Here is a little personal bio of sorts, to hopefully highlight a little of who I am, and how I got here. I was born in to young, punk rock parents, in 1990. I lived in 7 states and went to 13 schools growing up. I also (eventually) had 3 step parents for each parent. These facts led to fun games of 'Two Truths and a Lie" at school. I have 3 sisters and one non-binary sibling on my mom’s side, my father had another child when he was 44, so I got a bonus sister!
I always joke that my family traditions are teenage pregnancy, mental illness, queerness, and dissent.
My mom has had 3/5 kids (so far) that are in the LGBTQ+ community, my eldest sister and myself both have queer kids as well.
My first job I was 14 and worked at Famous Pizza on Colfax in Denver. I put flyers on doors in random neighborhoods, alone, for 8 hours a day (oh, the “old days”). My activism began at this age as I started collecting non-perishable foods from neighbors to bring to the Mission in Downtown - this doubled as an opportunity to smoke cigarettes.
I lived in Denver for most of my upbringing - but will highlight that I lived in Beaverton, OR when 9/11 happened - and in 7th grade went to the rarely known school - Seahawks Academy, which was funded by the Seahawks Football Team. This time period was the only time I willingly watched football, since we got free tickets to the games. I also lived in a town of around 7,000 people in Southern Missouri a couple of times.
I dropped out of school at 16, got my GED the same year I would have graduated, and have since completed a bachelor’s degree. I was involved in the criminal justice system from ages 13 - however old I was in 2016. Juvenile detention centers, running away, and probation until I was 18. I started off being a legal adult by buying cigarettes legally for the first time and also being charged with a felony. From the ages of 18-23 I experienced; 6 inpatient treatments, 22 arrests, 5 detox trips, 7 felony cases, homelessness, and a seemingly insurmountable opiate addiction. Over-achiever, in the wrong direction, or as I would say during those years, backwards hustling.
I lost my first friend to suicide when I was 15 and a different friend to overdose in 2013. Since that time I have lost count of how many people I have known and lost, which is a real weird kind of guilt to have. Asking friends, "Is so and so alive or dead? I can't remember." I lost my oldest friend Memorial Day of 2021, which is a little on the nose. I co-founded a Harm Reduction Organization in 2018, which simply began as getting access to Narcan and doing community education events. I started working as a peer mentor in 2018, a case manager in 2019, a Public Health Educator in 2021, and because a licensed addictions counselor in 2022.
I've always been curious as to why some people get treated differently than others. I started reading about segregation and slavery as young as 8, since then I have probably read well over 200 books on WWII, interested in sociological study on human behavior to try and understand and be proactive. I've always felt that I can't do much, which is sad, but I must do something.
I’ve band waggon’ed on to the radical idea that humans do not have to meet requirements to have their basic needs met.
"This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it's a feather bed.”
― Terence McKenna