Educational Autobiography
Growing up, I did not have many friends in school and I felt that if they knew my problems they would not like me. In the time between middle school and high school, it seemed like my mom and I only communicated through fights and conflict. My dad and I always had just the silence between us. My oldest sister was constantly moving in and out of my life, my younger sister was beginning to experience her gender identity crisis, and my other older sister left home abruptly my junior year and got pregnant.
The people I thought were my friends during this time fell short of deserving that title. With my days fully booked with school, work, and helping my parents raise my sisters baby, I was worn thin. When these issues at home hit the fan, I exploded. I quite the drill team, started a three-way knock-out fight, and started doing drugs and drinking. The only good thing to come out of all this turmoil was that my guidance counselor had suggested that I join the track team to help expel my anger and she was right; I was a speed demon on the track.
My first year away at college attending TWU started out good, but during my second semester my life was put in the ultimate downward spiral. My two older sisters got cervical cancer and my mom was diagnosed with two separate cases of cancer within months of each other. Being thousands of miles away not able to do anything, I had an emotional breakdown worrying about what was going to happen to my family. I do not know how we got through the next year and a half, but my family came together; putting aside our differences making us closer than we had been in a long time.
It was in the Fall of 2011, I was teaching a dance class at my local college back home when I saw a guy gazing wide-eyed in the window. I could tell there was some aspect of special needs about him but I was not judgmental. When I invited him to join the class, the other dancers looked at me like I was crazy. The look of pure joy and excitement on his face spoke volumes to me. I had impacted his life not just with kindness, but I had taught him to use dance as a language; using the body to speak the language of the soul. This was when I had my “calling” to become a special education teacher and pursue a degree in dance movement therapy.
I thought my life had finally turned a corner; I was in a happier more positive place, but I lost my direction and began spiraling down in the aftermath of a devastating heartbreak. I moved to Waco to live with my oldest sister and get as far away from my problems as possible. I thought getting out of town would be a good distraction, but it only got worse. I lost a lot of weight, became depressed, and the ongoing financial struggle did not help. I was on the brink of self-destructing.
I was here in Dallas shopping at NorthPark when I first met Kimball. I look back on that day and I thank God for bringing him into my life because when I met Kimball, I was lost, alone, and dying inside. The thing I am most grateful to Kimball about is his emotional support. Growing up I never felt like my friends and family were in my corner, I always felt like I was either a burden or I was overlooked. He helped me face my past and address the problems I had kept bottled up for so long. I was finally able to be honest with myself about how all those things had made me feel and how they had affected me. I learned how to make amends with my family and talk to them about how the turmoil at home had affected me and how my actions had affected them as well. I found clarity and peace for the first time in a long time and it has made me a more grounded person. I have mended my relationships with my family and people in my past and I don’t feel like I must run from anything anymore.