In an Imperfect World

Well, I'm 22 years old and I was born in San Francisco, CA; Raised to and from Daly City-Fremont,CA. I'm Filipino with a hint of spanish blood. My full name is Andrea Del Rosario but I'm known as DRE to all my friends and family. Yeah I know my URL for this website reads "DREA_RAWR" I guess I thought DREA sounded better with "RAWR" instead of "DRE_RAWR." Actually I hate being called DREA LOL. K. don't ask.

I'm an only child and let me tell you how much it SUCKS. I've always felt that if I had at least one brother or sister then my life wouldn't of been so hard to deal with. It gets really lonely a lot of the time. I had a lot friends growing up but naturally they always seemed to come and go. When I was 13 my bestfriend Christine Albano passed away from kidney failure. I never became too attached to anyone ever again.

My mom's a nurse so she works crazy hours. My dad used to work full time as a manager for a wherehouse company but sadly when I was 14 in May 2001 he got into a really bad accident at work where he passed out and fell off the foreclift he was driving and landed head first on the pavement. He ruptured a blood vessel which caused internal bleedind. He was rushed to E.R. and when his heart flat lined a pacemaker saved his life. He was then put into intensive care where he fell into a colma for 15 days and miraculously on the 15th day the doctors asked my mother to make a huge decision to either sustain or cut off his life support and emphasizing the high cost of medical care my mom told them to keep the monitors running no matter what happened--he woke up the same day.

I was forced to come see him a few days before he woke up. Its not that I didnt want to see him--it's just that I didn't want to see how bad he was hurting. I was always daddy's little girl. He was my bestfriend, my hero... Well anyway as I walked into ICU there were only 8 little rooms and the first room I looked into had a person hooked up to so many monitors. These people were black and blue in the face and so many tubes were connected everywhere--How do you distinguish their faces? I fell into immediate hysteria. I reach the middle of the 8 rooms and there my dad was. As I looked into his room and saw him tears ran down immediately down my face. I fell to the ground on hands and knees. My cousin and mom had to hold me to calm me down. My whole life would again change.

I came to see him again when he awoke from the colma. He didn't remember me at first and I couldn't begin to tell you the pain I felt. He recognized my mother almost immediately. My mother told me to be patient w/him and to visit everyday to help him remember. After a week he began to remember my name and who I was to him. At the time I had a friend who was 18 that I claimed as my brother at the time. He took me everyday to see my dad so I trusted him. My mom took him in our house as her own son and 6 months later he tried to cash in a personal check of my mothers and luckily the place called our house and I had to find out the horrible thing he did. I threw him out the house and never saw him again. My father was transfered to a rehab facility after 3 months and began to walk again. Although he did suffer permanent damages. His grammar is impaired and has slight amnesia. He can only remember major events in his life. He can't remember things that happened a week ago.

People always try to tell me how I'm stll very lucky to have him but it's really not the same. I just now started to accept things.

Highschool was so enjoyable and painful all at the same time. I wouldn't change a thing though. I hung out with your typical asian girls. There were diff. clicks I'm sure you're all aware of. Who hasn't seen Mean Girls? Anyway, my only regret is that I wish I wasn't so closed to one group and that I was more diversed. I love diversity! I embrace different people of all cultures and nationality! I think it's amazing how many different people we have in this world and one day I'll meet one of each kind!

Before I get sidetracked lol, I have struggled w/my weight for as long as I can remember. I was always up and down with my weight. I was teased in elementary, junior high, and high school FOR ALWAYS SOMETHING. If it weren't HOW BIG MY LIPS are it was how much weight I was gaining. SO, I developed an eating disorder. I became bulimic. I began throwing up my food when I was 13 and it was at its worse during the time of my dads accident. I went for help about it when I was 18 and then I stopped going to sessions. I don't do it like I used to but I'm still trying to overcome it. Once in a bluemoon I'll throw up. One day I hope to be completely healed.

I fell into a bad drug addiction when I was 15. I started using because of a boy I met who was a meth addict. It was an abusive relationship that was destroying me. I was kicked out of my highschool and sent to continuation. When I was 16 I decided I had enough and took control of my own life. I kicked him to the curb and he stalked me for 3 months after but he eventually buzzed off. I worked my ass off at Robertson Continuation and my goal was to make it back to American to graduate with all my friends. I was down by 75 credits and was a Junior at that time and after busting my ass day after day I transfered back to American senior year to walk with my class with pride and honor.

I am a survivor AND today I am a better person. I'm currently attending Chabot college to my fellow baydestrians u may know it as "SHABBIT." I'll be transfering next sem. to USF. (Univ. of San Francisco). I plan to finish my undergrad then enter into USF's law program. Maybe I'll transfer next fall if I get on the show LOL we'll see.

I'm not perfect--in fact I'm imperfect and my flaws make me such a beautiful person.

This is me.

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