Who am I?

An Introduction to readers

To start I’d like to thank Dr. Mehmet Yildiz for a warm welcome to the furiously growing ILLUMINATION publication here on Medium. I am also both honored and humbled to provide an introduction of myself.

My journey of life starts in Greenwich Village, NYC, where I was an only child born to old-school Italian parents who made a home in our apartment on Bedford Street. They are twelve years apart in age, and had me later in life — for a lot of reasons, the main contributor being finances. My dad was a contractor and he did well for himself, considering neither of my parents ever received a college education. My mom was a secretary at Local One for many years before staying home to raise me for the first few years of my life. She soon returned to work as a lunch aide at my elementary school and would stay there until I graduated high school.

Following the tragedy of 9/11, my family decided it would be in all of our best interest to move to Jersey, where most of my family had already emigrated to the suburbs. We made a life there with wonderful friends, became involved in the community, and everything was dandy — until my dad’s diagnosis.

He was in his mid-fifties when he was diagnosed with mild to moderate vascular dementia, a consequence of retarding his high blood pressure meds. Eventually, he was unable to hold a job and my mom’s income wasn’t enough to sustain our lofty townhouse (compared to a teeny apartment in New York) so we were forced to move.

For the next few years, we dabbled in a senior-living condo —in the same development my aunt lived in. The only problem was that I wasn’t allowed to live there since I was under eighteen, so I had to hide. My mom drove me to school each day, and we used my cousin’s address so I would be able to stay in my school district. I’m eternally grateful my mom did not uproot me from junior high. Unfortunately, our neighbors downstairs were avid smokers, so I often woke up to the smell of cigs- my most unfavorable smell.

In time, it became unrealistic for my dad to live with us because he would leave the gas stove running while he slept and got lost when he went for walks. He also fed our dog an overabundance of table food. We resorted to putting him in an assisted living home, and although we changed locations a few times, he still lives there over six years later, just a few towns down.

Thankfully, he knows who we are and only really suffers from short-term memory loss. We visit him often with his favorite dish of eggplant parm, and he is always overjoyed by visits of our Yorkie, Bella.

As for me, dealing with his sickness took a toll on me for a while. I accumulated a lot of resentfulness towards both my parents for having me past their prime and blamed my father for bringing upon his own disease. In time though, I’ve come to accept it and try to express the gratitude that I still have my father at his ripe old age of 76. Mind you, I’m only 23.

In late high school, I became interested in health and nutrition and decided to study psychology to understand the brain. I received my Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Rutgers University this past January 2020.

But by my junior year of college, I became more interested in specifically how food affected the brain, had the ability to prevent disease, and even reverse it (like Type 2 Diabetes.) By this point, it was too late and unrealistic to change my major to anything nutritional sciences-related, but my interests had completely shifted. I freaking went vegan. Since then I have been advocating for all types of animals through my writing, protests, disruptions, and on social media. A passion of mine has evolved from trying to learn more about how to avoid dementia in myself through food. And now has turned me into an animal rights activist and animal agriculture educator. It’s been quite a journey.

I came to discover Medium from meeting up with an old flame and friend for dinner one night Sunny Gupta. He told me about the platform, and I couldn’t help but check it out. I am still a newbie to writing in general and only started being published about three years ago. I joined Her Campus Media, RU Chapter after winning free gorilla glue at an involvement fair. And my passion and ability to write has grown tremendously. I hope to have the audacity to call myself “a writer” one day, as my love for the art of creating with words transforms and blooms even more. I also strive for the ability to obtain a form of sustainable income both from Medium and as a freelance writer. One day.

For now, I take it day by day while I work part-time for a pediatrician by helping her start her side business. When social distancing ends, I will start full-time as a bank teller near my home.

No, it’s not a dream job, but I’m still finding myself and figuring out what I want to do with my life.

And I’m beyond grateful to experience my journey of life with you beautiful readers.

Tap into positivity at Live Life Now, my new blog✨

Xo, Susie