So here I begin my writing. I've always been told that I'm a good writer and I enjoy writing, but I was busy with college, parenthood, paying the bills, not being able to pay the bills... I think I needed those experiences to get to where I am now so that I would have something to write about.
I suppose that I'll start with a short bio. I was born and raised in Douglas, Arizona, which is a small town on the border of Mexico and New Mexico. My parents were school teachers. On Sundays, my father would preach at a small Baptist church an hour away until I was nine. Being raised in a border town can be hard on an Anglo kid. But I had it harder in some ways and easier in others. I had it harder because I was a little freckle faced red-haired blue eyed girl in an ocean of beautiful brown skinned, brown eyed, brown haired children. I desperately wanted to be beautiful like they were. I stood out like a sore thumb and people insisted on rubbing my head for good luck, so there was a constant violation of my personal space. I had it easier than many because I'm a girl and my best friend from the beginning of kindergarten was a tough Hispanic girl, so no one messed with me when she was around. I'm not saying it was gangland at all, especially in the 1970's, but my brother and his friends were in frequent fights that were often race based issues.
I failed my first year of college, moved back home, and promptly got pregnant. After I discovered that my boyfriend was a coke-head, I struck out on my own to raise my daughter. With a baby in tow, I struggled through college, my first real jobs, student teaching, poverty, my mother's death, and a house fire, not to mention breastfeeding, diaper rash, first days of day care, potty training, high fevers, chicken pox, and all the other joys of single parenthood.
Once I finished my student teaching, I didn't get hired for a year. I finally got hired to teach in another border town where I still live and work. Like any parent, I raised my daughter with some triumphs and some failures. After she graduated, she got married and went away to college. The end of her first semester of school, she got pregnant and decided that they needed to move home. She had a baby boy and is going through many of the same struggles I did with her, but she has support. It is very different to watch a couple go through pregnancy, labor, delivery, and parenting than it is to do it solo.
My goals for the relatively near future are: to begin writing daily and hopefully to find the book that is in me, to find someone to love and that loves me in a relationship that will last and grow, and to free myself to do things that enliven and enrich me. I have my “Bucket List” but my health is fine, so I haven't really attempted to seriously meet any of those wishes. That is a goal as well, to connect with my wishes.
I have read so many things that often I will say “I don't know where I read it, but...” If you catch one and know where it came from, please let me know so that I can credit the source because one should always reference where they got information or a quote from. I do love to quote movies, television, and books that I have read, but most of the quotes are ones that struck me because me or someone close to me needed to hear that information that I found. I can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and YouTube.
