Julie Merchant Psychological development

  • Conception

    Date of my conception
  • Embryonic Period

    My mother took a medication for nausea. Years latter we called the Dr. and he said it was not DES.
  • Birth

  • First 2 years Biosocial Breastfeeding

    I'm sleeping through the night. My mother is breastfeeding me and continues until I am four months old. The culture did not approve of breastfeeding at the time.
  • First 2 years Cognitive Started talking

    First words momma
  • First 2 years Biosocial Walking

    I started walking.
  • First 2 years Psychosocial Brother

    I had a brother three years older than me that I like to play with. He was very good to me when we were kids.
  • Play years Psychosocial Sister

    My sister was born. I quit playing with my brother and started playing with her.
  • Play years Biosocial Childhood diseases

    I contracted ruebella, also called German Measles at the time. Over the next year or two also contracted mumps, another form of measles, and chicken pox. All diseases which there are vaccines for now.
  • Play years Cognitive Reading

    My mother read to me and my siblings every night before bed
  • Play years Cognitive No TV

    We watched very little TV and when we did my dad would say "Your not watching this junk, watch something educational". We watched alot of George Perot and The Wild Kingdom. Another common saying in our house was "Go find something productive to do".
  • Play years Biosocial Swimming

    My father taught me how to swim.
  • Play years Psychosocial Diving

    My father taught me how to dive. He held his arm up at the edge of the pool and had me dive head first over it. I was very frightened but I did it.
  • Play years Psychosocial My dog Sam

    Play years Psychosocial My dog Sam
    My mom picked me up from school and in the back seat in a box was a little black daschund. We named him Sam. He was to be my best friend for almost 18 years. It was the beginning of my life long love of daschunds. I have four of them now. Two of them were rescues. One is the age Sam was when he died.
  • School years Cognitive Kindergarten

    I started kindergarten. I was very independent and walked to school by myself. My mother told me that day she knew she didn't have to worry about me. I loved school I was very confident in my abilities.
  • School years Biosocial In the Outdoors

    I was very active. Grandfather asked me if I ahs ants i my pants. I spent all my time outside playing in the woods and fields with my brother and sister catching snakes and turtles and frogs and anything that was catchable.
  • School years Psychosocial Embarassment

    Girls had to wear dresses to school. One morning I was in a hurry to get dressed and forgot to put my underwear on. At school in the afternoon I went to the bathroom and discovered my mistake. I did not leave the bathroom until the end of school bell rang. This was the first time I felt complete embarrassment.
  • Adolescence Psychosocial First Crush

    My first real crush, Carl H. I sat next to him on our pretend stagecoach for the school play. He pretty much ignored me.
  • Adolescence Psychosocial Twelfth Birthday

    It was my twelfth birthday. I was at my grandparents cottage in Fife Lake by Traverse City. My grandmother took me to the beauty shop to get my hair done then bought me my first pair of nylons. My grandfather made dinner reservations at Cadillac Sands, a restaurant that only "adults" went to. I came out to the living room with my hair done and my nylons on and my grandfather started laughing because both of my knees were completely skinned and showing through the nylons. I felt very grown up
  • Adolescence Cognitive Math Class

    I was put in an advanced math class with older kids teaching and no other girls. We were learning Algebra. I felt very alone and started to dislike math.
  • Adolescence Biosocial Smoking

    The summer of "71" I started smoking cigarettes. My friends and I would walk to the golf course and the guy behind the counter would sell them to us. I was 13 years old. Cigarettes were 35 cents a pack. We thought we were cool. It was a bad habit that I continued with on and off for over thirty years. I have not smoked for seven years now.
  • Emerging adult Psychosocial Moving out

    This was the last big fight with my father. It was also the last time he hit me and the first time I hit back. I moved out that day and in with my boyfriend and his parents. It was the day before my 17th birthday. I worked and went to shcool fulltime.
  • Emerging adult High school graduation

    I graduated from highschool
  • Emerging adult Bioosocial

    I got married
  • Adulthood Biosocial Needed glasses for vision correction

  • Adulthood Psychosocial Depression

    Suffered my first bout of depression. I had two more bouts the following two years. I worked hard in therapy and group meetings and have been depression free since.
  • Adulthood Psychosocial Divorced

    Got divorced after 16 years of marriage. Became a single mom raising a 6, 9, and 12 year olds.
  • Cognitive Adulthood Started College

    Started College after being out of school for 27 years. Have maintained a 4.0 GPA through my associates and nursing degree
  • Adulthood Bioscocial Quit smoking

    Didn't consciously quit smoking, just kept smoking less and less until I wans't smoking anymore
  • Late Adulthood Cognitive Master Gardener

    Became a master gardener
  • Late Adulthood Psychosocial Remarry

    Got married for the second time to a man I met in my master gardening class.
  • Late Adulthood Biosocial Knee replacement

    I need to have knee replacement surgery due to wear and tear
  • Death and Dying

    I harvested my last garden, voted in my last presidential election the day before then spent the day with my 3 children and 7 grandchildren. I had a heart attack and died that evening.