My Story

Well for starters, my mother is a single mom of 5 children (I don't live with her, so technically 4 now) and has been supporting all of us/them on her own since her divorce about 9 years ago, with the exception of a small child support check she receives from her ex husband (and father to the 4 children she's raising). She went through minimal schooling while still married and got a job at Dallas Semiconductor assisting in the design of integrated circuits and makes an "OK" salary, but really not nearly enough to support as many children as she has. My (at the time) estranged father on the other hand never paid child support for me, and she was forced to support me 100% on her own until she met my now ex-stepfather. She is a fine woman, a strong woman, and a righteous woman... I admire her deeply. Because of my mothers situation, I took it upon myself to graduate high school one year early, at the age of 17, so I could begin working to save money for school, a car, a cell phone... all the things my family couldn't afford that everyone else around me had. Little did I know that once I graduated and could work full time my mother would no longer be able to fully support me, because she just couldn't afford it with 4 other rapidly growing children to care for. With the expenses of a vehicle, insurance, etc., new incoming bills and trying to save some money for a community college, I found out really fast how to be a grown up. I moved out on my own and lived in an apt. with my best friend at the age of 17 and began FULLY supporting myself... hah. You can only imagine where my school money perished! I used some of the scholarship money I received for graduating early to attend a semester of community college (night school), while working full time during the day as a receptionist to support myself. With the pressures of a very demanding full-time job, getting off at 4:30 or 5 going straight to school and staying until about 10PM every night, I started to become wearisome and eventually withdrew... I did this for 2 semesters in a row. I tried applying for full-ride scholarships and grants so I could focus all my energies on school without having to work FULL time, but with no luck. They said my mother's $50K salary (BEFORE taxes, mind you) was too much for me to get a grant (even though she supported 4 children, and I supported myself on an $8/hr income at the age of 17-18), and (you'll die hearing this one) NOT ENOUGH to get a loan for a full-ride. HAH! This was the point I totally lost all respect for government integration in the education system. Why couldn't I go to school like the rest of my friends? Why did I have to suffer so much to get an education? I'm a Caucasian girl from the suburbs, who didn't have enough for a loan, but too much for a grant. So what do you do? I couldn't keep doing the school/full-time work thing because I would just fail, my GPA would be awful and I couldn't live with that nor could I get into and good 4-yr college. I want to be the very best at what I do, especially if I'm paying out of my pocket for it! So, I withdrew, for good this time. I gave up on my dream of becoming a neuroscientist, or a neuropsychologist... and stayed at my full-time job. I've now been doing Commercial Interior Finish-out General Contracting for the same company for nearly 4 years combined now. I've moved up from a receptionist/office help to a Marketing Coordinator, Assistant Project Manager, Project Administrator, Project Manager on small jobs, pretty much everything but Peachtree accounting, and HR. I'm 23 now, and I've supported myself and been on my own the whole way through, since 17. I'm not so much complaining about where I ended up by any means, but if I could've had an education, or if I had the opportunity to continue my education in the field of Construction Management I could go on to achieve many successes in my industry! I could never understand why a hardworking person like me and a hardworking person like my mother... were on the bottom of the totem pole, or the ladder.

I am 23 now, still working at the same place and with hard work and determination on my side I have achieved the status I'm currently at. I have a two bedroom apartment, 3 amazing dogs and a wonderful boyfriend whom I've now been with for a little over 3 years. I'm doing very well for myself and I couldn't be more proud of it.

Proud, yes. Satisfied? Not quite…

This is where my life takes a turn I'd always expected deep down inside. And this is where my life as I know it ends, yet a new one begins.

I have come to the fork in the road, a place we all know.

Which way to go?

That was the question to be answered… the biggest, most deliberating question of my life………