ophidianyvette

female - 19 years, Bruno, Australia

Yvette M.'s interview

About me

Hey, my name is Yvette. I'm sixteen years old and enjoying life as much as I can right now. A few experiences over the last year or so have made me realise just how precious life is and how wasting it (such as, in a classroom) certainly isn't what I want to have flash before my eyes as I pass on into another world. I am making some changes in my life and in myself to be the best person I can be and live the most fulfilling life that I can. Right now, I attend high school. I'm in year eleven but also do a year twelve subject. School is good for meeting my mates but that's pretty much it. I very much dislike school and the education system and would much rather be working. My dream job is to be an ophiologist and an environmental conservationist, perhaps even a park ranger. I enjoy caring for injured animals and researching snakes. I'm also interested in the weather, agriculture and natural disasters. I'm a very out-door-orientated person and I would love to spend my days out in more natural habitats, looking after flora and fauna and really seeing what's left of the natural beauty we have on Earth.

I would also not only love to work in nature, but also live in a more natural environment. I would love to live on a small farm when I'm older. Breed a few animals and grow a few crops. Live in fresh air without the sound of motor vehicles passing by and having the privacy you just don't get from living in crampt units in busy suburban areas. I prefer animals to most people and I'm an introvert a lot of the time. I do love my mates and spending time with them as well as loved family members, but other than that, I prefer to be left alone. I really only have MySpace to keep in contact with family and friends and to possibly find people with the same interests as myself. Other than that, MySpace is of no interest to me.

As for me and where I've come from, I was born in Australia, but have a very long and complicated background. I have an Australian accent, live in a typical "white Australian" suburban home, go to an average school and I am usually surrounded by pretty stereotypical people - so who I am now seems boring compared to my heritage. I'm Spanish-Irish-English-Scottish-French-Dutch-Russian-African. We're not sure about which countries in Africa (there were several) but we do know that some of our African ancestors were slaves. I have Dutch royalty in my blood as well as Spanish Moor ancestry, some of who were pirates. Regardless of my African blood-line, I am white, have blue eyes and dark brown wavy, curly hair. I look like both of my parents, Dad looking Irish and Mum looking Spanish and I have a French name. Go figure. Not to mention my boyfriend’s background.

My man’s background is Philippino-Italian, so there’s quite a mix of culture - but it’s really great. Having been brought up around and having many friends who are Greek and Italian, it didn’t seem so different to me but I have learnt a lot about the Philippino culture. I love learning about cultures and understanding how different societies live. It’s no wonder I ended up with an ethnic guy. I don’t see myself ever being with a white guy. We’ve been together for nearly two years now and I’m so happy we have each other. I love him so much. He's everything I've ever wanted and more than I could ever pray for. He's perfect and he means everything to me. He's helped me through hard times and is always here for me. I love him with all my heart. He’ll always be a part of me.

Family means a lot to me and isn’t reliant on blood relation. My immediate family consists of Mum, Dad, my older sister and my younger brother. I love them all very much, even though I have a love-hate relationship with them (except for my sister - we’re quite close). I get very protective of the family members I love. I only regard certain family members as family because they’re (supposedly) blood-related. Though, I have mates I regard as family more than a few particular relatives. My best friend happens to be my boyfriend, though I have a few other best friends, too. I love my friends a lot, but only the ones I feel I can trust. I don’t get close to people easily and I really only value a few friends I have. That isn’t to sound ungrateful, but I refuse to pretend to have heaps of wonderful friends who I love and adore. At the end of the day, I know those few friends who’d actually be there for me and they’re true friends. I’d rather have one true, dependable friend than twenty fake, stupid friends.

Part of why I prefer snakes to people, is because I love how they’re so instinctive. They don’t rely on magazines to tell them how to live. They don’t need a television to keep themselves occupied. They are self-sufficient. They have initiative. They don’t care about stupid things that self-proclaimed “superior” humans do. They get on with life and live it. Most of all, I think their locomotion is what fascinates me the most. I have always loved snakes. I have been fascinated by their unique existence ever since I can remember. Although my love for snakes tends to be controversial, in that 99% of people I've told think it's weird, I love the misunderstood creatures all the same. I study snakes in my spare time and take time out to research them. I would love a job that involves preserving endangered species. Even if I can't breed endangered species, I will still breed other species and care for them. I would also like to study them further and write books about them. After encountering a red-bellied black (elapid), a few metres away from me in my backyard a few years ago, and also holding a yellow water python, my insatiable desire to understand snakes and everything about them has lived on. There is always something more to learn about the mysterious, meandering creatures - and that is part of what I love about them.

