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Archive for category turning points

We met in Mexico, not Maryland

Feb 22

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After attending University of Maryland for a year and pledging a sorority, I, along with a number of my sorority sisters went on the annual Acapulco trip for Spring Break. Every year, the sophomores stay in a hotel in Acapulco, and the seniors rent a villa. It just so happened that a group of 30 deaf college students were on my same plane and staying at the same hotel. I had known the sign language alphabet from a second grade teacher and decided to be brave and try to introduce myself to a very handsome deaf boy.

Throughout the week, I made some of my best friends who I still am close with. We realized that many of us had grown up within an hour of each other and attended colleges 20 minutes away from each other. My whole life plan changed. Originally, I had planned to get a job in fashion PR but now want to dedicate my life to sign language interpretation, and making the hearing community more aware of the deaf community and culture. Though we go to school a mere 20 minutes away from each other, we met in Mexico, thousands of miles away and broke the communication barrier that could have prevented our friendships.

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Loss and tragedy

Feb 20

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When I was 13, my father was killed in an automobile accident. This single one event caused a downward spiral of events than would shape my life into the catastrophic state it is in now. I often wondered if he had lived and I had a positive male role model would I have made better choices in life. I was essentially raised by pro wrestlers, became a wrestler and promoter myself. Living in a world like that, where reality is what you make it, and you suffer no consequences for your actions, I had a warped sense of what was real and was not. I grew up lying, scamming, and breaking the law. Today I am 35 and my life is in shambles. If I could only go back to the pivotal moment …

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You never know where life takes you

Dec 23

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I met my boyfriend in California in January 2008. After 3 months with him, he had gotten laid off from his job and had a job offer in Oregon. He had asked me to move with him. I was skeptical at first because I’ve been with him for such a short time but I decided to go for it because I was young, had no kids, and I might as well enjoy the adventure. I ended up LOVING Oregon! February 2009, he had gotten laid off again. He had gotten a job offer in Colorado in late September 2009. He had asked me to move again. I did not want to move because I was going back to school and the out-of-state tuition for Colorado colleges where too expensive for me. If I had decided to move then I won’t be able to follow him until December of 2009 when the fall term classes ended for my college. To be honest, I thought there was a very slim chance that I would go to Colorado and our relationship was rocky and I doubted it would survive a long distance relationship. I really wanted to stay in Oregon. He left to leave the morning of October 1st and we said our goodbyes. I went to work that day and I was laid off. There was no way I would be able to find a job to support myself and pay for school while living in the nation’s top 40 financially stressed counties due to the economic situation. The job oppurtunities in my area were sparse so I knew that I would have to move out of there to find employment.

Two weeks later, I had moved out to Colorado to join my boyfriend. I do not know yet if I’m meant to be with him but I do know that I’m meant to be in Colorado at this point in my life. In the two weeks that I’ve been here, I have had two job interviews and two other prospective employers that have been duly interested in me. I have also applied to the local community college and hope to start school again in spring. I do not love it yet as much as I did Oregon so it is too soon for me to tell but I at least know that I can survive here.

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The First Step

Dec 11

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It was Friday night Oct 11th and the next morning I was to have my little girls 5th birthday party. But it was Friday night and I was ready to party myself! A very different kind of partying! You see, for the last 2 years of my 25 years I had drank booze and abused drugs. In fact that week I had been in the hospital for alcohol poisoning twice! I had tried to stop so many times but I just couldn’t! So I drank myself to a stupor and started to get ready for bed. My routine was always the same fall in bed and pass out! My husband being the best enabler a girl could have, always made sure that there was a pad on the mattress in case I could not make it to the bathroom to pee and newspapers on the floor, so if I had to puke the poison out of my body, I would not wreck the carpet! During that night, I woke up feeling so weak and sick to my stomach that I thought I was going to die! I turned on the bed side lamp and tried to get up I just could not do it! As I laid back on the pillow I could feel the vomit coming up to my throat! I leaned over and puked on the newspaper that Ken had put down for just this reason.

As I lay hovering over the paper I read the words printed in large script, DO YOU ABUSE ALCOHOL OR DRUGS? THERE IS HELP CALL INSIGHT! I felt such a need to call and prayed to make it trough the night! I promised God and myself if I made did that I would call. Well obviously I did make it and I did call. After the party the next day, I left fot rehab (before it was THE thing) I worked very hard to get straght and stay that way. Next week my little girl will be 30!!! And I will have my 25th sober birthday! It is a good thing that my husband (who I am still married to by the way) put the paper down on that page or who knows!!!!

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Is Life Pre-destined or not?

Dec 4

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One night my brother and I were arguing about whether or not our lives are predetermined before we’re ever born. My brother, Mike, said yes, life is predetermined, it doesn’t matter what you do, your destiny will be what it will be. I said “Bullshit!” Our lives are determined by every decision we make every minute of every day.

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bike accident beckons life’s work!

Nov 25

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My fiance tells me he’s in love with some else, I am crushed, wailing like an animal to release the pain I feel in my heart. Through this discomfort my heart opens and I find my soul’s song. Up to this point, I ride my bike without hands on the creek path singing joyously. A fated bike ride on my teacher’s cruiser which I’m not familiar with while looking for hawthorne berries (the supreme remedy of the heart) ends with me splat on the road , going too fast and flew over handlebars…The metal bike basket nearly took my pinky finger with it. The nurse announces “Looks like we have an amputee”! I am a wounded warrior of the heart, pumped full of pain relieving drugs. Hurricane Katrina just hit that day , later that night a best friend Carrie, a vet tech tells me she’s in the airport and scared at what may happen as she goes to NOLA to volunteer with animals who are devestated. I reassure her all things happen for a reason and that she is brave and selfless. I tell her i love her and wish he well. After hanging up the phone, I put out to the universe ” I want to help others less fortunate with my training and skills”. The next day I receive an email from another good friend, which is a forward of a job opportunity as an Herbal specialist in West Africa~ My love of culture and travel plus my training as a clinical herbalist brings unfathomable excitement for this opportunity! This is the best example of instant manifestation for me in my life thus far, the secret at work! Good news~ I got it and embark on a life changing adventure which deepens my resilience, humility and brings true love and compassion into my heart for GOOD!

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Life Truly Began After it All Fell Apart

Nov 25

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I was recently divorced and seriously depressed from putting aside my dreams for over 14 years and working at a job I hated. I had just hooked up with a man whom I’ve know for several years and I thought we were in love. I was ready to move across the country, marry him, and live out my dream of being a writer, a Grad student, and being at home when my daughter came home from school. That all came crashing down when, 6 weeks before the move, and 3 days after I verbally quit my job, he called it off. I was devastated. I was trapped in a horrible job (which I now had to beg to keep) and I saw my dreams, which were almost in my grasp, float away.

That is when it happened. The economy was crap and my employer decided to call several departments into a meeting offering volunteer layoffs. I wanted out so bad and after that meeting I ran some numbers, checked the unemployment website and showed up at the HR Directors door with a big smile. It is now 2 months later and I am home every day when my daughter gets home from school, I am starting an intelligent magazine for women, and I’m studying for the GRE so I can get my masters degree.

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