James Terry

7/31/14
FHS 1500
Final Project

I was born September 7, 1989 to Russ and Vicki Terry in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was number two
of two children born to my parents three-and-a-half-years after my brother Jason. I think that I
developed at a normal rate but I always felt small. That probably was due to having an older brother
who always used his larger size against me. As an infant my mother told me that I was always a happy
and pleasant baby, and would only be upset if I was really hurt or sick. Looking back, I really dont
remember my infancy, but I always felt that my parents and brother loved me growing up, because I felt
like that as a child, an adolescent, and now. Also I know and always have known that I could turn to my
family to feel safe and like I was important. An important over-arching part of my life was and is my
membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (also known as the LDS church or the
Mormon church), its teachings and principles have truly changed me and made me into who I am
today.
In my childhood years a couple of stories come to mind that shaped me into who I am today:
One story in particular that I remember was my first trip with my family to California when I was three-
years-old. I remember taking a plane for my first time, I had no idea what going on, and I just remember
that I had all kinds of emotions on the plane ride, it was fun, it was scary, and my ears hurt from the
pressure. We went to Disney Land and I saw some of my favorite characters, Aladdin, Donald Duck,
Goofy, the Little Mermaid (She was my favorite because I thought she was beautiful), and Mickey
Mouse. I also saw some characters that I didnt like, like Jafar He scared me and I didnt want to take
my picture with him. My mom let me be somewhat independent on that trip in the way that I dressed
and I still think she shakes her head at the pictures today because I dressed myself in biker shorts,
cowboy boats, and a shirt that was too small. I think that was awesome that my mom was trying to
teach me to be independent at young age, even if it was just a small thing like my clothes. I remember
the rides we went on too, the Haunted Mansion really scared me, Splash Mountain and Space Mountain
where fun but I still closed my eyes, and I remember the Tea Cups and how dizzy they made me.
During our trip in California we also went to Sea World and the only thing that I really remember
about Sea World is that I saw a hat that I really liked and I grabbed it and put it on. My mom asked
where I got it from and I told her that I had seen a bunch of them and thought that I could take it. My
parents taught me then and there that I was stealing and that it wasnt right. They had me take the hat
back to the person at the kiosk and tell them that I was sorry; this made me feel terrible and I knew that
I didnt want to feel like that again.
On that trip we also went to the ocean for my first time. The ocean was quite the experience, I
remember the water was a little cold, but my dad took me into it just up to my knees so I could feel it for
myself. I buried my feet into the sand and could feel that the waves were much stronger than I was, but
I felt safe next to my dad and so I spread my arms wide open without any cares because I knew my dad
wouldnt let any harm come to me.
Another experience in my childhood that impacted me was when I first started to go to school
where I began to interact with other children and began to make friends. I was really social-able as a
child, I really loved to make friends with everyone and I loved to play games, sports, and action figures
with my friends. One of my best friends throughout my childhood and much of my adolescent years was
Landon. Landon and I originally became friends at church when we were six-years-old. I would go over
to Landons house just about every day and would sleep over at his house a couple times a week in the
summer time. We were good friends because we liked a lot of the same things like video games,
skateboarding, football, baseball, coming up with our own games and mixing sports together, and
church was important in our lives also.
I also loved to do things with my brother and looked up to him and still look up to him today so I
would always invite him to play with my friends and I, but sometimes he wanted to just be with his own
friends. One of the difficult things about siblings is the age difference when you are children. This was
no different for me and my brother. I looked up to him so much and wanted to be just like him, and do
all the things that he would do and be included in all of his plans. However, like many older brothers, he
wasnt old enough to realize how much I wanted to be like him and be with him and he saw my need
and constant asking and following him around as a nuisance. This meant that I rarely was included and
that I felt that my brother thought that I was a nuisance as well as a tattle tell which hurt our
relationship and made me feel a little insecure and sad about myself and being left out.
Just before I turned eight years old my grandpa Lemar passed away. He had poor health for
quite some time and we had seen him a few months before he died at Christmas time. Any death is
hard to go through, especially when you are a child and the concept of death seems so far and
unexpected because of your youthful state. I remember not really understanding the concept of death
and how this had changed my life. Because I rarely saw him and I was so young it didnt really register
with me that I had experienced a loss. I never really saw my dad cry but I remember that he cried when
he passed away and this made me feel that although I didnt understand it, it must have been a bad
thing.
