Day 53: My Story

I know this is going to sound super silly, but I was watching Ellen today and some little window popped up and said "Do you need a vacation? Go to Ellen's website and tell her why!". I was like, hell yeah I need a vacation!

When I got on her site I realized it was more geared toward winning a trip to Ireland and tell her why you're so Irish and green and love St. Patty's Day and yada yada. Which was a little off track from what I was thinking.

I thought about it and decided, what the heck. I'll write to her show and just tell my story. Let her decide if she wants to send me and Cambria to Hawaii if we're "deserving" enough : ). 

Of course there's a character limit so I struggled to fit everything in. But here's what I wrote (not my best work, but sharing your life story in 1500 characters is tough!):

I feel compelled to share my story. When I was 16 I was diagnosed bipolar w/major depression. I was on serious meds & struggled with suicide & self-mutilation. At 17 I was raped. I found out I was pregnant, so went off my meds cold-turkey, dropped out of H.S. to work full time & struggled with adoption or keeping the baby. I ultimately decided I couldn't trust anyone else to raise my child. I took night classes to graduate from H.S. & had Cambria 3 wks before I graduated. In order to provide the best life for her I knew I needed a degree. I became a full time student & worker. I graduated in Dec‘08 & found a job in marketing.

I fell in love with a man who had 2 little girls. I bought a house for us & invested myself 100% in our little family for 4 yrs. Life was tough, but worth it. Recently he ended our relationship because he had to work out some personal issues on his own. This broke my heart & turned my world upside down but really affected my now 8 yr old daughter, who lost her Daddy. Oh & she was diagnosed with ADHD just prior to this.

I could ask you for a dream vacation, help fixing up my house, help performing as an actress or singer or help finding a perfect husband & Daddy for me & my little girl.

But my dream is to make a difference in this world. Everything happens for a reason. My experiences, passion & determination should be used to help others, but I don't know how or where to start. All I could think to do was write you & see what happens. Thank you.

After submitting, I regret not writing more about my strong belief about positivity and turning challenges into opportunities. I guess I just puked out my story to Ellen in hopes it somehow inspires something. Although I've set my expectations very, very low. At the very least, I've accomplished summing everything up pretty well. ; )