So this is, I suppose, where I am to tell you my story, or something to the effect of who I am today and what key points I feel brought me here.. 

Here go my best efforts to do so. Will add to as I find pieces of myself that qualify. 

First and foremost, I am a mother to three beautiful children. My eldest is a young lady now, born in 2004. In 2010, I bore twin boys. I am the primary parent for all three children. My daughters father has been gone since she was about a year old and I have raised her mainly alone, though with a support system I've built through such time. My boys father involves himself regularly with his children. They drive me insane daily, but I wouldn't trade it all  in for anything. 

But the struggle is real. 
Through my life before kids and within my experiences since becoming a mother, I have experienced poverty on a multitude of levels. I am not a success by many peoples standards, but I have succeeded many times when I seemed, and felt, destined to fail. I feel like at this point in my life I want to focus on using the skills I have built to help create change, strength, and understanding within my community.  So I am trying in the little ways I can to do so, while learning more about myself, and raising my family.

Resumé

I do my best to find work that reflects my goals in life, and not succumb to being driven by purely a need to survive. Though this is not always possible, survival has always managed itself through my own methods & efforts.  This portion of my site, is where I will try my best to fill in the gaps of work and schooling, focusing instead on who I am aside from my resume. The aspects of me that are reflected via work, education, or volunteering can be more clearly identified through other pages on this site. Those areas I'll mainly avoid here for that reason.
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iNTENTIONAL
cOMMUNITY

In my childhood we traveled. I visited many alternate ways of living via multiple Intentional Communities. Yes, communities, not cults. Now that we have that clear, lets talk about them. There are four that I remember the most: one in Quebec, whose name I cannot recall, Dandelion, which is no longer in existence, Twin Oaks, and Eastwind.  First off, an important thing to know is the intention of these four places. All four were non-violent, egalitarian based living structures, focused on minimizing the impact of humans on their environment. They all strived to produce as much of their own food as possible while being environmentally sustainable in their land usage and consumer choices when purchase was necessary. All members were there voluntarily, free to leave or stay as they chose. All contributed work wise within a labor system, but their labor systems valued tasks such as cooking and childcare, offering hours for such contributions. Each person had communal use of such a multitude of items, as well as personal funds and space with which they could do as they wished. And there were problems. Of course there were flaws, but they were different. No one was isolated. No one was without. No one lived in fear. All contributed as they best could. And it was enough, in fact, it was more than enough.

Experiencing these situations from a young age definitely formed me. I thank my mother for this. Though such travels have not been in my life for many many years, the memories are vivid in so many ways, and the friendships built stand distant but firm. I treasure both.

hOMELESSNESS:
AN OPEN LETTER

In my early teens, for reasons I'll leave mostly untouched, I was without a home. I grew up fast during that point of my life. I was fortunate to have learned, well,  many things in my younger years that survived me in that time. Circumstances beyond my control led me to experience homelessness at a young age. I spent some time at ROOF, and was luckily, with their help and some additional guidance, able to mostly land on my feet. I did drop out of school though. I had to eat, work. So I did. By 15 I was living on my own, in a bachelor pad, paying my own rent. I was "making it". I had "figured it out". I had a home of my own, food in my cupboards, a few nice things and felt I had found success. It wasn't easy getting to that point. It felt great, knowing how low I'd been at certain points, where I had begun.

Free transit

At the age of 22, I decided to move across the country to ..... well anywhere West. Upon leaving Regina, where I ultimately arrived to, I returned to Ontario a few months later, and soon after became pregnant with my oldest daughter. This pregnancy came with much turbulence and for a period of time within it, I, again, found myself homeless and staying in a shelter. 

I returned to Kitchener prior to my daughters birth, and have resided in Kitchener since 2004

end of life care

In my "tween" years we moved around a lot. I grew up mainly in Windsor, Ontario until we left when I was about 12. For the next few years I attended multiple schools in various cities within Ontario, as we jumped among them. 
My Grandmother, or Granny, or Oma as she was also known at various points, always resided in Cambridge throughout my life. Her home was always a sort of home base in as much as its offer of consistency. I visited her all through my life on weekend trips and longer visits as far back as I can remember. 
I was in Kitchener for a time in my youth but otherwise have resided more often in the Cambridge area of our Region. Since resettling in Kitchener in 2004, just prior to the birth of my daughter, I have remained. I have enjoyed growing up in this area, and now am raising my children in this community, long ago having come to call it home.