Boy Scouts ‘best thing that’s happened in my life’
“My mom put me in Scouts when I was 6 years old. I went all the way through. I’m an Eagle Scout. I’ve got like 70 merit badges. I love Scouts so much. I think it’s...
Category: Short Stories
Idealist with ‘superhero complex’ wants to help others
“I kind of have this thing — I’ve been calling it a superhero complex — where I want to help people. “At one point, I thought about becoming a police officer. When I was 15, I...
Plan A: becoming an artist at Disney
“I’m a senior at Texas A&M, studying animation. That’s my stuff. I like drawing and writing. As a kid, you’re always doodling. For me, it never really stopped. “I didn’t take it seriously until my freshman...
Life coach draws on her own experiences
“Throughout my life, it seems like people have always been seeking my advice on how to handle certain situations. I’ve often wondered, why me? What is it that I provide that’s helpful? Maybe it stems from...
Her childhood was ‘really, really hell’
“Drugs, alcoholism, domestic violence — all of that was in our life growing up. “My dad was a salesman. He made a lot of money, but he spent it on alcohol and drugs. He beat my...
A voice for women who endure abuse in the military
“It began in college. I had a class called Sex and Gender in Latin America. It was talking about the machismo culture and what women in those countries are going through, not really being protected or...
‘Honestly, I feel like nothing can break me’
“When my ex-husband and I were deployed the first time to Afghanistan, my kids were separated. My oldest daughter stayed with my family and the twins were with his family. So they don’t have that normal...
Mom rebuilding relationships after military career
“When you go into the military, you have this illusion that you can have it all. You can have a family. You can serve your country. You can have an amazing, fulfilling career. You know it...
His health outlook changes in retirement
“I was in the industrial painting business for about 35 years. I remember working on the bigger tanks at places like Exxon. We would sandblast and then paint them. The toughest part was sandblasting. We used...
Despite major health scares, she’s still cooking
“I started having this pain in my breast. It was getting really bad. When I went to the doctor and she felt the lump, she said, ‘You need to get tests done right now.’ I learned...
