I’am the fourth child on my mother’s side and the second on my father’s side.I have a two sisters and three brothers. Conversely, My position in my family is the caretaker. Consequently, being the caretaker in my family, I find myself carrying the bulk of my family emotional stress. I identify as African-American female. My family struggled through an era typified socio-economic distress. Like so many others, I happen to come from a family of limited financial means. I am the second person in my family to earn a high school diploma, and the first to attend college. I refused to allow the imposition of stereotypical attitudes to confine my identity, my family or our potential.

I was raised by my mother and stepfather. My father became a