Autobiography

My name is Marques Huckleberry Hase, I was born in Portland, Oregon. When I was two years old my parents took my two older sisters and I and headed west to our rural home in Gaston. That same year, the baby of the family was born, my little brother. We lived In Gaston on our twelve acres for thirteen years. I loved our house, there was all the room to play that a child could want. I grew up around sports, my whole family participated in all different types of sports from baseball, softball, volleyball, basketball, to wrestling. Some of my fondest memories were hanging out at my fathers fast pitch games in Portland, his teammates were like family, I even called one of them grandpa. Throughout my childhood I participated in football, baseball, and I wrestled. If I could remember one quote from my father about sports it was, “I don’t care if you play soccer, football, or chess, but you will always give your best.” This quote from my father is something I have always lived by, in school or out on the playing field I always wanted to do the best that I possibly could.

Sports is a window that I view most of my life and beliefs from. Growing up in Portland and being around my father and his teams there were always guys on his team of a minority race. The wrestling club that I drove an hour to three times per week was Peninsula Park, about half of the kids that worked out here were black, and all but one of my coaches were black as well. Coach Pittman, besides my father, he is the man I have the up most respect for.

While attending schools in Forest Grove all the way until high school, I had many Latino baseball and football teammates. Something I have learned through my years in sports is that when you play with or against an individual you will have respect for them through the battles that you endure. When I witness a teammate whether black, white, or Latino do something great, it still is great no matter what race he was. That Latino teammate next to me endured the same daily doubles, and the same workouts as myself, I am no better than he is. After Middle school, my family moved across the state to Redmond, Oregon. The schools that I attended in Redmond were not very diverse. There were not many cultures represented in my school of nearly 1,800 students. I believe that this also helped form my views because I have had many different perspectives on cultural views. Redmond was a very conservative area so I had some time growing up around people who were not exposed to many different cultures and can see where and why problems can arise.

My family has always been very close. I can remember the days, my sisters who are ten years older than me, having to babysit and take care of my brother and myself. When I say take care, that usually meant they did nothing but feed us. My brother and I were only two years apart so we always were outside playing or off getting dirty. My family structure had always been fairly strict. My parents always used a specific metaphor to describe their rules. The metaphor was that we were on a leash, we start with a long leash, but the more trouble or the more problems caused the shorter the leash got which in turn was our freedom being taken away.

Holidays are my favorite time of the year because I get to be with my family. My family is a bit scattered living in Texas, Arizona, and Oregon so the holidays are one of the few times a year that we are able to all get together and have a great time. My favorite times are after dinner because we will often share stories about our childhoods and make fun or joke about how awful we were to each other.

Money, food, and shelter was never an issue in my family. If any of my siblings or I ever really needed something my parents never needed to say no. I lived a comfortable life, but I never had the nice cars or fancy clothing but I was never in need. I have had many times in my life in which I have been subjected to many different social classes. When I was wrestling I wrestled for a club that was in north Portland and was full of many diverse families.

In my family, gender meant nothing. Both of my sisters were older than my brother and I so I lived with them being in charge. They were the boss and my brother an I had to fallow their rules. Through most of my life, my sister along with their friends were able to beat me up if I was acting up or needed it. Gender is something that I grew up with meaning nothing, both my parents brought in money, they both made dinner. The way I grew up, gender was never an issue.

Church is not something that my family ever attended. The only time I had ever been to Church was when I stayed the night at a friends house. In this case I had only attended Church a hand full of times in my entire life. My parents were always forced to attend church when they were children and were always very active in the church scene. So my grandparents were very involved with religion but it never made it down to me. I have always been very open to any new ideas. I have always been fascinated with religion and have read many books. This was sparked when I attended college at Gonzaga University. At this school I was required to take religion classes and loved them. Since my time at Gonzaga, I have read a few books on different types of religion, but I still am not active in a church.

One experience that I had when I was fourteen years old that changed my views on, religion, culture, family, gender, and race was my family trip. In 8th grade my parents quit their jobs and pulled both my brother and myself out of school for the year and we traveled the country in a motor-home. Those nine months of travel exposed me to more culture than a fourteen year old could handle. It was a great experience that I would not trade for the world. I had lived in the Pacific Northwest my whole life, so when I was exposed to cultures such as in Louisiana I was amazed. To see how happy people could be with so little was something I had not witnessed very often. Through all my years of sports, travel, and most of all my family are the things that has shaped my views into what they are today. My views and experiences that I have encountered is the reason I want to become a teacher and take on the responsibility that it will bring.