I have many reasons for returning to school, to prove the nay sayers in my life wrong, running my own domestic violence safe haven, earning my Bachelors or law degrees or most importantly, showing my daughter that no matter what your circumstances it’s never too late or too hard to follow or achieve your dreams. Coming from a thirteen year abusive marriage where a trip to the park resulted in 50 questions, accusations of cheating and sometimes worse.
Leaving my ex-husband has been the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. It’s been three and a half years now and I am getting more and more used to and comfortable with my freedom, so much so I have started giving back to other survivors by doing volunteer work. One resource I have noticed greatly lacking is legal help. When I was making my “ Great Escape”, legal help and resources were not available to me at all. So, my way of giving back is to get the education needed to help provide the resources that are needed.
To better help survivors I first plan on getting my Bachelor’s degree in Applied Behavioral Science/Social Work. This degree, along with my other volunteer training and experience, will help me to be more effective with the survivors I work with. I hope to eventually run my own Safe Haven one day that will be open to all survivors. I would like to see more assistance programs for survivors, for this reason I plan on raising more awareness to the issue, it’s time for domestic violence to come out of the dark.
In following my dream, I plan on continuing to law school. Law school has been my dream since I was a young child and participated in a Mock Trial for a family friend and family law has been my focus for the last few years. One of the ways I can help survivors is to help them gain their freedom past the initial protective order, which right now is the about the most help survivors can get. I would also like to get more involved with making better laws to better protect the survivors, raise more awareness and hopefully create better assistance programs.
My reasons for returning are a few but all are close to my heart. I have been told by many that being a single mom with Multiple Sclerosis is hard enough, that the stress of school would be too much. The way I see it, I am setting a good example for my daughter. She is seeing that no matter what the circumstance, it’s never too late or too hard to follow and achieve your dreams. That is the most important reason I will be successful in my adventures in school, I have the best cheerleader anyone could ever hope for.
