← The Collage Podcast
The Collage Podcast
Episode 60- Andrea
00:52:49
In this episode, Andrea shares her profound journey of overcoming adversity, including her experiences with family dynamics, relationships, and the impact of her time in prison. She reflects on her love for nature and travel, the challenges of...
Loading summary
Transcript217 lines
- [00:03]
A
Welcome to the Collage Podcast, and thank you for making us a part of your day. If you enjoy the podcast, please like, rate and subscribe. Hey, we want to welcome you to another edition of the Collage Podcast. We are excited to be here, getting an opportunity to do this again today. As we always say, we are coming from a little place in the middle of Central Texas called Temple, Texas. And the location we are at in Temple, Texas is a place called Feed My Sheep. And what we are about is we are a facility down here that works with a lot of people in the. Temple's kind of divided up, so we would say in East Temple is where we're located at. And we provide a lot of different services here today. And so we are excited. Got a friend of mine from here, Andrea, is here with us today.
- [01:15]
B
Hello.
- [01:17]
A
So Andrea is a little bit nervous, as she should be. I would be nervous here. So we will start with a nice, easy question. And this, as all y'all know out there, this is just where we get a chance in a nice public format to get to meet Andrea, all of us out there. So, Andrea, with that, tell us a little bit about you. So everybody out there kind of knows, who is Andrea, where are you from, and why are we here? So tell me about Andrea.
- [01:52]
B
Well, my name is Andrea Eldredge, and I moved to Temple in 2010 after I got out of prison. And I've just been working and living and going to school here. My parents and my children are down here. So that's what brought me to temple.
- [02:11]
A
Okay. Originally. So, like, where would you call your childhood home? What town were you from?
- [02:18]
B
Everywhere.
- [02:19]
A
Everywhere.
- [02:20]
B
Everywhere.
- [02:20]
A
Okay.
- [02:21]
B
I spent. We. Well, we spent a couple years in Neosho, Missouri, and Where. Neosho.
- [02:27]
A
Neosho, Missouri.
- [02:29]
B
Yes.
- [02:30]
A
Okay.
- [02:31]
B
My parents were. They traveled a lot.
- [02:34]
A
Traveled a lot.
- [02:35]
B
Yeah. So that's where. When I moved to Texas, that's where we came from.
- [02:39]
A
Okay.
- [02:40]
B
Missouri.
- [02:40]
A
And did you like traveling?
- [02:42]
B
I loved it.
- [02:43]
A
Yeah.
- [02:44]
B
I loved it.
- [02:44]
A
Why?
- [02:46]
B
Just to see different places, to experience different things. My family did foster care for 10 years for chronically ill children. And after, you know, a while, they were just like, well, we're gonna retire from it. Bought a big old RV and traveled all 50 states, went to Canada.
- [03:05]
A
You?
- [03:06]
B
Yes.
- [03:06]
A
What?
- [03:08]
B
Yes, it was all of us. It was my mom, my dad, and my two sisters and I, and we went. We got to see a lot of different stuff, like Niagara Falls, Wyoming.
- [03:18]
A
Tell me about Wyoming.
- [03:19]
B
It's beautiful. Yeah, it's beautiful.
- [03:22]
A
What does the sunset look like in Wyoming?
- [03:24]
B
It's gorgeous.
- [03:25]
A
That's what I hear.
- [03:26]
B
It's gorgeous. We were. The thing that stands out to me the most about Wyoming was it was freezing rain one day, and I had gotten in trouble, so my mom told me to go outside and find something to do. So I was walking around the campground, and I saw a whole bunch of people just gathered around a tree. And so I went to go be nosy and see what it was, and there was an elk. She was giving birth up underneath a tree.
- [03:52]
A
What?
- [03:52]
B
Yes. And it was crazy because there was bisons, there were more elk. And then you could see the wolves on the tree line that was just sitting there waiting.
- [04:02]
A
Waiting for the baby to come out.
- [04:04]
B
Waiting for the baby to come out. So I ran back up to the trailer where my mom was, and I was like, mom, come out, come out, come out. I want to show you something. So she came out, and we spent about, I don't know, close to an hour watching that elk give birth and the freezing rain and.
