turmoil inside of me that I started picking all my eyelashes out when I was in high school. It was as if I were two different people, the “put together”, over achiever Mistie----destined for greatness, and then the Mistie with secrets, pain and fear that nobody ever met.
This brings me to the WORST part of my childhood. I was molested several times by curious neighborhood boys and a couple of adults as well. They robbed me of my innocence, security, and confidence. I saw “ugly” in the world and it was happening to me and because I didn’t tell my parents, they couldn’t protect me from it.
Question 2: Who was the most influential person in your life?
I would have to say my mom as she was the biggest support in my life. I always admired her and how “perfect” she seemed. My mom looked like a movie star and always seemed to carry herself with so much pride and confidence. She wanted the best for me and pushed me a bit hard at times, always expecting greatness. Looking back, I am glad she set the bar so high because I am stronger because of it. Her love was strong, deep and hard, but with that came a flip-side. The Italian way has always been to use “guilt” as a powerful weapon for submission. My life was full of guilt, lacking normal boundaries where she was concerned. In many ways, even the negative experiences with her have influenced me to be different and improve on the things I have now realized hurt me. I strive to extract all the positives from her and improve on anything construed as negative so I may be a better version of a mom to my kids.
Question 3: What was the happiest time of your life?
This is hard to pin down to one happiest time. Obviously, weddings, the births of my children and grandchildren, and my sobriety have brought such joy to me. However, if I must pinpoint ONE thing, I will take an internal approach and say graduating from college and FINALLY, after twelve years, earning my degree’s. I was destined to be a surgeon and worked toward that goal since I was 15, but life happened, as it does, and I married, started having children and it slowed the pace a bit. Since I had to