A Family Affair with Kelly Guerriero

To start, I want to say I am honored to be picked for this week’s blog to talk about my family. I also want to say that you too, should feel honored you have the opportunity to read about the…umm, the uh……….unique………..people I’ve descended from.

We’ll begin with the ringleader of my family, my mom. While most other people’s mothers in college send them magazines, clothes, and perhaps the occasional packaged box of homemade cookies, my mom takes her own different route.  Halloween masks, shock pens, and fart machines (encouraged to use only during the quietest moments in study hall) are expected monthly gift items I find in my surprise triple-taped mail package from home.  Taxidermy rats and mannequin heads are also highly expected, and I urge the mail distributors, from this point on, not to shake the box.  This sense of humor is only one of the ways my mom has impacted my life as well as my personality.  It’s only necessary to have that one person that brings the light in the most serious situations.  She is my backbone and support system through every decision I’ve ever had to make, or ever will have to make.  She is my role model, my best friend, and one of the funniest people I know.

The next one up is my dad.  Besides the easily tanned Italian skin, chin-dimple, and my inherited love for spaghetti and meatballs, my dad has given me more than anything I could have ever asked for.  Hours and hours of rebounding for me in the gym at ANY time of the day (or night) on ANY day or night (Christmas Eve), hundreds of dollars on basketball and athletic trainers, plane rides and long car rides from state to state to watch me play a game, and the intense search of thinking back through 40 years worth of friendships to find out who’s become a school janitor and finally grab a copy of the school gym’s key.  My dad, he’s not only my dad (or personal rebounder), but my hero, my everything.

Next come my siblings…Tommy, Jimmy and Marykate.  Whether it’s sneaking me in the door past curfew, or giving me the best back massages in the whole world for “only 25cents!!!!” (Marykate) they are always there for me.  I cherish them and love them more than anything else in this world.  They are truly my pride and joy, my heart, and every reason I’m so proud to call myself a Guerriero.

The last piece of my family, how could I ever forget, my dogs (correctly pronounced as “dawgs” in our New York household).  Schatzie, Penny and Daisy.  While they manage to protect our house, they’re also the first ones to wake me up with their barking at 5 am every single morning. It’s really refreshing and starts my day off JUST right when I have to scream from upstairs every morning, “WILL YOU SHUTUP!!!!!!!!!”  They add excitement and enthusiasm to our house.  They are also probably the most loyal, and the best candidates to tell things to that you can’t tell mom or dad. (They have yet to tell them about that one time…….)

Coming to the Mount was a huge transition for my family and I.  However, it seems silly now, that any of us would’ve been nervous at all for me to leave.  I no longer consider myself as having “left the family,” but considering it as having been brought into another one.  My teammates and coaches are my new and my second family.  They are my home away from home, and I am so lucky to have that.  We work through the best and worst times together, we pull for each other and we want to see each other succeed.  Although, my family at school is probably a lot more physically fit (we don’t run 10 in 10’s or champions together at home in New York), both families have something in common, that is, we love each other, and I am so proud to be not only a part of the Guerriero’s, but also the Mount.



The Guerrieros