About me.
When I was younger, in my teens and early twenties, I found it almost impossible not to share my life's story. There was reason to be proud- I had survived eight years of abuse at the hands of my foster mother and made it out at age sixteen only to be reunited with my biological parents. But what I had not understood until later is that although my past still gripped my consciousness- it did not define me.
My late teens were extremely rough because I was on a quest to find the love and acceptance I had been denied through the most crucial years of my life. Luckily, my biological parents had stepped back into my life like an anchor and enabled me to slowly heal and grow. I experimented with drugs and put myself in dangerous situations but by the time I had turned twenty-one I knew my life’s purpose was one that involved an education. One of my ways of healing was writing- poetry, short stories, and even journaling. I channeled that into a possible degree at a community college where I started out as an English major, but my love of writing would be challenged after facing the realization that I did not know how to write at college level. Then I took a history class that changed my view and future vision of what I aspired to be. The power of history and knowledge captivated me and soon, I was writing some of the best papers in that class. My college journey was longer than most, but I finally graduated in 2019 with a bachelor's in history with a focus on public history. Now, I work at the amazing living history museum at Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.
Was it easy, no. I worked in the grocery business since I was seventeen and only quit when I got a job as a student assistant in a library and history center for Caltrans. Hard work and perseverance have followed me throughout my life, and it did when it came to my book, The Soul Warrior. The concept was started in 2012 and it was only a year later that I developed all my characters, with sketches, and started an actual storyline. I started writing it almost a dozen times and restarted it just as many times. But it wasn’t until early 2020 when COVID-19 shut down the world and forced me to stay at home-and I wrote. The last chapter, the last paragraph, the last sentence was so amazing to write because it had almost taken me a decade to get this book finished! I am truly proud of the story I created but also proud of the characters I was able to develop. My main character reflects me and all the things I have survived in my life. She was created to be strong and a fighter which is one heck of a combination.
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