My journey through life began when I was born on July 20, 1991. When I was born I had a bruise on the bottom of my foot and my parents thought that I would be an athlete.

At just three months old I went to my first Detroit Tigers game. I’ve been a fan ever since. My mother, grandmother and grandfather are all big Detroit Tiger fans and I look up to them for being able to stick through the rough seasons following this team.

The first time I traveled anywhere was when I was a baby. My mom and aunt took my cousin and I on our first plane ride to San Antonio to visit family that resided there. I don’t remember the trip, but apparently I met my great-great grandma. There is a picture of all the generations in my great-grandma’s apartment.

On May 23, 1993, my journey changed because I was given the gift of a younger brother. He has been a major part of my life. We fight like all siblings do, but underneath all the tension, we do really care about each other. Being away at college has taught us how to get along better and has also shown us how important we are to one another. I love coming home, knowing that he missed me while I was gone. He will be graduating high school soon and I can’t believe how fast the time has flown.

I got the “travel bug” when I was nine years old. I begged my parents to let me go to France as an exchange student. When my mom tells people about this they often ask her if she is crazy, but she just wanted me to have the experience that I had been asking for. In May of 2000 I spent three weeks in Aix-en-Provence, France with a family that I had never met, eating food I didn’t like. That experience was something that has truly changed who I am. Being in France definitely made me want to travel more. My exchange student, Pauline, is someone that I think about often and wonder how she is doing. I used to get calls from her and her on my birthday, but we have fallen out of touch.

As I was going into middle school, my parents got divorced. It had ruined what relationships were like for me because I didn’t know what a perfect relationship looked like. My grandparents had also divorced, so all of the relationships that were around me were falling apart. However just after my parents divorce happened, I went to a child’s divorce support group called Stepping Stones that helped me realize that I wasn’t alone in this process and that other children were feeling the way I was feeling too.

In eighth grade, I returned to France with my school and visited Paris, but the most important part about eighth grade was that I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart and became a Christian. It was the influence of my grandma who had recently become a believerand was consistently taking me to youth group and showing me what the love of Jesus Christ looked like. I know that if I can be half the woman that my grandmother is that I have succeeded in life. She is one of my mentors and I look up to her so much. She spoils me too, since until I was eight years old I was her only granddaughter. To her I’m special.

I’ve been on two mission trips to Zambia through my church. It is through these two trips that I found friends who truly meant something to me that were going to the same youth group as I was and I also saw what Jesus could do to a person’s life. He changed me while I was there and I left a part of my heart in Africa, as cliché as that sounds, it is very true. I have never seen faith so big or people so willing to give everything because that’s what Jesus Christ did. I pray for the Zambians on a daily basis and hope that someday I can return again because Zambia will always be a major part of my life.

I’ve also been on two mission trips to Detroit. My youth group saw Detroit as an area that was close to us that was in need and I knew that I could put my gifts from God to good use there. I was helping children understand what the love of God looked like, helping turn buildings into something useful for ministry whether it be a whore house to a battered women shelter and a worn down house that would be turned into a home for new people to the ministry, and cleaning up the streets so that people wouldn’t see Detroit as a dying city. The people that I interacted with on the streets were people with truly amazing stories that should be told by others, but they aren’t.

Entering college was a scary time in my life. My mother was always there for me though and I’m so glad that she’s my mom. She’s like my best friend. I miss her a lot when I’m here. Even though I was scared out of my mind, I find wonderful friends, in a roommate and a friend’s roommates. We are a cord of 5, now 6 (with the addition of a new friend), strands that cannot be broken. I truly admire the strength that we all have. We are all different and our differences help bring us together and make us stronger. I love how we can join up together and face every harsh thing that goes on in life. I also found a man of God that has fallen deeply in love with me and I with him and I cannot be more blessed than to have him in my life. He has showed me that I won’t end up like my parents and that for us divorce wouldn’t be an option. He wants to spend forever with me and for that I cannot be happier.

There have been so many people that I’ve encountered in my life and I cannot be more thankful for that. God has shown me so much through them and He has taught me that I don’t always have to be strong because I have other people that I can fall on. My mother will always be someone I look up to because she raised my brother and I and gave us whatever we asked for, whether we had the money or not. My dad was there, but not as much. I love him though because he taught me what forgiveness really is and how I have to forgive the people that I love. My grandma taught me that anything is possible if God is on our side and she will always have my respect. I don’t know what I am going to do when she leaves this earth to be with our Heavenly Father. She’s so intelligent and wise, I wish I could be just like her sometimes. My brother will always get on my nerves, but he has showed me that no matter he will love me and miss me because we’re siblings and we just have this connection. My friends mean so much to me. Together we’re unstoppable and we are always bringing each other up. My boyfriend has taught me what loving someone is like and that I can really be happy.