As for my religious status saying "Catholic", I'd like to briefly clarify a little more about my beliefs. I'm what I call an "open-minded Catholic". This basically means that I'm not an ignorant, fundamentalist Christian (anymore). I was brought up Catholic, and much to my father’s detest, my sister got involved with another Church, or, more accurately, business at a very vulnerable, uncertain time in her life. The business took advantage of my sister’s state and brainwashed her. She was on a very low income and still tithed (even though tithing is only spoken of in the Old Testament). Due to the Church preying on her, she also brainwashed me; and for a few years, my sister and I were screwed-up fundies, terrified of the wrath of an all-loving God but not admitting to it as we’d therefore have little faith. I was told Catholicism was evil, which was very hurtful at the time but because I was so scared, naïve and young, I believed it – I mean, why would my sister lie? Well, she wasn’t lying in as much as she genuinely thought she was helping me by “saving” me. Evil lurked around every corner. People who weren’t Christians were unsaved. Those who rebelled against Christianity were demonic. If we did not convert these people, the “blood was on our hands”. I had to stop praying to Mary (although, in my heart, I never did stop). I had to pray every night and be “genuine” about it. I had to pray for everybody, especially anybody I’d encountered that day who I thought was “unsaved”. It was a very damaging experience, however, I did learn a lot from it. Religious fundamentalism is not a joke, nor something to take lightly. I call it a mental disease. After I recovered, I gave religion a rest for a little while because I was still trying to get my head around everything but I’m now back to Catholicism, which feels right in my heart and I am happier now. That’s what religion should feel like. I feel safe in the Church and I am no longer a fundamentalist.

I believe it is very important to respect others’ beliefs but there is a limit as to how much respect I can have for belief systems that involve fear tactics. Yes, Catholicism, a denomination of Christianity, does use fear tactics: love me, believe in me, have faith or I send you to “hell”. I am only Catholic because I pray to Mary and visualise Herself and Jesus as higher powers, however I do not believe in the contradictory, degrading, illogical or supernatural scripture in the Bible. I refuse to believe in something out of fear. I have researched Christianity and have learnt a lot just from reading passages from the Bible – when I was mentally ill as a fundie and after I recovered. I also take into consideration, the fact that the Bible was written thousands of years ago by people who lived hundreds of years after the supposed existence of Jesus Christ ever occurred – not to mention, the Bible has been altered over the years, translated into hundreds of languages and there have been faults with the translations.

Religion and beliefs are a very touchy matter because they are spiritual and very close to people’s hearts. If you know anything about history, you’ll know that a lot of wars, if not most wars, stem from religious intolerance. Unfortunately, so many people have a tendency to believe their beliefs are right and nobody else’s are true. If there is one thing I’ve learnt from being a fundamentalist Christian, it’s that we, as people, need to tolerate the beliefs of others. I don’t like some beliefs in certain religions but I do tolerate them, because it is not my place to tell anybody else what to believe or how to live. I know that there is religious conflict that relate to scripture in Holy books of different religions, but my argument is this: what has all the religion-based killing in the past thousands of years really achieved? All the martyrs who’ve died for their beliefs, all the innocent people killed because we can’t agree to disagree. Does it really show any faith or bravery? Taking the lives of others because you choose to pray to another deity? Or does it show a lack of ability to be mature enough to accept that others have beliefs that differ from your own? I believe it shows the unbelievable ability that the brain has to be brainwashed into thinking and actually believing the most ridiculous things and controlling the body to commit such heinous crimes against the lives of others. I just think it is very sad that even after all these thousands of years, we humans haven’t learnt a darn thing. I hope one day that humans will evolve to a point where everybody can live in peace and where everybody is liberal of others’ beliefs. (That’s only if we humans haven’t already killed ourselves off.)

In my opinion, if religion improves your living quality, helps you get by and gives you unity with perhaps friends or relatives, I think that’s fantastic. It’s when people take their religion too far and start hurting themselves and others because of it, that I believe religion can be a very destructive way of living, or rather, existing.

I suppose, if I could have it my way, we’d all live in a liberal world of freedom, happiness and intelligence. Unfortunately, many countries still don’t have the liberties Australia has. There are still wars going on over the most ridiculous reasons – though, define a “legitimate” reason, other than declaring war because another country is attacking your own. So many people are so sheepish, living by what they see in magazines and on television and not being who they really are on the inside. Ignorance, intolerance, stupidity, greed, jealousy, grief, power, religion, racism, stereotypes, labels, homophobia, sexism, inequality. These are all symptoms of why Earth is the way it is, and many of them intertwine. We humans certainly are an egomaniacal lot. Animals other than humans hardly have any of the self-created issues we have, and they’re a lot more intelligent than we give them credit for. Animals don’t speak our language, so we call them stupid. Perhaps they call us ignorant for not learning theirs.

That’s a brief overview about me. I’d love to hear from anyone who takes a genuine interest in snakes and knows a fair bit about them. I’d also like to talk to anybody who takes particular interest in weather or agriculture. If you remember me from primary school (or even high school) and we were friends or friendly, I’d love to hear from you. If you want to harass me about my views on religion and beliefs, I’ll just treat the message as spam and report you. =]

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