“I’m not a fast learner or academically gifted or as talented as other people here at Lee College. But I try very hard.

“I failed a math course last semester. I tried. I even got help from a professor, but I still failed. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to fail college. People might expect me to drop out or not be in college at all. But I’m going to change that perspective, that expectation, for people like me with autism or any other kind of disability.

“I’m very thankful for the disabilities department here and my tutor, Ms. Claire. She’s an amazing person. She helps me with my class assignments. She’s always encouraging and supportive. She motivates me when I may be exhausted or discouraged from life as a college student. And she always reminds me how unique I am compared to other students.

“Being a college student isn’t easy. But it’s worth it if one day, I’ll be on that stage graduating. I’ll be able to say, ‘I made it.’ I want to do it for myself. But I also want to do it for my parents. They always made me feel special, and that I can do anything I put my mind to. I want to make them proud. My dad won’t be here to see it, but I know he’ll be looking down on me when I cross that stage with my diploma.

“I love sports, and I’d love to become a coach one day. Or maybe a motivational speaker. Inspiring and motivating people is something that I always try to do. To keep that fire burning.

“I try to share positive quotes with people. I try to encourage them in whatever they’re doing. I think it’s important. Because sometimes, we all need that. Especially nowadays. I think we’re in dark times. We need more people who like to help you up when you’re feeling down.

“Some people may think that if you’re autistic, you can’t go anywhere, you can’t do anything with your life. I want to prove those people wrong. Being autistic is challenging. But it’s also a gift. It isn’t going to stop me from being the person I want to be, or helping the people I want to help.”

— Roberto (Berto) Nunez Jr.

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“I was diagnosed with autism when I was 6 years old. My dad didn’t really understand what autism was. I asked, ‘Is there something wrong with me?’ My mom said, ‘No. It just means that you’re special. It means that you’re unique, not like everyone else.’ Because I liked cartoons and stuff, it was explained to me that I was like the Wolverine in X-Men. Like, that’s my super power.

“Growing up was challenging, just trying to make friends and fitting in. Some people were mean. In junior high, kids would call me weirdo, ugly, all kinds of things. It was hard.

“But that’s where I met coach (Scott) Griffin. He was a football coach. He’s the man who found me and started helping me. He looked at me as a person, not an autistic person.

“When I got to high school, things were different. I got a chance to be manager for the Goose Creek Memorial football team. Coach (Bret) Boyd was really supportive, and the players were all good to me. I started making friends. People started liking me for me. And I cared about them. I felt like they were my brothers. They were my family.

“I was also team manager for basketball and baseball, all four years. It made me feel important. For the first time, it made me feel special. I felt like I had meaning in my life. I had a purpose. It was everything to me.

“Then when I began taking classes at Lee College, coach (Nick) Wade let me start helping out with the basketball team. It was after COVID, and I was trying to get back on my feet again socially.

“This was also the time when my dad had a heart attack. One day we got a call from the hospital, and they said we better come. He’s dying. That was awful. It still makes me sad to talk about.

“But all the coaches and the guys on the basketball team were so supportive. They were worried for me. If they weren’t there for me during that time, I don’t know where I would be.

“I’m so thankful to coach Wade. He gave me a team to be part of again. He gave me a family again.”

— Roberto (Berto) Nunez Jr.

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• Autism ‘isn’t going to stop me’

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“I was attending University of Texas to become a P.E. teacher. It was during World War II, and the Navy had taken over the dormitories. There were thousands of good-looking sailors studying to be pilots or ship commanders.

“By the end of two years, I decided to go home to Huffman and rest a semester. It wasn’t the studying. I was just having way too much fun for a young girl.

“Because of the war, there was a shortage of teachers. When I arrived home, the pastor of First Baptist Church was teaching grades 4, 5 and 6. He was helping out until they could find someone. We lived next door to a board member who had known me for years. When I was offered the position, I became Miss Joy to 12 students who were together in one room. Two rows were fourth grade, one row was fifth grade, and there were three sixth-grade students.