- [04:19]
A
What in the world? Okay, now, I will give you credit, Andrea. Like, you are the first person that has come on. And the introduction. I am completely stunned by that. Like, the fact of traveling all 50 states is really. Dad gum. Cool. Like to have seen that. That story right there. I'm going. I am so jealous. I would love to have that. I might. Do you mind if I steal that story? I'm going to make it mine. So if you're listening out there and I tell you that story. Andrea did not. Actually, that's my story now, because that is so cool to be outside and to see all of that and to see and experience our world, like, in our country. Okay. And. And to go to all these places. If you could pick. And this is a loaded, terrible question. One state. I would love. If I could only go to one state and see it again, where would be the one place that you would want to go see again? Would be where?
- [05:35]
B
Yellowstone.
- [05:36]
A
Is it that cool?
- [05:37]
B
It is. I fell in love with. With Wyoming. It is just absolutely beautiful, the mountains and the animals and I'm a nature person.
- [05:48]
A
Are you really?
- [05:48]
B
Yes. So the nature and the wildlife and being able to just drive down the road and see buffalo walking across the street is so amazing.
- [05:59]
A
Wow. Now with shouldn't. Because, like, I'm. You and I are in the same world. Like, we. We. We see each other here in this world, and this world that we're in is. It's very far from nature. Like, it is. It is not that landscape. So, like me, I'm like, oh, I. I love Outdoors in the wilderness and being outside, it's unfamiliar to me to be trapped in a city about a bunch of people and all of this stuff where you never get to see anything. So I just automatically assume. Everybody I see here, they're like, oh, they like being in the city. And Andrea's going, oh, I'd. I'd love to be in Wyoming and see these things. Interesting. Okay. Interesting on that one. Okay, so then we are in Temple, Texas, and you mentioned game. Came here in 2010. Your family is here now.
- [06:59]
B
Yes, they've been here for years.
- [07:01]
A
Okay.
- [07:02]
B
Yes. I don't know how long exactly, but.
- [07:06]
A
But a while.
- [07:06]
B
While.
- [07:07]
A
Okay. And so 2010, you came back, you had a little vacation, and so you went away for a bit. And then you mentioned in your introduction that you have children. How many children do you have?
- [07:18]
B
Three.
- [07:19]
A
F. Three.
- [07:19]
B
Yes.
- [07:20]
A
Okay.
- [07:21]
B
Boys and a girl.
- [07:22]
A
I've never. I've not met your daughter, have I?
- [07:27]
B
No.
- [07:28]
A
Met the two boys.
- [07:29]
B
Yes.
- [07:29]
A
They were in their pajamas. I remember that. And, um, not. That's not normal attire, but I have when the time I met very polite young men. And they are. The boys are how old?
- [07:41]
B
8 and 13.
- [07:43]
A
Okay, 8 and 13. And your daughter is how. Golly, you got a pile of them. Okay, so we are now 2010. You come back to temple. Tell me about. We're now 2025 in Temple. So last 15 years. Tell me about that In. In temple. What have we been up to? Not too great detail overgeneralizations of. Tell me about your road here in temple.
- [08:14]
B
It's been a rocky road.
- [08:15]
A
Okay, fair enough.
- [08:17]
B
It's been rocky. But it's. I mean, my kids are the best part about me coming to temple, you know, and getting into school, finishing my education, because I never graduated high school. So it was a big issue for me to finish my education because I want to go a lot of places. And then I met somebody through one of my uncles, and he owns a whole bunch of businesses. So for the last eight years, we've been partnered up, and we've been opening and running different businesses. He does most of the legwork. You know, I'm just behind the scenes of making sure everything is good.
- [09:02]
A
Okay.
- [09:03]
B
You know, so now it's just. We do a lot of that, and I'm back in school, so I'm trying to finish school again, and.
- [09:13]
A
Okay, now tell me on that. Like, in it, you said it's been a rocky road. Okay, so what does that mean? Just for people out there?
- [09:26]
B
I made a couple bad decisions on people that I Got in relationships with and they ended up, you know, some not so good, some abusive. You know, my last relationship, the guy held me hostage in my house for three days with a gun in my head.
- [09:44]
A
That's right.
- [09:45]
B
You know, so it was. He was adamant. He, you know, that was his main goal was to take me out of this world. So.
- [09:57]
A
Great golly, how many. Do you even comment on that? That is an experience that I would say very few people in this world ever had to be in that moment of that. So in a relationship, boyfriend was not too fond of the fact that you might be wanting to. To go, I would think.
- [10:30]
B
Right.
- [10:30]
A
Okay. So. And decided the solution to that is I'm going to hold you by gunpoint in the house. Okay. This is an absolute, ridiculously moronic question to even ask. And I'm going to say that before I even say it. What is that even like?