In 1997, on the 24
th
of July week my Aunt Camille and Uncle David came and visited our family.
Having extended family that loved me and cared about me helped expand my support circle and gave
me confidence in who I was and what our family stood for. I felt that I was a part of something bigger. I
didnt really know my uncle David as much but in that time I got to know him and felt like he was
important in my life, as well as other extended family members and I knew that they would be there for
me in big events and in my times of need.
As I approached eight, my parents and my church leaders taught me about baptism. The more I
understood it and the closer I got to being eight the more excited I became to be baptized and to
experience this great gift that happens in our church. On the day of my baptism I was excited but also
nervous. Knowing that my dad was right beside me and the comfort and counsel that he gave as he
could see my nerves helped to calm me down. He told me that it was important and that it would be
something that I would remember for the rest of my life. All of my family was there and it made the day
even more special. As I came up out of the water I felt good and safe, but I dont think I fully understood
the feelings or recognized the big difference because as a child I wasnt exposed to too many unclean
things and therefore usually had a good feeling about me. Right after I was baptized I received the gift
of the Holy Ghost and was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I
remember feeling different and that I was doing good and things would be different in my life; that
things were going to be okay and good because of the decision that I had made. I knew that there was a
God and that He loved me and He knew about the choices that I was making. It was the same type of
feeling that I had when I went to the ocean in California with my dad; that feeling that I was going to be
okay and safe, that someone was watching out for me who loved me. Even today I can still feel those
feelings and remember back to them.
When I was thirteen, my brother and I went to stay with my Aunt Camille in Florida. My uncle
David had previously passed away because of an accident. On this trip it seemed like this was the first
time that we had to choose for ourselves. My aunt Camille didnt have any children so not knowing
what she should do she let us choose our own food and listened to us when we told her that we only ate
pop tarts, soda, cookie dough, etc. We were so excited to be away from our parents and have this new
freedom where we could do whatever we wanted. This affected me physically as it made me gain
weight and I began to also be mentally conscious and insecure about my body image.
In middle school I had a lot of friends and I enjoyed school but my weight made me conscious
and made me feel bad about myself. I remember learning about drugs and alcohol in 7
th
grade but by
8
th
grade many of my friends had already begun to take part in that. Because of this many of my friends
started to change. I felt that I never really found a super good friend group where I could be myself and
be supported in a positive way after my best friend Landon moved away at the end of 7
th
grade. Middle
school is just an awkward time. Unfortunately even as you grow out of middle school, you dont always
grow out of some of the insecurities and awkwardness that developed during those years. This was the
case for me and I still felt negatively in regards to my body image until my brother convinced me to start
swimming in High School.
My brother swam and did choir in High School and he told me how fun it was and convinced me
to join the swim team and choir. I still had the desire to follow my brother and be like him so I joined
both. When I first started swimming I was still really self-conscious about my body and I wore a lot more
clothes than everyone else. Not only did I feel self-conscious but it was also physically very difficult. But
the more that I swam and participated with the team, the better I began to feel about myself as I got
more in shape and I gained more friends. This was the beginning of overcoming some of the insecurities
that were still with me from middle school. Looking back I felt that I slacked in my swimming practices
my first three years. When I became captain my senior year I became more dedicated to going to every
practice and working hard and I had great improvements. This made me wish that I had used all of my
time on the swim team this way because it would have helped me be much further along. Swimming
helped me to be aware of my health more and what I was doing to my body. It helped me gain
discipline and more confidence in my abilities, especially in doing hard things.
Swimming led me into another great sport, water polo. I started this my sophomore year. My
high school didnt have a team so we played with two other high schools. Because of this I gained a
broader group of friends and really helped me to socially interact with all different types of people, to
value everyone for their individuality, and work with others as a team. My senior year we got our own
water polo team and I also became the captain of the water polo team my senior year, which helped me
develop leadership skills. This meant that our team was young and wasnt as good as the previous team
which I had been on, which had taken state during the two years that I was on it. Being our own team
meant we competed with the team we were previously on, as well as because we werent as good we
focused more on enjoying the sport and each other as a team. I also got to try a new position, goalie.