“It was love at first sight between the teacher and pupils. I was only 19, and they were 10, 11 and 12 years old.

“One day I had them all read aloud. Then I said, ‘For the next 30 minutes, I want you to read silently.’ As I look up, there stands this little boy, Irby ‘Buddy’ May. I said, ‘Buddy, do I come back and lean on your desk while you’re working?’ He said, ‘No, mam.’ So I said, ‘Well, go sit down and do what I asked you to do.’ He starts back to his desk, turns around, and says, ‘But you could if you wanted to.’ He became my pet from that moment on.

“After finishing the school year and one more year, I returned to Austin to complete my degree and become a full-fledged teacher. I went on to a 33-year career as a P.E. teacher, and I loved every minute of it.

“But one of the happiest times of my life was teaching those 12 students in that classroom in Huffman. We kept up with each other through the years — especially Buddy. Just this April, I visited with him at an event in Huffman. Not long after that, he died. He was 85.

“As I was reading his obituary and all the wonderful things he had done in his life, I realized that had I not had those 12 wonderful children, I would never have stayed in education all those years. God blessed my life with 12 of his best.”

— Joy Walker, 96

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“Her name is Tutti. Like Tutti Frutti. She’s a Chinese Crested/Jack-A-Poo mix. When she was very young, the people who had her stepped on her. They said the kids were real mean to her. So we ended up taking her.

“She has luxating patellas. Her back legs are out of place because of it. The vet said it would be $2,500 a leg to fix, but I didn’t have the money at the time. So she’s had to adapt.

“She couldn’t walk the first year of her life. She would take a few steps and fall over. I had to carry her everywhere. She’s 4 1/2 now. She only walks so many steps before getting tired. Then she kind of bunny hops. But she’s not in pain or anything. She’s a good, happy little girl. And she’s spoiled rotten. She’s like my baby. When my daughter went off to college, Tutti was like a mini-replacement.

“My daughter and I are very close. I was a single mom. It was always just me and her. Then I got my husband when she was 12. She’s about to turn 24. She graduated from Baylor University, and now she’s in Baylor Law School. She’s thinking about doing environmental or immigration law.

“She’s overcome a lot in life. She has Asperger’s. I didn’t know for sure until her first year in high school, when a counselor mentioned it. It’s been challenging, but she hasn’t let it stop her. She’s extremely smart. She made straight A’s all through school. She graduated high school with lots of honors. She was in honor society in high school and college.

“I’m very proud of her accomplishments. But I’m even more proud of how she’s grown as a person. She cares about others. She wants to help people. All I ever wanted was for her to be a good person and to be successful in life.

“I was a high school dropout. I left after ninth grade. Just getting in trouble with my friends. No support at home. No aspirations in life. When I was 21 and had my daughter, I was determined that she would have a better life and do better than I did.

“She’s the first love of my life. This baby here is second. My husband may not like to hear that. But my children are special to me.”

— Rhonda

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(2 of 3) “I was an alcoholic for many years. I’m not blaming it on Pedro. He had to move around for his work as a pipefitter. We were away from each other a lot, until I started traveling with him. When I was in my mid-to-late 20s and we lived in Florida, I was alone a lot with our two young kids. And I just started drinking.

“We both partied a lot. We started using cocaine. After we moved to Texas, we were using even more. Pedro was basically a gangster back in the day. Like, his young, rough days before we met. And all of those people were still around. We’re not blaming them for what we did. It was just that the ease, the access, the environment was there.

“Pedro was making crazy good money, and we spent it almost as fast as he made it. Those are kind of dark times that are still hard to talk about. The kids knew that payday was when they got to pick out whatever they wanted at Walmart. They would get their Happy Meal. And they could do their thing at the house, while Mom and Dad would do their thing. It was not like we had big parties. It was just Pedro and me.

“Looking back on those days, it was ugly. It was terrible. We were very irresponsible.

