Category Archives: Tiger Drive

Thanks For Your Influence In Tokyo

Vitality Stories

Tokyo Flight

Thanks For Your Influence In Tokyo

Really?

In October I went to Tokyo for the first time. When I told people I was going, the responses ranged from wide eyes to frowns, all followed by, “Really?” Continue reading →

How To Pay Off Debt With Heart

Vitality Stories

photo by Gretchen LeMay Photography

photo by Gretchen LeMay Photography

How To Pay Off Debt With Heart

Sometimes it takes a village

In Tiger Drive, Carrie Sloan is seventeen and knows college is her only way out of her neighborhood and away from her toxic parents and absent, older siblings. She is conflicted about leaving her two little brothers behind, but believes breaking free from the family mold is the best thing she can do for them. But even without the family’s secrets and choices complicating her every move, Carrie won’t be able to pursue her education without financial aid and she is determined to write a winning scholarship essay.

While Tiger Drive is fiction, I can relate to Carrie and the obstacles she faces and I drew from personal feelings to write her. At seventeen, I was a senior in high school and supporting myself with two jobs after school and on the weekends. If not for a Pell Grant and a generous Continue reading →

Vitality Stories Lesson #6

 

Vitality Stories

Lesson #6

IMG_1222

You‘re never too old for field trips, trikes, and milkshakes

~

Emotional eating and rusted trikes

I recently visited my mother in Carson City, Nevada. I hadn’t been there in almost two years, but after moving from the east coast and living on the road for the past four months, the road, actually a plane, landed me in Northern Nevada.

Thanks to technology, I’d been in touch with my mom on a regular basis, but now that I was going to be in town for 10 days, I had a laundry list of things to help her with in an effort to give my local siblings ‘serving on the ground’ temporary respite from meeting Mom’s needs. I’d be doing her shopping, cleaning, defrosting her dormitory freezer…you get the picture.

I was also in town to see friends and take my first headshots, but my mom was anxious to see me and I have the cell phone log to prove it. My visit would be a treat because I had promised Continue reading →