Many people view obstacles as things that hold them back or prevent them from achieving certain goals. But others thrive off of obstacles. It is not until they are faced with an obstacle that they know how capable they are. Socorro is one of those people. She is a woman of great passion and drive; the obstacles she has faced in life have challenged her to be stronger and to work harder.
She tells her own story:
I am a single mother. I was born in Puebla, Mexico and had first come to the United States sixteen years ago. I intended to come only for vacation, but while I was here I met someone and fell in love. But my love story does not have a happy ending like the ones in the movies. I never got to live happily ever after. In truth, the man I fell in love with never loved me at all. His heroic deeds were only acts of selfishness and his charming words were empty sounds to cover up lies. Little did I know that he would cause me to lose everything and end up in the homeless shelter where I now reside.
I was blinded in love. We married and had two daughters whom I love deeply and whom are here with me now. At first I was very happy with my life, married to my husband. I was running my own business which was a beauty salon and was making a good living for myself. Things took a turn, however, and my husband began to mistreat me. He was verbally abusive. He never said sorry when he was wrong. He never paid for anything. I started to notice that he was taking my money from my account and when I confronted him about it he showed no care whatsoever. I had my own house, but my husband convinced me to sell everything. We sold the house and he took half of the money. Because of my limited English, I couldn't tell people what was going on. He opened a bakery with my money to which he treated me like any employee. I used to work from 8:00 in the morning to 11:00 at night. I wasn't even allowed to have a free soda on my break.
A month later, I found out that he was having an affair. He was spending my money on another woman. He told me that he used me and that he wanted to make me poor. Well he had done just that.
Right now, he gets visits to see the girls. My older daughter always compares me to her father and is disappointed in me. She tells me, "I don't like you because my dad can give me everything and you cannot." My children ask me, "Mom what happened? What happened to our life? We used to have it all together." They don't understand that he is cheating on child support, that I'm on welfare, and that right now I'm struggling with whether or not to accept his money in fear that my food stamps will be taken away. Honestly, I would prefer just to work and become independent again.
I am not sharing my story so that people will feel sorry for me. Rather, I want my story to be a lesson not to give up. I want to teach people that even though someone may live in a shelter, that person can still have goals.
Right now I am taking classes to improve my English. In one month I am going to get my certificate to be an aerobics instructor. I want to get my GED and open a spa where people can exercise, and have facials, hair, makeup done. I plan on making my own workout video as well. In short, I just want a better life for my children. I want them to be proud of me again.
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