I am so glad that you are curious about me and my story.
I am a fabulous educator. I do not say that out of pride for myself, but out of passion for what I do. I am a fully committed woman to futhering the education of students and adults on various topics of interest to me and what I feel is important to the world.
I am a Phoenix. The phoenix is a mythological bird which when it has aged fully, dies in a firey self combustion only to be rebirthed out of its own ashes.
Why, you wonder? Reader, how happy I am that you are a thoughtful and questioning soul. You can take pride in the fact that you are curious and questioning as to what my story is.
I grew up the oldest daugher of two very hard working, lower middle class parents. Both gave me the best possible start in the world with love, support and nurishment of not only my spirit but my physical body as well. It was through the physical nourishment that I was overweight my entire life, which later caused physical health issues. I encouraged to always be myself, and to let my inner beauty speak for what my physical shell was hiding as I grew older. My physical shell however had a major breaking point when I was twenty-two. I was at my highest weight that summer at 426 pounds. Yes, dear friend, you read that correctly.
On Memorial Day of 2006, I was in a car accident. It is still something that revisiting when sharing with others is very difficult. I was hit by an on coming driver who illegally turned in front of me at an intersection. This driver was young, sixteen, and had only been driving for two weeks. I was compacted into the steering column of the car, destoyed the stero system with my right knee and leg, cracked my skull on the winshield in addition to NOT WEARING A SEATBELT! (Ignorance in my case, NOT Bliss!) The jaws of life were used to peel me from the small car I was driving at the time, and was rushed to the hospital. Due to my weight, I had only severely bruided ribs, and was very sore. I was never x-rayed at my knee nor checked for concusions.
My brother Sam and I are extremely close. My parents always fostered that relationship of family ties between us. We had a road trip to Chicago planned at the end of June that summer. We continued on our merry way to Chicago where he and I scampered up Michigan Avenue from the Field Museum (where we went to see King Tut's exhibit) to the various shops. Upon returning from this trip, and all of the walking on a knee never x-rayed, come Monday morning that fateful June, my knee said, no more.
I had been sleeping in an arm chair in my bedroom due to my bruised rib cage being so sore from the accident. I stood up at 8 AM to the alarm clock and Jell-O leg hit. I have no other words to explain to you the feeling which I had. It was like I had no leg. My knee when directly backwards and broke my tibea plateau, which is where the knee connects the tibea, femur and knee cap. I broke off a large chuck on the bone and had to have a plate and six screw reconstruct my entire leg/knee area.
My doctor told my parents that if I was to ever have any sort of life, I would need to lose the weight and learn how to walk again. He pointed out that many patients go into a deep depression after a trauma like mine because learning how to walk again is usually so overwhelming that they stop trying. (I was just getting ready to enter my final year of college on scholarship and start my student teaching.) I was forced to take time away from my university, I physically could not return in my condition.
I had amazing support from my parents, extended family and friends. They came to visit me, sat with me, heard my frustration tears and encouraged me to keep trying to at my physical therapy which I attended three times per week. My aunts on my father's side of the family joined weight watchers with me, and funded it, because as I full time student, now facing a major medical situation, I could not. Together, as a family unit, we grew stronger. My sorority sisters were some of the greatest supports which I cannot even begin to thank as well. They would write letters, send texts, post facebook positives and simply encourage. Below is a "Before" picture with Jenna, whom is one of my dearest friends.
I did complete my physical therapy with a walker, then crutches and finally a cane (whom I joked became my college boyfriend, lovingly called Randall, from the Disney film, Monsters, INC). It took me longer to get through college because of the physical therapy and the times which the program for teaching started and ended the program I was in.
This is a picture of the first fifty pounds gone in a celebration dinner with my sorority sisters when I returned, we drove nearly an hour to an Olive Garden simply to have a "nice" dinner to celebrate my progress. (If you look close, you can see me and Randall having a "date".)
I continued to work hard and did hit my first hundred pounds gone, while student teaching in 2007. I will never forget the day that Kim, my weight watcher leader started crying when she announced at meeting that my first hundred pounds was gone. This is a picture of me at my birthday in 2007, after the first 100 pounds was lost.
I was hired to be a teacher in the district I student taught in, and I have loved nearly every minute of it. When one is stripped of their health, and life as they know it, gaining it back one self sacraficing moment at a time changes you as a human being. My Savior, Jesus Christ has been the ROCK of my strength whom has taught me many lessons in dying to what I want in order to accomplish something greater than myself. He is allowing me to make a positive difference in the world around me each day.
I have learned that Romans 5:3-5 is my life verse.
"Not only so, but we rejoyce in all sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perserverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."
Friend, if you are unsure what a life verse is, I will gladly teach you what is means. A life verse is a statement to which one feels sums of their definition of themselves and goals to accomplish in life. Others may choose to live life by a saying or phrase, I have chosen my faith in Christ as the guide in my life. Consider choosing a life verse for yourself in order to live a life to which you are passionate and proud to share with others. I did finally hit, 200 pounds lost all together this past October of 2010. It was my present to myself for my 27th birthday. I set my mind to a task and accomplished it. I had a Phoenix Celebration and invited family and friends to share in my bliss of a new life from the train wreck of a life which I had before this journey.
I am continuing to live in my city and make a difference in the world through education and advocacy of those who are not able to voice their opinions yet, my students. In addition to this, I have a Happiness Project which you are welcome to find out more about dear friend!Jenna and I with her handsome son, my adopted nephew, Brock Logan. I told Jenna that one of my greatest joys is that Brock will never know me as Fat Aunt Erin.
Come and join me on my journey of becoming a new Phoenix, rising from the ashes is the misery before.