- [10:55]
B
It makes you evaluate your life. It really does. It makes you just. I was really kind of beating myself up because people kept telling me, don't do it. You know what I'm saying? That's not somebody you want to get involved with.
- [11:11]
A
Okay, okay, fair.
- [11:13]
B
I'm a hard headed person. I don't like to go off of just somebody telling me something. I like to be able to figure it out and try to get to know somebody before I pass my judgment on them, which that was. I should have listened.
- [11:26]
A
Okay.
- [11:27]
B
You know, but it's just. It really made me see what was.
- [11:33]
A
Important and can I ask that question, my children? Okay.
- [11:40]
B
Relationships are not what it's cracked up to be. And nowadays people are so unstable and toxic, you know, because that's what they've grown up around. That's what they've been introduced to at such a young age that they feel like that's how relationships is supposed to go. And so it's just. Yeah, relationships enough.
- [12:05]
A
Yeah, fair. Like that sentence you just said right there. It's really profound if you kind of think about it and if I really evaluate me. Okay, so I'd look at Jeff's life. All I can speak of in Jeff what I think is normal, like just normal. That's how things are. That's the life and everything that I have seen. Let's just. That's how everything is. So like how I see relationships, positive to somewhat negative or whatever that's based on, this is what I learned, what I saw. You know, that's just normal in relationships. I like to hunt and fish and do all kind of stuff and do all kind of stuff to animals or whatever like that others don't. But I'm like, what do you mean? What? That's just normal. This is how things are. This is what things are. And it's only because of this is what I've known is normal. So, like, you brought up an interesting point. Like relationships and interactions and decision making in these things, you know, we look at others and we go, how could they put themselves in that situation? And it may look pretty normal to somebody else going, that's what they've seen their whole lives, you know, and you go, and I just don't understand. And I don't understand abuse and such like that. But you look at people that find themselves in negative relationship after negative relationship, and then all of a sudden you look and go, that's what they've seen over and over and over. And somehow they think, this is what I deserve. This is just what it means to be in a relationship.
- [13:56]
B
It's third. I don't want to say definition, but it's to them that's love.
- [14:07]
A
Tell me about.
- [14:12]
B
There could have been a point in someone's life where they didn't feel or have the love of us parents.
- [14:20]
A
Okay.
- [14:20]
B
You know, whether it be a mom, dad, or both of them. And it's hard to describe, so they're seeking for something that they never had. And they'll sit and they'll settle for just about anything because that's what they feel like that's their definition of what love is. Or just because, like, for me, my parents were hard. My parents were strict, you know, but it was. We weren't allowed to show emotion in our family, you know, and when we did, we would get in trouble for was a very few times growing up in my life that I actually heard my parents say, I love you, you know, or, you did a good job, or I'm proud of you. So when I got older, I would look for that validation from anybody I could find it from. Because I just wanted somebody to tell me that I mattered, that I was okay, that I was a good person. So it. It's. Each person is different, and I can't speak for everybody why they choose to be in those relationships, but a lot of times it's. It's hard to get out. Once you get in them, it's hard to get out. It really is. And so they just stay because it's easier for them.
- [15:46]
A
Yeah. And like that. Well, I am not any expert on domestic abuse or any of that stuff. Not claiming anything, but, man, it's not too hard to look at this. And if you've never heard somebody say I love you or I need you or these kind of things and to show you, and you hear that and you go, man, this is really good. And he only hits me every now and then. Or he only does these other negative things to me. He doesn't really mean that. This. This is the thing he really means. You could see where you could kind of come to your own understanding. I deserve these other things and it's worth it because, hey, this person loves me or they tell me I'm good or they tell me this or what. It's a. It's a terrible deal. So let me ask him. For your kids, okay, when they're looking back, what is your hope that their memory about you and their upbringing as kids. Tell me what you would hope they would remember as a kid. That you were really strict or what would you say you would want? Man, I hope they just remember this.
- [17:16]
B
Those sacrifices that I've made for them, okay, Just to be able to have a better education, for them to not be exposed to the things that I've been exposed to, you know? So it's just. I want them to understand that, yes, mommy has a past. Yes, Mommy's been to prison. Mommy's been homeless multiple times.
- [17:41]
A
Okay?
- [17:42]
B
You know, but at the end of it all, you just have to keep fighting. You have to keep pushing. And don't ever get up. Find the light at the end of your tunnel and go for that.
- [17:52]
A
Yeah.
