About Me

My Name:

My name is Jorgie (I go by Jorge/George) Tomas-Gabriel Montoy, and I am named directly after my father, Jorge E. Montoy. My parents chose to avoid having my first name spelled exactly like my dad because they didn’t want me to be a junior and called J.J. However, now my legal first name makes no sense in either English or Spanish; it falls between Georgie, and Jorge, and the only equivalent to Georgie in Spanish is spelled Jorgito. And funnily enough, despite my name, I don’t actually speak Spanish that well. My dad said I was too stubborn when I was young trying to teach me Spanish and eventually gave up, and whenever I ask my parents “Why two middle-names?” They just say they couldn’t decide between Thomas or Gabriel, so they combined them in a way that sounded nice: Tomas-Gabriel.

Despite all the confusion behind my name, I like it. It is unique, and I really don’t think there is anyone else out there with their legal name spelled Jorgie. I’m grateful that just my name alone makes me a little bit different than everyone else in the world.

My Identity:

When meeting people, I believe I come off as quite and introverted. However, when I get to know people, I become quite loud and confrontational about basically everything. People learn pretty quickly that I am honest and I enjoy making people laugh whenever I can. Which might seem like the complete opposite to when people first meet me, I have been told I have somewhat of a resting you-know-what face.

I also believe that I am misunderstood when it comes to facing problems/altercations. I am usually always calm and am able to face problems with a level-head and come up with a pretty solid answer or fix. But, I feel like people think that when I do that, that I don’t care about the problem or situation. Which is untrue, I care a lot about basically every decision, I think about whatever I’m facing a lot to find the best solution.

My Student Identity:

I find myself in this situation every semester with at least one class. I always miss a class 1 or 2 days in a row for some life reason: family, sickness, physical problems, etc. Then afterwards, I convince myself that I am no longer wanted in that class, so then I miss more classes back-to-back, which further enables my idea that I’m not wanted in that class. I feel as if that everyone notices me being gone and that it would be awkward for everyone if I show up again. It never helps when I do eventually come back and a professor says “surprised to see you again” or “you finally showed up”, it isn’t their fault, but it makes me want to disappear from that class for the rest of the semester. I end up stressing myself out too much with this imaginary audience dilemma and then my grades suffer even though I might really enjoy the class or teacher.

I wish professors could just know what was going on in everyone’s life without them explicitly telling them so there wouldn’t be misunderstandings.

My Family:

To me family really is where your heart is. No matter where I go, I’ll make it home and I’ll become close to those around me. Family doesn’t have to be blood, it can be with whoever supports you and accepts you for who you are. For me, that is what family is, and it is because me and my siblings aren’t completely blood-related. My siblings are nearly double my age and we have different fathers, but they never treated me differently. I look slightly different when compared to my siblings, and we were raised differently as well, so them accepting me as who I am despite not liking my dad all that much, means the world to me. They showed me that family is what you make it and I plan to live that way for the rest of my life because of them. As long as there is unconditional love and support in a relationship, I see that as a family.

My Home:

I am from Southern California in a place called Redlands. Despite the name, it is not that red; in fact, it is mostly orange. Redlands is known for its orange groves and themes a lot of events around that fact. For example, during New Years, instead of counting down the ball drop, we count down the orange drop. We have a huge orange slowly fall down in our small downtown area with hundreds of people there, it is kind of a tourist attraction for the other cities around us. Also, in the same downtown area, Redlands has a market night every Thursday night and it keeps small businesses and farmers thriving in our average-sized town. Market night is honestly one of the funniest things for our town and always gives us something to do every week since what people sell differs slightly each week.

Fortunately, my hometown is also considered prestigious when it comes to schooling. Tons of people travel to Redlands to attend the private university there called University of Redlands (U of R), mostly people wanting to do teaching go there. Overall, Redlands has a lot of cool things about it and is in a central part of SoCal, so even if you are bored there, you can travel 30-60 minutes away and definitely find something fun to do.

A Letter From Me to Me:

Past me and current me aren’t all that different; may that be for better or for worse. However, if I were to give old me a piece of advice, I would try to convince myself to the best of my ability to stop procrastinating. Procrastination has hindered my life for as long as I can remember, and if I kicked the bad habit earlier, I think I would be better off in life forever. I can’t think of one time that I didn’t procrastinate even a little for an assignment or for studying; I always convince myself “I still have time.” And that thought process has been my downfall for so many of my classes in high school and even in college. My procrastination is one thing that I can say that I truly hate about myself, and if I could, I would go back and try to change it as early as possible in my life. Nothing good has ever come from it, and it never will.

How I Got Here:

Currently, I am a Sophomore at Chico State University, and it has been a journey to get here. By far, the most challenging part of my life has to be my Senior year in high school. I have never been a great student, but when I became a Junior in high school, something changed. I started to care about school and where I was heading, a good part of that was my girlfriend pushing me at the time to do better in school, and I did. I raised my GPA that semester by nearly a whole point and I continued to improve until my senior year. Unfortunately, due to me caring so late about my academics, I had to retake a couple of classes. So instead of having a nice relaxing 4 period senior year: I had 7 periods, three of them AP. On top of that, I almost got Principle’s Honor Roll (I got a 3.98 GPA, so close). It was an arduous year, but I came out on top, and I’m proud of myself for that.

Finding Myself:

Whenever I am lost or confused in my life, I always turn to my siblings for advice or help. They know me better than I know me sometimes and since they are way older than me, they keep me in check most the time as well. But, since I live far away from them, I can’t look to them for guidance as much as I used too, so I have to rely on myself. I still use them though, now when I’m scattered or don’t know what to do, I just ask myself “What would they all tell you?” Then, I sit back and go through in my head what each one of my three siblings would tell me. My family is my peace of mind, even when I am far from home, they always keep me in check. They make me realize everything is going to fine and I just need to be myself (just not the procrastinating self), and keep doing what I am doing. If they think I can make it, I know I can.