“We were living here about a year and a half before he had the accident. We had quit drinking and everything about three weeks before that. But while he was in the hospital for three months, I went back to drinking. I don’t know, maybe I thought it helped me cope. It was a really strange and dark time for me personally.

“When he came home, I was going to be his caregiver. I knew I would have to be straight thinking and organized, and prepared to work hard because of all the responsibilities that came with that. So the day before he came home from the hospital was the last time I’ve had a drink.

“My number one gift to myself, to my children, to my family, is my sobriety. I no longer have those chains that held me down for so long.”

— Kimberly Infante

Kimberly got a good job after earning an accounting degree from Lee College with a 3.7 grade point average. “There’s no way I would have had it in me to do all this pre-accident.”

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“My parents were immigrants from the tiny island of Saint Lucia. They came to Baytown in the late ‘70s. We were very poor. We lived in a trailer park. I was the last of three kids. My mom had a home birth, so I was born in our trailer.

“When I was growing up, materialism and your place in society — like how much money your parents made — was very important to some people. And if you didn’t measure up, they truly didn’t care to get to know you. Not because of anything you did, but they just didn’t want to be associated with you.

“I was being made fun of really bad, mostly in middle school and high school. No matter what I tried, nothing worked. They were not shy in telling me, ‘Oh, you’re always going to be poor. You’re never going to end up doing anything in life.’ And I would think, at that young age, how could you possibly know? The audacity of it all. I just couldn’t imagine.

“I was angry a lot. But I knew that once I was older and able to get away from that environment, things would get better. I thought, if I could just get to college, things would be different. And they were.

“I had a great college experience. I found folks who were interested in who I was as a person, and not how much money I made, what kind of clothes I wore, or how my hair looked.

“I earned my undergraduate degree and master’s degree in vocal performance. I started working and living in Houston. I created a path for myself as a professional singer. I didn’t forget about my past. But I did not let it weigh me down, because there weren’t people constantly in my life reminding me about it.

“It’s a shame that there are people who seem to thrive on feeling like they’re better than you. I don’t know if that’s something taught at home or what. I just wish the people who bully were a little more understanding. I wish they made an effort to know someone for who they are and not for what they may be lacking.”

— Julie Jackson

One of the people Julie met in college was her husband, Ali, a professional tuba player and teacher. Learn more about Julie, the singer.

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“I went walking today, and I found this beat-up basketball over there in the grass. I thought, I may as well see if I can still shoot.

“I played sports in high school, basketball and football. It’s been a while, though. I’m 56. I didn’t think I could do it anymore. But I surprised myself. I’m moving parts that haven’t moved in years.

“I’ve got this little knee problem from years ago. I slipped and fell at work. I never did try to file or anything. I figured it would work itself out. But it’s catching up to me in my old age. That’s why I keep moving. That’s why I’m out here exercising. If I stop, it gets stiff. Then I can barely do anything. I’m about 50-50 with it. I could have been 75 and above without it. But I can handle it. I can maintain. It’s just part of life. You’ve got to go with the flow. I have to because I’m still working.

“I work in cooling towers at the plants. It’s definitely hard work. Especially at my age. Everybody asks me, ‘What are you doing still working at this?’ Hey, I need to work. I didn’t go to college. If you don’t go to college, you’ve got to go to work. That’s what I try to preach to my grandkids. Hey, go to school. But they don’t always want to listen. I guess they just have to learn that on their own.”

— Walter Gonzales

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“I planned on going to law school. But by my senior year at Texas A&M, I decided it wasn’t going to be a good fit for me. I thought, this is not what I want to do with my life anymore.

“I majored in agricultural communications and journalism. So when I graduated, I moved back home and started looking for jobs in the Houston area. I had a few bites, but nothing I was super interested in.