- [17:53]
B
And for that, for me, they are the light at the end of my tunnel. So there is nothing. I can go 10 steps and be knocked back 15. But at the end of the day, it's just like, I have to do this. I have to be this person. I can't let my kids see me fail.
- [18:13]
A
Okay?
- [18:14]
B
And that's the big thing for me.
- [18:17]
A
Fair and like that. You just said another huge sin. Okay, so then in it, so everybody understands that Andrea, different chapters, has been with a home and without a home, okay? Good relationship, bad relationship. So that's kind of how we've known each other is here. Sometimes people that would come here, they don't have a home at different junctures. I'm not saying you don't now. And as anybody out there could see by, Andrea said it to her a jillion times. Say it again. Super high functioning adult, very, very intelligent, very skilled. Good, good, good person. Like. And I've said, man, if I was starting a business in a millisecond, I'd have her right off the bat. Very good.
- [19:16]
B
Thank you.
- [19:17]
A
Yeah, very good on that. Very driven and very focused. So it. That we've seen and skilled. And I can I ask. We went to prison for what?
- [19:35]
B
It was aggravated robbery.
- [19:37]
A
Okay.
- [19:38]
B
I was at a point in my life where I didn't want to go back home. And I was. Every time I would run away, the cops would bring me back. So I was just like, well, I have to do something for them not to make me go back home. And that was a. I took a charge for somebody and that was my outlet. I didn't know I was going to be in prison for the next 10 years, but.
- [20:06]
A
10 years?
- [20:07]
B
Yes. It was my way of not having to be able to go back home.
- [20:13]
A
Wow.
- [20:14]
B
So it was after multiple attempts of running away and going to different places. It was just. They always brought me back and I kept telling them, I don't want to be here. I. I can't be here, you know, so that was my outlet.
- [20:30]
A
Okay. And so for time frame in your life, you were how old when you were went into to prison and when you came out, you went in at what age?
- [20:44]
B
I went in at 16.
- [20:45]
A
Okay.
- [20:46]
B
And I got out when I was 25. And you have to. I was in county for a long time before I even got sentenced and got shipped down the road at 16. Yes.
- [21:01]
A
Okay. And then to 25. That's a golly big chunk of years, important years. 16 year old, 17 year old in jail.
- [21:17]
B
And I lost a lot of my childhood, y'all.
- [21:19]
A
Yeah.
- [21:20]
B
You know, but at the same time, I mean, and this might sound odd to some people saying prison really saved my life, but it did because the road that I was on, I probably wouldn't have made it to my 18th birthday. So it was a, it was more of a saving grace for me because I learned who I was. I learned what I wanted and what I didn't want. I knew after about five, six years that this is not. I'm not going to be a revolving door in and out of prison. I want better things. And I was able to sit down, figure out what I wanted out of life and just work on me and grow up. That was my biggest thing was growing up.
- [22:06]
A
Okay, let me ask this. And then we're going to get caught foreign. Why did the 16 year old Andrea, why does she not really want to live much anymore? Why was she on such a fast path to go? Huh? Yeah. Destruction or of this. Of why. What would. What was that person running from?
- [22:39]
B
My adopted parents.
- [22:41]
A
Okay.
- [22:42]
B
You know, because for the longest time they never Told me that I was adopted. And once I found out about it, it really kind of, you know, shifted gears in my life. Like, you lied to me my whole entire really life, you know, and the bullying with my family members and my grandparents and everything like that. I always wondered why I was the only kid in an all white school who was not white.
- [23:11]
A
Okay.
- [23:11]
B
And I was always bullied about it and made fun of because I had a speech impediment. And it was just the way my parents talked to us. You know, it was never really. There was no physical, but it was a lot of verbal and mental abuse. And then it was. I had a mental breakdown.
- [23:33]
A
Did you?
- [23:34]
B
And that was. I was just like, I'm done, I have to get away. So I kept coming up with plans to get away from them just because I couldn't endure all of it.
- [23:46]
A
And you started running away. What age? Ish.
- [23:50]
B
15.
- [23:51]
A
Okay.
- [23:52]
B
So it was. But after I left, I ended up being admitted into a psychiatric hospital and they put me on a whole bunch of medications. And that's where I learned that a lot of my decisions were manic decisions because I didn't know how to control that because I have no history on who my biological family is. I don't know about their mental health issues.
- [24:20]
A
Okay.
- [24:20]
B
Or their, you know, physical issues. Nothing like that. So everything that still to this day, still to this day.
- [24:27]
A
Okay. Okay.
