About Me

All my life I have loved hearing people’s stories, typically their hardships and what has made them the person they are today. I believe that led me to my career working with children placed in therapeutic foster care, and with the families from which they are taken. Working for the same agency since 2001, I have seen many unthinkable stories of pain, suffering, and hardship. But I also discovered what having a deep sense of compassion for others felt like, and it led me away from judging others based solely on their past and encouraged me to help them build a future. It’s a highly stressful job, one that has its highs and lows. The highs are amazing and something that is sometimes only understood by those who have worked in the field. And the lows, well the lows are at times unbearable.

In March of 2016, I was diagnosed with Stage 2 Breast Cancer. I was 37 years old at the height of my career; I was healthy, in the best shape of my life since high school and had never experienced any serious medical issues. We would soon learn that my tumor was aggressive, resulting in surgery followed by 16 rounds of chemotherapy and 33 radiation treatments. My job is similar to my cancer diagnosis. And that isn’t meant to be a negative statement; it’s meant to say that both paths are raw, and hard, and rewarding all at the same time.

Cancer has taught me my strengths and my weaknesses. It’s taught me a higher level of compassion for others, and a knowing that any individual can withhold and overcome any situation in their lives with the right tools. It’s taught me that we must have a sense of meaning; something that motivates us to push through the hardest of days and celebrate the good days. A knowing of inner strength; both physical and mental. It’s taught me the power of creativity; finding something that encourages our mind and our brain to focus on the beauty in our lives and ways to process the ugly in a way that allows us inner growth. It’s taught me about courage, and how to stand up to cancer and to not allow it to control me or define who I am.

Everything that cancer has taught me, are components of life I have been trying to teach the children and parents that have graced my life through my work with over the last 17 years. All qualities that took me having cancer to find within myself.

I don’t think I will ever divert to a profession in which I am not helping others. But there’s a sense of pull for me to move in a different direction. To help those, now like me, that have endured a life-changing experience through the use of mindfulness, compassion, courage, strength, and creativity. For those who wish to not be defined as a diagnosis or a significant event, but to find themselves and their purpose in this life. To find motivation within themselves to fight the ugly, and come out more beautiful and confident than ever before. Being mindful of what brings you peace, is what will also bring you strength. Once you find your inner strength, you can do anything.

This is my wish. And whether the change happens tomorrow, or years down the road, I only Hope that I can help others in the way cancer has helped me.