This is a difficult position and I felt more responsibility because all of the opposing teams points
counted on me. I also feel that swimming and water polo were important in helping me keep busy and
have a purpose so that I stayed out of too much trouble unlike some of the people that I had previously
been friends with.
Other important events during the conclusion of my adolescence were graduating from high
school, my best friend Goldie (who was a dog) passed away, and my Grandpa Welch also passed away.
Graduating made me feel good in that I felt that I had accomplished something. I knew my senior year
that I always wanted to serve a mission for my church and it felt like my senior year was my preparation
time. This was partially my own desire and partially because I wanted to be like my brother. He left on
his mission when I was in high school and came back when I was a senior and really helped me get
excited and prepared for a mission. After graduating I had the summer to prepare for my mission and
my young mens group went on a trip to Florida. This turned out to be partially a preparation for my
mission as I was called to serve in Tampa, Florida but mostly it was a celebration of all the things that we
had gone through together as a group.
On my mission I learned how to serve, how to work, and how to plan. This changed my life
habits because that is more of what I wanted to be and needed to be in order to be an adult and the
responsibilities that go along with it. Another important lesson that I learned was that anyone can
change. I learned more about responsibility and working with others, including those that are difficult
to get along with and different. I learned more about the church and the gospel and how much it
impacted me in my life and my childhood to have it. Going on a mission really helped me understand
the church, its doctrines and principles, and know them for myself rather than just relying on my
parents. I can see how a certain point of doctrine really affected a person and I knew the why of doing
the principle. Living with another missionary and working with them really improved my social skills in
regards to communication. I recognized the importance of it and how difficult it can be when two
people have different ideas and different ways of expressing themselves.
This greater understanding of communication really helped me as I came home from my
mission. I really wanted to get into school and work, but for the first six weeks of being home I couldnt
find any work and it didnt look like school was a reality. This made me feel lazy and I worried about my
future, that I would never achieve the things that I really wanted to do. I eventually found work and
now that I had finished my mission my brother and I felt more like equals and we became best friends
and started doing things together like double dating and going to concerts. We went on trips together,
we had the same friends, and we really started understanding each other. A year after working I finally
started school part time even though I didnt really know what I wanted to do. School helped me gain
more of a desire to learn than I had before and to be more aware of things that were going on in the
world and how I could help and contribute to society.
My brother and I were going to the same ward together and he had a girlfriend now and we
were all really good friends. I then started dating Dawna. She was different than other girls that I had
dated. I felt like she cared about me and wanted what was best for me. She wanted me to think for
myself and establish my own personality, desires, and self. She taught me to be more involved in school
and to learn. Right away I knew that she was a girl that I could marry and I began to pursue that. Once
again I learned more about communicating and partnership. I saw qualities in her that I wanted to
incorporate in my life. She taught me that I am an important person, that I matter, and that I can do
great things. When we initially started dating she ended up out of town and we talked on the phone for
a couple of hours and she told me things about myself and qualities in myself that I had never really
thought about but that I felt were important and changed the way I viewed myself. I learned that she
saw more in me than I saw in myself and it made me want to do the things that she saw.
We dated and had miscommunications and growth along the way. We learned how to
communicate in a better way so that we could understand each other. We had talked about marriage
and things that we needed to change, specifically me being more involved in school and how I would
take care of our family if we were to be married. This had us both thinking and ended up with us taking
some time apart to think. I was miserable without her. I realized that I would do anything to be with
her and when we talked we agreed that we both had realized that we wanted to be together. We
ended up getting engaged in May and married on October 19, 2013. It has been the best time of my life
and it has helped me be more of the man that I was all along. I am currently more involved in school
and will be finishing my associates this summer, and have further education plans for the future.






From left to right:
Angie (Jasons wife),
Jason (Brother),
Dawna (My Wife),
Vicki (Mother), Russ
(Father), and
Grandma Welch.

From top left, to top right, to bottom
right, to bottom left. Age: 1, 4, 10, 19.