Dreaming Outside of the Bubble

     Being members at country clubs and going to private schools and living in certain neighborhoods were a big part of my life growing up. The majority of the people that I knew growing up were very wealthy people with certain guidelines about society that people must follow. Obviously, my brother was addicted to drugs and my mother lives in a small, old house in a working class neighborhood. My family didn't quite fit the usual Fort Worth "mold" that I was surrounded by.
     My friends and I always joke about Fort Worth being "The Bubble." The bubble consists of the three main private schools, Country Day, All Saints', and Trinity Valley. Most people who go to these schools belong to Colonial Country Club, Shady Oaks Country Club, Rivercrest Country Club, or Ridglea Country Club. The neighborhoods that are acceptable to live in are Mira Vista, Westover Hills, Rivercrest, Crestwood, Monticello, and Montserrat.

                            A typical Montserrat mansion


     In Fort Worth, it is SO easy to be sucked into the materialistic world of the people in the Bubble. However, I have still met many wealthy people in Fort Worth who are unbelievably kind and generous people. Because of these wonderful people and growing up in a homogenous bubble of wealthy, white people, I chose to study nursing here at TCU.
     At All Saints', we were required to do at least ninety hours of community service hours during our high school experience in order to graduate. My mother, a medical technologist at Cook Children's Medical Center, suggested that I become a junior volunteer at Cook Children's so that I could easily meet this requirement. I was accepted to the junior volunteer program the summer before my freshman year of high school and immediately fell in love with volunteering and eventually with the hospital itself. I spent six years volunteering with Cook Children's and will start my seventh summer with them in May. Volunteering at the hospital really opened my eyes to true diversity that I had been shielded from at my private school. However, without those required community service hours from All Saints', I don't think I would have ever chosen to volunteer and realized my passion for, well, showing compassion in the hospital setting. I was so blessed to be born into a family with a hard working father who could afford to send me to a private school and to surround me with more opportunities than I could ever have imagined. I am also incredibly blessed to have experienced hardships and pain within my family because it made me understand myself and others a lot more than some of my friends can. I guess it gave me a sense of empathy toward people and really humbled my opinion of people who are not like me. After volunteering at Cook Children's for three years, I really felt like God was tugging at my heart to follow my dream of missions work. After my fourth summer in Guatemala, I dream of using my future TCU nursing degree to team up with a medical missions program and provide health care for those in need.
     Because I grew up in the bubble, I gained the qualities I need to follow my calling to be a nurse and to help those in need. If I had lived somewhere else, I know that I would not be the same person that I am today. I also don't know if I would have ever considered doing medical missions if I hadn't been required to volunteer. Through volunteering, I realized how much nursing and other medical professions can make a profound difference in the lives of less fortunate people.

                           Volunteering in Guatemala in 2008

                                     Cook Children's Medical Center




Photo Sources: http://www.luxuryhomemagazine.com/media/press.cfm?id=183
              http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/cook-children's-medical-   center-6741425/photos

A Place of Pain and Happiness

     Fort Worth is where I was born and raised. My Sophomore year of high school I decided that I wanted to be a nurse and that I was going to go to TCU because they offered such a great nursing program. It was funny because I had grown up saying that I was going to leave Fort Worth the first second that I could and go somewhere WAY better than this boring town. In high school, this opinion of Fort Worth totally changed. I don't know if it was because of the fear of leaving the only town I had ever known, or leaving my family, or what... but either way, I ended up going to college exactly 3 minutes away from my house.
     I grew up in a beautiful upper-middle class neighborhood called Crestwood. My happiest memories are from this time in my life. My best friend lived on the same street as me and we were always together. My saddest memories are from this time in my life, too. My parents got divorced when I was 7, eventually causing my mom to have to sell our log-cabin-style house 6 years later. I had to leave my friends and my memories behind in that home. It was probably the first time I realized that my parents weren't getting back together like in The Parent Trap.
     When I was about 10, my brother, who is 4 years older than me, got into drugs and spent time in and out of rehab. It's funny because, I mean, it's almost 10 years later and I still have trouble writing about this topic. Throughout all of middle school and high school, my brother was battling drug addiction. When I should have been acting like a kid and enjoying my middle and high school years, I had to act like an adult. I had to see and deal with things that I shouldn't have had to experience. Fort Worth will always hold a piece of that childhood that I missed out on. Sometimes when I drive past a place I used to go in middle school, I'll think of the pain and confusion that I was experiencing.   
     The private school that I went to is a vital part of my life in Fort Worth. All Saints' Episcopal School was my home away from home - a place that I could escape from the problems that surrounded my family. It was a source of consistency in a life that had almost no consistency. I was a "Lifetime Saint" which means that I attended All Saints' from Kindergarten through my Senior year. Before I graduated, I never stopped to realize that I was so opposed to change. I loved All Saints' because it was always the same - it was something in my life that never changed. My family life would change, my friends would change, my interests would change... but All Saints' always had the same familiar people, same familiar places, etc. I also think I used school as an escape for my emotions. I was always a straight-A student and well-liked by my teachers and friends. School was a place where I was in control. No parents or siblings could ruin my success in school because I was in control. So I put every emotion that I had into my school work. This feeling of safety and success is what ultimately made me want to stay in Fort Worth and go to TCU, another private, Fort Worth school.
     Through all the pain and hardship that I have experienced in this home, I learned how to cope. I learned that bad things don't just happen to JUST happen to me and that, sometimes, good things come from even the worst of experiences. My brother ended up going to jail my senior year of high school. He spent his 21st birthday with me and my mom, eating a vending machine cupcake in a prison in Breckinridge, TX. However, I was so happy in this weird circumstance that should have been terribly upsetting. I hadn't seen him clean and happy in so long. This was the first time that I felt completely free from the worrying about my brother that constantly haunted me. I knew he was going to be alright. It has been 2 years since then, and I am happy to say that he is still sober and doing great. Now I am actually thankful that I experienced so many hardships because I am so much stronger because of it. Fort Worth is a symbol to me of that strength and resilience.
     Fort Worth is a place where I experienced so much... how could I ever leave? My heart is here.

 Senior year right before graduation

All Saints' Varsity Cheer Squad at the University of Texas

Cheer Camp

  
  
  

"Stockyards, It's my Backyard.." - Casey Donahew Band

    

                                   Photo Credit: http://ac.varsity.com/images/additional/AS-StockYard.jpg

     Fort Worth is the 16th largest city in the United States. According to Fort Worth's Official Website, the city contains an "unmistakable mix of preserved Western heritage and unrivaled artistic offerings." Fort Worth offers quite a bit of cowboy culture combined with upscale, modern style. The Stockyards is such a fun and unique place to go, especially around Rodeo time. It is a nice way to remember that Fort Worth is indeed a town full of great history and culture. Nowadays, people can be fooled into thinking that Fort Worth is all about the modern 7th Street area or the prestigious downtown night life.

     I have lived in Fort Worth my entire life and I think it is EXTREMELY easy to overlook the history of the town. We were the final stop on the famous Chisholm Trail, and Fort Worth still hosts the world's only twice-daily cattle drive in the Stockyards. Eventually a railroad was built through the area that is now the Stockyard making it a premiere livestock center. Bonnie and Clyde even hid out from the law at the Stockyards Hotel.

          I feel like this is a really important part of Fort Worth because most of us still have a little bit of that good ole Southern hospitality. I was raised in a city where men hold doors open for women... women don't wear white after labor day... we go to church on Sundays... men take off their hats during the national anthem... and we all enjoy a good glass of sweet tea in the summer heat.

Sources: www.fortworth.com