandfathers fought in Korea and Vietnam; one Army, one Marine. I also have two brothers who planned to join the military. Daniel planned to join the Marine Corp but did not after his girlfriend got pregnant. Jacob joined the Army and is currently deployed to Germany. I later married a man who is in the Air Force, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather who were also in the Air Force.

Religion  I am a Christian—Baptist. I love the feel of big churches where you can come together as a group and know you share the same beliefs as everyone around you. I use to go to a very large church in Arkansas, but now we go to the chapel on base for service.  As a child, I went to church camp every summer. When I was in elementary school, it was called ‘Kidz Camp’ and as I got older, they called it ‘Teen Camp’. I hope to one day send my kids to church camp there, at Bogg Springs; the same place my mom went to church camp as well.

Interests and Goals  My favorite sport is football. I love to watch Arkansas football and Colts football. The Colts are my favorite NFL team; that game was on when I met my husband.  My step-dad racing modlites on a dirt track and I love to go out to the races to watch him and his friends race.  I enjoy running with my mom. My favorite race to run is the Race for the Cure, but I also enjoy the Color Me Rad run. My favorite is the Race for the Cure because my grandmother passed away from breast cancer in 2013 and was diagnosed in I have always supported and walked in the race, but now I run it to further show my support.

Interests and Goals cont...  One of my biggest goals in life is to one day become a member of the Official Race Team for the Race for the Cure.  I hope to become an elementary teacher, third through fifth grade.  I plan to graduate from CSN next May before my husband deploys.  I then plan to go to UNLV to finish my degree. Once I finish my bachelors degree I hope to go to work at the elementary school here on base and later, go to work at East End Intermediate, where I once attended school, after my husband gets out of the military.