“Then spur of the moment I was like, you know what, I have always wanted to work at Disney. It’s been a dream of mine. There’s just something about Disney that brings so much joy to people. Whenever I talk to someone about Disney World, Disneyland or the Disney company in general, they usually have this big smile on their face. They’re thinking back to a time when they were in the parks, or a fond memory of their family watching a Disney movie. I wanted to be part of that magic. I wanted to be part of the joy that Disney brings to people every day.

“I decided to apply for the Disney College Program. It’s a paid internship program through Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California. You can work in almost any area of the parks, essentially from custodial to attractions. You have the opportunity to live on Disney property in apartments with other students.

“It’s a big program, but it’s pretty difficult to get in because a lot of people want to work for Disney. I had a really good experience with my application and interview. When I got my email, I was sitting on the couch at home thinking, if it’s a no, then that’s OK. There will be something else out there for me. When I opened the email and it was a yes, I cried tears of joy. I was so excited. I was offered a position as PhotoPass photographer, taking pictures of people all day having fun at Disney World. It was more of a dream come true than I could have ever imagined.

“I immediately called my mom at work and said, ‘You’ll never guess. I’m moving to Florida. I’m going to work at Disney World.’”

— Kenzie Lackey

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“At the beginning of 2020, I was excited to be in the last semester for my doctorate at Houston Baptist University. I was finalizing my dissertation to present in March after spring break, and looking forward to graduating in May. Then, during spring break, COVID-19 hit. Everyone was stopped in their tracks. Our campus closed, and students weren’t allowed to return.

“I was nervous that I would not be graduating after three years of research and writing my dissertation. I could not believe this was happening, and that I had no control over it. Thankfully, my dissertation chair agreed that I should move forward with my defense via Zoom. Thank God for technology. I was the first one in the history of HBU to defend my dissertation virtually. I was elated that my dream of achieving the highest level of education was near. My hope in humanity was restored, and I received my doctor of education degree in May as scheduled.

“With all that said, I encourage everyone who is contemplating pursuing their educational goals to take the first step and register for college. Times are tough out there, and many are being laid off. It’s time to find a career you have always wanted. A degree will open so many more doors of opportunity, and you will feel accomplished. As Marian Wright Edelman said, ‘Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it.’

“So do not let COVID-19 deter you from following your dreams. It almost stopped me for a few weeks. But determination and preseverance won out.”

— Chris Trevino

Chris is a humanities professor at Lone Star College-Houston North Greenspoint. She hopes to move into an administrative role in the post-COVID-19 world.

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“I was 21 when I had my first child and 23 when I had my second. My stepmom always talks about us being babies. She’ll say, ‘You were babies having babies.’ Our son is 21 now and our daughter is 18. They’re both off at college, so it’s different around the house.

“You hear of people like us who got married young, had kids young, their kids move out, and then they don’t know each other anymore. It can create an awkward environment for a marriage. Alan and I had a lot of open discussion about it leading up to this point. We were like, OK, the kids are both going to be out of the house. So what do we want to do, as this is like our second honeymoon.

“One of the things we came up with is once every two months, we take a trip together. We go somewhere for a weekend, just to reconnect away from home. We also have date nights, which we’ve actually done pretty steadily for the past 12 years or so.

“It did get a little scary leading up to our daughter moving out. You kind of start thinking, what are we going to talk about? What if we run out of things to say to each other? What’s interesting is that we’ve noticed how refreshing it is to have uninterrupted conversations. Don’t get me wrong. We are incredibly blessed with two great kids. They love being with us and we love having them around. But it’s different now.

“Alan and I have dinner together every night. We’re able to have conversations about what’s going on at work, our hopes and plans for the future, just whatever. It’s kind of like we’re dating again.

“It’s funny. We used to be those 20-year-olds who had young children. Friends our age at the time would invite us to go somewhere, and we were like, ‘No, sorry, we’ve got kids.’ But now some of those same friends who are in their 30s and 40s can’t go do things because they have kids. And we’re like, aha. Now the shoe is on the other foot.”

— Michelle Carlson

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