Biography

My Life to the Fullest

My name is Terra Ann Palmer. I am twenty-nine years old and am a freshman student at North Central Community College. I am the first child in my family to go to college. My grandmother earned her GED when she found out that I had completed mine. My youngest brothers stayed in school and graduated, because of the example I set. My greatest strength is my positive attitude. My most significant accomplishment was keeping two children from being permanently placed in foster care. Through my volunteer work, I was able to advocate for the reunification of the children with their parents.

I was born in Los Angeles County, in the state of California. My parents were products of the eighties era. My dad had a mullet and my mom had puffed up, permed hair, usually styled in a side ponytail held by a big hair scrunchy. They both were not even legal to drink when they decided to have a baby. The relationship did not last long, and my mother brought me to Texas. My childhood was not the best, but at least I had the sweet memories of building tree houses in the woods. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents, fishing and traveling from Dallas to San Antonio. As a teenager, I dropped out of high school in ninth grade, when my mom was diagnosed with cancer. I started working five days a week to support the house hold. My mom eventually moved to California, and I was on my own. I now have two children and was married for six years of, before I divorced. In the last two years, my life has dramatically changed for the better.

  Two years ago, I took a volunteer job as a child advocate. I advocate for abused children that had been taken away from their family by the state.  My job is to make sure the child or children stay safe at all times. I monitor the family’s weekly visits and keep up with their progress, in order to promote a safe and healthy unification. I spent a year investigating the well-being of the family’s case. This job played a big part in my motivation to becoming a better human being.  I started to become fascinated with people and began taking an interest in traveling. I wanted to see how other people lived.  

During the summer, I was employed as a packer. I packed everything from huge pristine houses to cute little homes of elderly couples. I love moving people. Right off the bat, customers are nervous about their valuables being taken apart and handled improperly. However, once I introduce myself and talk as proper as I act, the customers tend to relax more and I make them feel comfortable with the quality of service they are receiving. Staying in shape is another benefit to this job, there are days I work fifteen hours, of tough and sweaty manual labor, but boy do I enjoy fitting into my size two dress. I like feeling like I have earned my pretty things.

During the school year, I try to stay focused on getting my associates degree in nursing. I would like to nurse at a retirement home where I think my smile would benefit most. My plan is after I finish school and begin to work I will take one class at a time, in order to further my degree. It is a dream of mine to live in the country with at least a hundred acres and be able to pay for a mortgage in the city as well. I am hoping with a combined income that may not be too farfetched.

Turning twenty-seven had a significant impact on me. I directed my positive attitude towards accomplishing goals to lead a more self-sufficient meaningful life.  I started volunteering and I enrolled in college. I also lost weight and did quite a bit of traveling. In the past three years I have sky dived, rock climbed next to a volcano, river rafted in Washington, surfed in California, and snow boarded in Oregon. I took my two boys on an exciting adventure this last summer. I took them to California for two weeks. We went camping in San Diego, visited four beaches, swam in two, visited Disneyland twice and took a stroll down Hollywood Boulevard. I am sure they learned a lot and saw the most interesting people at Venice Beach!

As for my children and my future goals for them, well, I can only hope I set a good enough example of self-sufficiency. I love my life. I would like to think my family is proud of the way I care for my children as well as the goals I am working on. I work hard to feel satisfied. I have come to realize that life is what I make of it, and I enjoy making it great!