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All About Ash

Bio

 My name is Ashley Rupp; however I much prefer to be called Ash.  My parents thought that Ashley would be a unique name, but apparently every other couple who had a daughter that year thought the same thing.  When I was younger, my Girl Scout troop had 4 Ashleys and 6 Jessicas.  I vowed then never to be referred to as ‘Ashley R.’ again.  Since then, I have always gone by Ash. 

I was born in Gallup, New Mexico on an Indian reservation.  My father worked for the Indian health service.  My parents used to joke that it was easy to spot me at the hospital, because I was the only white baby.  My mother used to wrap me like the Navajo women wrapped up their children (its called papoosing), and because of that I have a small flat spot on the back of my head.  Thanks Mom!

When I was still a baby we moved to Ohio so my Dad could get his doctorate in Pharmacology.  That’s where my little sister was born.  When I was three, and Erica was still a baby we moved to West Lafayette, IN because my Dad got a job teaching at Purdue University.  That is where I lived for the next 13 years of my life.

When I was a senior in high school my father got a job teaching at the medical college Midwestern University, so we moved to Phoenix.  Luckily I was only a few credits from graduating and I was able to finish those up in under a semester.  I was in no mood to make friends at a new high school after having been ripped away from the only life I had ever known (thanks again Mom!).

I am now a “well adjusted” senior at ASU West.  I will graduate in May 2006 with a Major in Political Science and minors in both Anthropology and Philosophy.  I plan to attend law school a few semesters after graduation.  I love to cook, read, and listen to classic rock. 

Memory Map

This is the house I lived in from the time I was 11 to 17.  I really loved this house.  It was set on 6 acres of land (two lawn, and four woods).  My little sister and I would play outside everyday after school.  Behind our house were dense woods with steep ravines and a creek. 

I never really talked to any of the kids in the neighborhood at school.  It was kind of an unwritten rule that we were only friends at home. 

There were two ways to get to my house.  You could either take the gravel road or come up a steep, but paved, hill.  These roads were a real bitch to learn to drive on.  My best friend (from age 10-17) lived in a subdivision at the bottom of the hill.  My long time crush (from age 10-17) lived in a neighborhood at the end of the gravel road.  Sometimes when my best friend, Rhonda, came over we would walk down the gravel road to Brian’s house and listen to Nirvana with him on his drive way (we really thought that was really cool).

I have great memories of this house.  It was such a great place to grow up in.  It was removed enough from everything and everyone that after a hard day of pretending to be much more grown-up than you really were in middle school, you could come home a run around and act like a kid without worrying about people seeing you acting ‘un-cool.’  

As I got older I appreciated the dense woods behind the house when I would have parties.  It was a great place to sneak away from everyone and make out.