Born in Huntington, West Virginia, as a very young child I endured severe child sexual, physical and emotional abuse, domestic violence and complex trauma at the hands of my biological father and older brother. I was isolated and was not permitted to have friends, which was strictly enforced by whatever means necessary. My only friends were cats.

A radio played in the basement constantly so the neighbors couldn’t hear the screams. My dad would tell me not to cry because it didn’t hurt when he would beat me. There were constant battles with the neighbors where my dad would pull guns on the neighbors if they turned around in our driveway, which was at the end of a dead-end street.

Breaking the forced silence I lived in and attempting to get help when I was 10 years old nearly cost me my life, but I knew it had to stop and my dad was dangerous.

Despite being threatened with a .44 magnum handgun, I reiterated the sexual abuse allegations to the Child Protective Services’ worker who watched my dad run at me and then left me there, telling my dad he had to leave and the worker never returned.

My house burned down within a few months of CPS’ visit and my dad picked me up from the same school where I told of his abuse. I was severely beaten for telling on my dad and “trying to get him into trouble” as he called it.

When I was placed in kinship care, my brother picked up where my dad left off and he blamed me for the things that my dad did to him. Until the day he died in 2020, my brother made it his life’s mission to punish me for what my dad did to him, everything from beating me with a belt and stealing my identity to trying to kill me with a butcher knife.

I was placed in my first foster home at 11 years old, which didn’t work out. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at 11 years old and post-traumatic stress disorder. I was moved to my second foster home which ended when I was returned home to my biological mother at age 12.

I heard that they aren’t permitted to hit you in state’s custody, so when I was 13, I refused to go back home to live with my mom and was placed back in state’s custody. I was never able to return to my second foster home due to no beds being available. I was placed in three more foster homes. After jumping out of a social worker’s moving vehicle when I was 13, I was placed in a lockdown treatment facility.

When I was 14, I went to Golden Girl Group Home where I spent the next four and a half years, during which time I testified against my dad in court at age 15 and he was sentenced to 45-105 years without the possibility of parole. My dad died in prison of COVID and underlying health conditions in November 2020 in Mount Olive Penitentiary. Prior to his death, I was able to forgive him for what he did, but he was where he belonged.

Despite missing most of middle school due to being moved around so much in state’s custody, I graduated high school with high honors on time and had 13 poems published by the time I turned 18. I was never adopted. At around 17 years old, I was placed in the permanent legal and physical custody of Golden Girl Group Home. Golden Girl Group Home is my childhood home and the first and only safety and stability I knew in my childhood.

I almost decided not to go to college because I didn’t think I was ready, but the group home enrolled me anyway. I attended Marshall University and started with remedial classes in math. I also volunteered for the Team for West Virginia Children for two years while I was in college. During my junior year of college, I was retraumatized by being repeatedly raped for months by a guy I was in a domestically violent relationship with. After taking a year off to recover, I returned to Marshall to finish obtaining my degree.

Despite making a C in my introduction to social work course, I declared social work my major. I made straight A’s through the core social work curriculum courses and graduated with honors with my bachelor’s degree in social work. My senior thesis of over 400 pages on the correlation between domestic violence, child abuse and animal abuse was sent to the president of Marshall University. I obtained my license to practice social work through the Council on Social Work Education examination process and worked for CPS for almost a year following graduation from college.

I didn’t have medical insurance in college and had no way to get my medication, so I went without it. Within six months of leaving CPS, my unmedicated manic bipolar disorder acted up to the point where it caused me to go into a catatonic state and I ended up becoming disabled as a result. I don’t have everything figured out, but I know I have hope.

There is always room for hope and I’m not giving up. Despite being disabled, I joined the Step Up for Women program and got a pre-apprenticeship certification in manufacturing amongst various other training and have also attempted to return to work. I am also currently working on writing a book about my life.

I want to empower, inspire and encourage people to not only survive but overcome and thrive despite the adversity they face and chase their dreams, using my life story as an example of what can be done and more. It’s easy to tear someone down, it’s harder to build someone up, but much more rewarding. The best way I have found to overcome and thrive despite adversity is to flip a negative situation into a positive one and use it to help others, which enables you to RISE above it.