"Who Am I?, Who Are You?"

What defines who you are? As a child people ask you " What do you want to be when you grow up?" I can't remember anyone ever asking me "Who do you want to be when you grow up?" I don't believe that I even thought about who I wanted to be, but now it is a question that I ask myself, "Who am I?"

My name is Amanda Bradford and I am 32 yrs. old. I have been married to Scott for 15 yrs. and I have two beautiful children, Cody (14) and Katey (6). Now I will pause right here to explain something to you. If you would have asked me at 16 yrs old if I would have been the mother to a teenager at 32, I would have told you that you were crazy. But that is exactly what I am, and let me tell you that it is no picnic. I have gray hair and it is either because of my son or my husband but more than likely a combination of both.

I love animals. This goes back to when I was a child. There was never a time growing up that we did not have a dog or two at our house. My dad thought it was important to have animals. At one point we had 14 dogs (our female had puppies). If I thought that my husband would not divorce me I would have a farm of nothing but cats and dogs. But be that as it may I have three dogs, Little Man (dachshund), Big Boy (Great Dane/English Mastiff) and Gizmo (dukes mixture) and four cats (all domestics) Abigail, Tiger Lily, Tipsy, and Honeyboots.

I sit on the board of a non profit organization called JACOR, which helps needy families in Jones County. I believe that it is important to help those in need and to set a good example for your children. You don't have to have money to help someone less fortunate than yourself.

I am a learning Christian. By this I mean that I go to church, but I am still learning. There are some things that I haven't quite figured out yet. I teach the 4th and 5th grade Sunday School class, because believe it or not these kids can really teach you better than you think. I like to learn from them about things that I don't know.

Beyond all that I am a child victim of sexual molestation at the age of six and a statistic in that I was a high school drop out and teenage mother. I went back to school and earned my GED. I then continued on to technical college to become a Medical Assistant.

Everything that happens in your life defines who you are. You can take your past and let it steer you down the wrong path or you tell yourself that you are better than that and choose to live a better life. I am all of these things and more. I am who I am.