- [24:28]
B
So it's everything that I'm learning, I had to learn from other people.
- [24:35]
A
So didn't even think about that fact of like me, I. I know, I believe I know who my parents are. And then like my grandparents were in relatives and so I can kind of know I better watch out because I don't have a crazy aunt Sarah, but man, Aunt Sarah, she kind of went off the deep end at this age or ah. I know the men in my family would have an issue with this medical deal. I'm going to have to really watch out for that. And so we have some of that. If you don't know, you don't have that, you know. Interesting. I did, I did not know that about you. So you found out at what age that you were adopted, roughly?
- [25:30]
B
Oh, God, I don't know. Somewhere in my early teens.
- [25:35]
A
Okay. But yeah, but later in life. So there's a many, many, many years that you would have not known this fact.
- [25:43]
B
Well, my parents had a box and they kept it in the garage and they always told us, don't ever go in that box.
- [25:49]
A
Well, what are you gonna do?
- [25:50]
B
What you're gonna go?
- [25:51]
A
Yeah, that's a no brainer.
- [25:55]
B
I found out. I remember they left us home alone one day and.
- [25:59]
A
What in the world.
- [26:00]
B
Yeah, I went snooping and I found what I didn't want to find.
- [26:05]
A
What else was in the box? I don't even want to know the parent. The box they leave that says, never go into the box. Hey, by the way, we're going to be gone today. Don't go in the box. Like, really.
- [26:18]
B
It was mainly, like, documents from all of our adoptions and stuff like that. Christmas cards, birthday cards that my biological parents sent that I've never seen in my whole life. That were sent to you, that were sent to me. That they just hid away. And I never got those letters.
- [26:39]
A
Really? Yeah.
- [26:41]
B
So it was, you know, what's really going on.
- [26:47]
A
Okay. What in the. How do you even handle that moment? Like, what. What in the world? Like. I mean, because now I can look at you and it's still. I mean, what in the. You open this box and all of a sudden, you. Christmas card to Andrea from a name I don't even recognize. What is this document saying here? What in the world does this mean? And you find out this alone in a garage.
- [27:23]
B
Yeah, it was a lot of anger.
- [27:27]
A
Yeah.
- [27:27]
B
I felt betrayed, like I didn't know. Why would you keep something like this for me? You know, like, at least be open and let me know, hey, you know, we're not your real parents. We adopted you. You know, in whatever reason you wanted to come up with to tell me, but just hiding it and keeping it a secret. At least that's what I felt at the time.
- [27:52]
A
No. Agreed. Yeah.
- [27:53]
B
You know, it was just. I was confused. I was very, very confused because I didn't understand. And when I took it to them, they got mad. You know, it wasn't the fact that I found out that I was adopted or anything like that. It was the fact that I went into the box. That's what they were more mad about was I went into the box.
- [28:16]
A
Yeah. You know, we told you not to go in the box and you went in anyway. Don't you listen to us? Blah, blah, blah.
- [28:22]
B
I mean, that's what every kid knows. If you tell us to do something, we're. You know, we're not going to do it. If you tell us not to do something, we're going to do it.
- [28:31]
A
That's right.
- [28:32]
B
So it's. Yeah. Just being a kid.
- [28:37]
A
So then you. You. And you could see that it'd be fair to say that from that point on, things change for you a little bit.
- [28:48]
B
Yes.
- [28:49]
A
Okay, that's a, that's fair statement to say. And then out of that, I'm not sure how I could say the sentence. You could respond properly from finding that out. I don't even know what a proper response from that moment would be. But then out of that we could say your decision making for a short juncture was not as sound as it could be.
- [29:13]
B
Right.
- [29:14]
A
And you're like, I'm, I'm done with all of this. Okay, fair. I mean, like you could look at that and go, okay, I could see. Not so sure. You could find many 15 year old people that are going to respond very positively, you know, like, hey, I became the President of the United States because when I was 13, I opened the box and I found out I was adopted and my parents have been lying to me. And that changed me. And I started making the bestest decisions at the age of 15. Probably not. Probably not. Okay, so it's going to be this difficult deal and then so we go and we do get. We are forced to spend quite a bit of time. Let me ask you on this because I'm just curious, what was the most difficult part about being housed in jail for a decade of your life during that time? What was the hardest part about surviving in jail? Hey, is it hard?
- [30:27]
B
It's very hard.
- [30:28]
A
Okay, fair.
- [30:29]
B
And there's a lot of politics in jail that. It's a whole different world.
