Hello everyone! My name is Cassandra, but I go by Cass! I was born in a city called Glendale in California. When I was six, my family moved from Glendale to Las Vegas, Nevada, known as the “city that never sleeps.” My family heritage is completely Filipino; my mom was from Manila, Philippines, and my dad was from Isabela, Philippines. Both of my parents came to the U.S. in the 1980s, and I was their second-born child. My older brother is five years older than me, and he has autism. This means that he had a developmental disorder where he had (and still has) difficulty interacting and communicating with people and has restrictive and repetitive behavior.
Growing up, my parents were always busy and I didn’t really have any house rules that were spoken out loud. I had to learn all my manners and pick up social cues from my friends instead of my family. For example, I didn’t know double-dipping was not socially acceptable unless you were close with people until one of my friends taught me about it because they were grossed out!
Regardless of how my parents brought me up, I knew that I wanted to be active. I played soccer and learned gymnastics for about a year. In my free time, I would lay on the living room floor listening to a handheld radio and set it to a classical music station.
