Just the Beginning :)

Finally I have decided to start a BLOG! I wanted something REAL to share with my public, as well as a personal documentation of my journey with the homeless. I am currently Miss Riverbend 2012, heading to the Miss Mississippi competition this summer with the hopes of then heading to MISS AMERICA! Competition is as follows: Interview, Physical Fitness,Talent,Evening Gown, On Stage Question, annnnnnd PLATFORM! The Miss America Organization is truly a wonderful program for any young woman. Not only are all these wonderful features in creating a well rounded woman for the future, but how awesome that each and every girl can create and work with her own community service that she is so passionate about to give back to her community, her state, her AMERICA! Choosing my platform, Humanizing the Homeless, was easy.....let me tell you why!!!

2005 Hurricane Katrina took everything away from me. After being trapped in my basement for 2 days with no food and no water, the National Guard came and rescued us! My mother and I ended up at the Jackson Airport where we got the last tickets to........CHICAGO, ILLINOIS!! Devastated from the disaster, tired, hungry, and confused, my mother assured me everything was going to be ok. We were going to go on a little "vacation" for a few days, while things go back to normal back in Hattiesburg, MS. Soon we found out our family too, had re-located all over the states, and nothing was back to normal back at home due to the horrific natural disaster.

Weeks turned into months and still no answers. I decided to further my education in Chicago and applied to school. The first school I applied to said, "We do not allow people like YOU here". Confused I managed to whisper, "Like me??"  They replied, "You know...HOMELESS". And that was it, they walked away. That word was such an insult, I was so shocked I did not know how to defend myself. Because they were right...I had no Social Security card, birth certificate, address, or home. I fit the sterotype "homeless" to a tee. Later I applied to another school, and they accepted me, and laughed when I explained to them I was homeless. And there I was a 16 year old Mississippi girl with opportunity #1 to go to high school in the big city! Opportunity #2 came when my new friend from school opened up her home to me with the dreams of "always wanting a sister". My mother moved back to MS to take care of the damage, and I started a fresh new start with a new family, who treated me no different than their own little girl. More and more opportunities came from living in this big city. HOW BLESSED I WAS!

That was my first eye opener to the homeless. My eyes opened even more by every corner I turned, and every street I had to walk down, because homelessness was everywhere! I did not understand why this was such a problem, and how the thousands of people walking those same streets next to me, just ignored it. All my life, I had been guilty of the same thing.

So it began. The journey to fight homelessness. Mother Teresa once said, "If you cannot feed 100, then at least feed 1." I first started to educate myself through experience, by working with the homeless. Then education, by dedicating my entire college career of studying psychology, criminology, and biology.  I have decided my life is meant for Mental Health Care. (one of the major causes to homelessness) I want to help these people mentally, by continuing to help them physically. Now hear I am to educate and communicate with you all!


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!TOGETHER WE CAN HUMANIZE THE HOMELESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!