My Upbringings

Hello everyone! My name is Jason Matarazzo, I am twenty years old and a full-time student at the University of Connecticut studying to be a business major. I was born and raised in a small, shoreline town called Old Lyme, bordering the Long Island Sound and Connecticut River, in Southeastern Connecticut. Many of you have probably heard of Old Lyme due to the wonderful tick population which has infected many with "Lyme" Disease. The town is large considering its acreage, but only holds about 5,000 residents year-round. During the summer, the town's population doubles because our beaches tend to be a tourist attraction. Almost all the local residents in my town are of white decent. The few black families that do live in town moved in quite recently, mostly for Old Lyme's award-winning school systems. I would consider myself to be monocultural in the sense that I check the "Caucasian" box in every survey I take. My father and mother were both born in Sicily (small island off Italy, "the boot"), but I was born here so I would consider myself an "American." Although I was raised as a Roman Catholic, meaning baptized, given communion, and confirmed, I would consider myself today to be an Atheist. When I was younger I spoke Italian fairly well because my grandmother watched over me in my younger years; she couldn't speak English. Once she passed away, I stopped speaking Italian and lost all my knowledge of the language. Even though both my parents speak fluent Italian, they always spoke English to me, so I lost it over the years. Because I grew up in a shoreline town, the water was always one of my favorite places to be around. I love sailing, jet skiing, fishing, you name it, if there is water involved I'm there. I also have been playing soccer since I was five years old, one of my favorite pasttimes to say the least. So yeah, that's me in a nutshell...