How Did I Get Here
I was born in Buffalo, NY in 1979 to a lower middle class family. My mother, who was a certified teacher, was a stay at home mom with four other children. My father worked for the city of Buffalo in the Housing and Urban Development Department. After me, my parents decided life wasn’t loud enough so they had another child five years later. My five siblings and I went to private schools from elementary through high school. I began working in restaurants when I was 14. After high school I started working in restaurants full time as a cook. After a few years of cooking I thought that this is what I wanted to make a career of. I went to ECC North for Restaurant Management but only stayed for one year. I was offered a great job as a kitchen manager and left school without completing the program. In total I cooked for seven years. After a bad experienced in the last kitchen I worked in I decided it was time for a change. I took a couple of months off to try to find what job I would like to take on next. Luckily the money I received from restaurants was enough to give some time to relax and take my time deciding. I decided to take a job, temporarily, as a teacher’s assistant at a child care center in Amherst. After four years, and a certificate course, I was able to take a position as a head teacher. Nine years and two child care centers later I decided it was time to further myself professionally and educationally by enrolling in the Occupational Therapy program at ECC North.