The council one of my families

I started on the council in 2014 after a bit of time as a seasoned self advocate it has been a long and winding road the past five years college and other commitments got in the way at the beginning but remedied that and ended up becoming vice chair and going to three national conferences and having a great light to people at the council and I genuinely continue to show kindness and generosity and continued support and other projects continue to come up with all my system change and other items in policymaking and continued council values I continue to be a great light with the overall length of the meetings and listen to the staff who continue to create a positive outlook and the members who continue to show up for a lot of work and dedication to it and getting my fingers dirty and doing the grunt work with all of the projects which have continued to be created in such a way that I can always love what I do and learn how I can listen to what people have to say and be accommodating people from the council have continued to create a positive impact in my life and I even have done things outside of the council with people on staff inspiring others and learning a lot more my self advocate career has blossomed with the council and I am about to embark on starting my own business I expect that to continue with each passing moment thanks to the council I look forward to doing more the next four to six years

Flamboyant and exciting hero

I am someone who loves the color pink and purple I am someone who takes everything not seriously enough times considering what I do but also considering my activism role continue to be involved politically active and socially strong enough to take care of everything I do I am someone who has several mental health challenges and intellectual challenges but still graduated from college I am a hero and I won't be backing down from anything when I do what I need to do it is always in a way that would be awesome to have for anyone else but is ordinary for me I am someone who has flamboyant personality but also considering that I have many people in my corner that is the same way I always trusted my gut feeling with what I do and even though I might be too controversial for some reason I always get things done yet in a way that would work for me I am so grateful that activism is my calling and checks and balances says that it is may everything continue to show success in my endeavors and stay tuned for my blog post on the council after I get back from New Orleans

My latest experiences or 34 and 35

At the bright young age of 34 I graduated from college and was a regular basis meeting with my squad and lived it up my last semester however although I did young life college I also did service learning, mentoring, leader in partners in policymaking and vice chair of the DD council which I ended up doing again at 35 I had way too many late nights in partners in policymaking and still graduated I have refound a lot of hiking and camping spots and also have done way more new classes with the y and fort boise and have become an international ambassador for special Olympics and might have come close to having a career path while 35 was the first year without school since I was 2 I have learned from experience, training, self-help books, motivational videos, volunteering, legislative work and testifying, and relational items that my learning is still active and strong in a couple of weeks I turn 36 and in the past few months with the schizoaffective disorder diagnosis things are just getting into place again it has been a long six months but I am getting everything under control one day at a time and have many people on my team here's to a great start to another year and another phase in my life stay tuned for my blog post a day before my birthday on my personality called flamboyant and exciting hero

Blog Post 3 24-33 tales of self-direction and further into professional acumen and living it up

Well to be honest 24-33 was a big time in blossoming my professional connections shortly before I was 24 I started work at Albertsons' a job that I still have and then a few years later I started Self-Advocacy Leadership Network which first blossomed into the Council and Community Now and has continued to blossom into other arenas later also I went into self-directed services when I was 29 which brought my independence from 25% to 96%ish (I am borderline on services due to my latest diagnosis but can do a lot on my own) I have gone up and down in weight but have kept a pretty steady exercise acumen finding fun runs, yoga, dance, pilates, and a host of other classes first at the Boise State REC Center and then at Bikram Yoga, the Y, Sage Yoga, Fort Boise, and some impromptu yoga in the park. I met some of my best friends who I have to this day and I also moved from Linda Vista on the edge of Boise to the edge of Garden City which is also near Boise to by the Boise Mall to downtown Boise which is where I am moving soon I built strong rapport with most of my support and also leaned on my professional support for others to help me further my acumen professionally I discovered that I have friends who live it up at that point and I was influenced by them there were a few regrettable nights but mostly I was safe overall I have learned a lot of lessons with that gone on a lot of vacations including international travel and Nevada where I rode the bull and rafting which I did with bad toes that fell off and with staples in my head and numerous other less regrettable times including my birthday where someone almost got pushed off I also shook Obama's hand and got to shake some other people's hands that were famous and volunteered all over the place and continued to start on my hard road of making Boise a place for activism I started with disability activism and LGBT activism but have also have done environmental activism at this point and did other activism later and this is the point where I started testifying in the capitol I also brought my Boise State grades up in that interim with a quick flurry at the end I feel like it was an excellent further influence into professionalism and with everything else in the past couple of years I will write the blog on that in a couple of weeks shortly before 36!

