I’ve always been looking for Mayberry.”
When asked why, she responded, “I pretty much grew up in the ghetto. My mom was single, and our budget afforded us a small apartment in a crappy area. While I couldn’t change the family I was born into, I always wished I came from a ‘normal’ family, the kind where a mom bakes Christmas cookies and a family sits down together for dinner. Instead, I lived on food stamps, I heard at age 7, ‘we don’t talk about those things’ after telling my grandma someone had touched me, and my mom forced me to leave the house for college.
Thankfully, I had a good group of friends during middle school and high school. That group and their families positively influenced the course of my life. And while I didn’t want to pursue higher education, I ended up earning both my bachelor’s and masters. Today, I have my version of Mayberry; I am a college professor, a wife & mother, and a homeowner in a ‘white picket fence’ town.
