Who Am I?

My communications 101 speech

August29, 2007

Below is what I hope is my final draft of my communications speech..thanks so much to those of you who helped me to edit it previously...I'd love for ya'll to take a look and if something majorly jumps out let me know...please...

College and full time motherhood is hard...I'm overwhelmed and afraid I won't be able to handle it...but I'm plugging along.





Good Afternoon. My name is Vicky  and I’m an English Communications Major at Ivy Tech Community College. I am currently in my first semester, taking courses online from our home in Plainfield Indiana. My husband Mike and I have been married for fourteen years. He is the love of my life, my rock and my best friend. We have two children. Cassy is almost eleven and is active in softball and 4H. James, is four-he enjoys playing outdoors, riding his bike, and protecting all of us with his sword.

I was born the younger of two children of lower middle class parents. I weighed in at 3 ½ lbs and was born 6 weeks early.  Delivered at 7:05pm and baptized at 2:05 am because of my prematurity; my head fit into my father’s hand.  The hat I wore when I was brought home, I later used as part of my doll’s clothing, although I’m sure she didn’t cry or fill diapers at the same rate as I had.

I came from miraculous beginnings; both of my parents were disabled.  She had influenza meningitis at the age of 7. The fever from this was so high it burnt brain cells so that she became a c5-7 quadraplegic. My father was born with a disease that ate away the ball and socket of his hip…both of them could very easily have lost their lives; however, God had other plans for both of them. They met in a school for the handicapped in Indianapolis and later married, though neither of their families were happy about it. They divorced when I was eighteen but were friends and supporters of one another until they died.

One of the first lessons I remember learning from my mom was to love and accept everyone for who they were despite what they looked like, what color their skin or if they had a disability.  She taught me I should find out who people were on the inside before making a decision about them. And she knew all about it…because of her disability she was judged many times, treated as if because her body didn’t work, neither did her brain.

While I learned very early not to judge, I learned almost as quickly that I would be judged by what I looked like, what I wore, how I sounded, who my family was. I became very self- protective at a very young age, choosing not to share much with those I did not trust completely, and trusting very few people. This is a habit that I struggle very hard with in adulthood, but one my writing is helping to cure.



Five years ago, I lost both of my parents. Feeling much like an orphan and wallowing heavily in grief, I was led back to church. An experience, which turned out to be my saving grace, in more ways than one. The church community became my family. The pastor at that time opened my eyes to the things I would need to do to heal, both from the losses I’d recently had and from the lies I’d accepted as truth all of my life. It was in this environment I also discovered that I could touch people’s lives and hearts through my writing.

I now belong to an online writing group. This has been a great source of support, and encouragement, and growth. Allowing me to feel like I’ve made an impact in others lives. I have shared my faith, my experiences, my opinions, and my mistakes. Those involved in the group make me feel like I CAN write and that I SHOULD be writing. This group has allowed me to be involved in contests and pushed me to write in genres I wouldn’t have normally considered-one being poetry. I have learned to edit and review other people’s writing. I have also learned that just because someone critiques my writing, it doesn’t mean they are criticizing me.

Occasionally I have trouble with this -partially because my writings are part of who I am.

So who am I?

I am a mother, a wife, a sister, a daughter and a friend.

I am a singer, a student, a teacher, a writer and a child of God.


While I battle my own demons and wage war against the past, I also know that who I am is defined not by my faults and my failures but by the gifts my Father in Heaven has given to me. Each day is a fresh start, each page is blank, I don’t have to judge myself by the world’s standards. God has created me free and new.


Thanks for your time

hugs
Vicky