Blog post number 2 12-23 the great transition

We always have to be reach the best transition because we continue to reach out for the parts of the transition period from the great news about the lessons for which three goals I have reached in that time frame one of which is the best way to perceive what works for me which was the group home which is wonderful because I learned how to be independent and I am grateful for the memories of the best places of the high school and middle school at least at the time of when I learned from the community conversation with the places of when I will be receiving the same treatment with the rest of the places of where I created lifelong friends from the fort Boise community center and everywhere else I feel like the start of college and the start of the new creations of the best things where I have continued support of the best places of the most important thing which were considering that places I listen to the song of my life and the lessons for which everything else which I learn to create positive changes throughout everything else about will continue looking forward to seeing everyone who has been a great experience for what I listen to others opinions and start speaking with a couple other things I listen to a learned creation of the lessons which consists of why I am asking about the confusion which is wonderful for being a great light and I have learned what works for why I will continue looking forward to hearing what I need to do anything with what I did to lessen the impact of the best things about the great ten years of which I was a bit of a difference making places where I need anything else from where I continue making to be a little bit of a difference making sure that would work better for what I continue making sure that I need to create positive attitude for the great service for the opportunity to work with the team and where I listen to what did need to get a new creation of why I love to have learned everything

0 to 11 the bad old days

I honestly think that this will probably be the shortest blog post I will ever have because I don't remember much of what happened and everything I do remember was oral this is what I know: I didn't speak until I was 5 but learned how to swim at 3 and how to read at 4 and my mom knew that I was smart around then here's also what I know: I had a long rebellion streak I was in 6 schools by the 5th grade either preschool or elementary school and I had three battery charges by the time I was 11 I also had bad experiences where my growth wasn't fostered I was smart and didn't know how to handle it hence the root of my anger my mom and dad divorced when I was 9 and my Dad got remarried 10 months later and I was in the time out close more than the classroom in kindergarten I watched a lot of cartoons ate relatively healthy but never thought of exercising much and had a great amount of support though I didn't know it yet I started baseball and swimming practice around that time and was often looking around at birthday parties and traveled a bit and then I turned 12 on the dreadful North Idaho trip the next should be a bit better 12 to 23 the group home years and side note the other things I remember until I was 11 was that I was a pain for my mom and despite her trying everything I was still trying and I swam in the Atlantic ocean for a long time and I had my first taste of alcohol and green tea before coffee and I was an incredibly big pain for most people however I have changed and have been in a better place and no I don't think that I would wear my penguin shirt if I had one or my banana costume every day at this point in time (just had to throw that in) happy Sunday evening everyone next one will be more cheery

Final what if post: what if I didn't stay in Boise after graduation from college

This is the final what if post I was strongly considering moving after college somewhere else I thought about moving to Oregon or Washington or somewhere else but I decided not to because of the cost of living and having to start all over with my connections that took me a long time to build probably fifteen years I also felt like there are plenty of things close by in Boise and because of the council and my wonderful team I have decided to stay indefinitely I have the best team that I have ever had and it is growing also and I think if I moved I would be making a decision that could backfire let's just pretend that I moved it would be hard to keep the connections similar and myself journey would be different I struggle a bit financially now and if I moved I would be struggling a bit more than I was also I think that I would have not as easy of a job right off the bat and I would possibly not consider a way to volunteer at places that are solid my calling of advocacy would suffer as I wouldn't be needed as much and I also would potentially happen to not have as much wherewithal to be in the best spot I could be in so is Boise a forever home perhaps depending on what works for the time is it good for now mos def and I really appreciate all the hard work my team members put in to make it so I would potentially be isolated and insufficiently alone and that isn't something I would repeat I have made my choice and it was a great one stay tuned for my story of my life glancing over what I know of the bad old days in the first part of a four part blog and after that there will be a blog post on community all worth reading