- [30:34]
A
Okay.
- [30:35]
B
You know, and they have their own politics there and you have to abide by.
- [30:39]
A
What does that mean by prison politics?
- [30:43]
B
They have their own rules and they.
- [30:45]
A
Being the people in the inmates. Yeah, okay, fair.
- [30:49]
B
It's pretty much all a race thing, you know what I'm saying? You don't hang out or associate with anybody that is not your race really now. Okay, they do, you know, but it's just some law they have that you have to stick with what you are. And then I never really understood it because I get along with pretty much everybody.
- [31:18]
A
Yeah, you do.
- [31:18]
B
I'm friends with everybody. And what your problem is with the next person is not my problem. So I'm gonna be friends and talk to any and everybody. But a lot of it, I mean, it was pretty easy for me because I was a teenager. I was the youngest, one of the youngest people there. So it was more like everybody took me up under their wing and was trying to make sure that I was okay. I was good. I didn't have anything. My family, they would send money to me, but I spent more time in trouble and was never able to get all the things that I needed to get because I felt like I had to prove a point. I had to make a name for myself. So I was bucking the system a lot. And it, yeah, backfired a lot. But for me, being a kid in there, they pretty much just took me under their wings. So I didn't have to really fight a lot or to defend myself a lot, because everybody was. They all looked out for me.
- [32:27]
A
Okay, so we won't stay back there because we are here. And so we wanted to spend time talking about this. So we get out, we're back here 2010, and we're all that. And then we've had some. Some ups and downs and. And all of this, and not just to how short them. I mean, like, some of them have been terribly difficult. I mean, I know, like, you talk to us about the relationship and it's legit. I mean, it's bad that. That issue there. Seen some things here, like Andrea and some different bad setbacks. Like, she said, man, you're going. I've seen it. Like, man, look at that. Andrea is that close. I mean, the one that. That gets me on this. And I won't go into great detail, but we were like this. It was just like a kick in the gut for everybody here. Andre. Okay, I may miscount on the exact timeline, but just got a place to. Just got a place. Just got a new job. Okay. Was. I mean, so you're going, man, this is. We're going. I mean, like, this is really cool. Andre, look at this. And whatever. Then the rug gets pulled out from underneath there real quick, and you're like, what in the world? Okay. And good things come, and then we took care of some things and we're moving forward, but you're not going. Dog gone. It. That's a bad break. Like, why in the world did it have to happen to her? And I always give her a hard time and. Because this is not a statement on anybody else's deficiencies at all. So, like, if I say a positive statement to Andre, I'm not saying that other people aren't capable as well. So I would say, uh, Andrea is very, very focused. Has a lot of skills that can be used for positive, uh. And she doesn't use them for negative. But they're also. She's very good with everybody, very focused, and she's going to get where she's going to need to get. Um, and she just. A lot of times you're like, dang, come on, Andrea, what in the world? And because she's, she's good. Like I mean and she's very skilled, highly intelligent. Like if we were sitting here in this room and I mean this 100% like we, we didn't know each other and we're meeting somewhere else game, I would be saying okay, now what college did you graduate from? And then oh, here in temple, I would go, oh, you're a nurse at Scott and White. That would be my guess. Like if I was just looking at Andrea and highly intelligent and you're going, I would have guessed your story completely different because. And, and that's not negative anything and go, well no, I'm actually been to prison. I've been homeless for a chapter. I've been this, I've served time for this. And you're like never would have guessed it. So tell me on this. Give me. So I'm one, I'm like a short term, medium term, long term goal type person. So like short term was meaning in the next month, six months. Tell me Andrea's short term goals of where you're going to be in six months from now. What are you going to do in.
- [36:20]
B
The next couple months? I plan to actually finish my GED classes and get my ged.
- [36:27]
A
Okay.
- [36:28]
B
And then in the fall or I would say spring, but it might not happen until the fall.
- [36:36]
A
Okay, fair.
- [36:37]
B
But I want to get in, finish my business degree and I want to go to school for mental health peer support. Just because.
- [36:49]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like CCS here. Yes, you would be excellent at that.
- [36:54]
B
And they're actually who inspired me to do that because I mean.
- [36:59]
A
Oh, you'd be so good at that.
- [37:01]
B
I first came to feed my sheep. Well back then it was Martha's Kitchen, right. Long time ago, long time ago. That was my first dealing of being homeless and I was pregnant with my 13 year old and. And really? Yeah. So it was, it was different, you know. And then life picked up for me and I was doing good. Then after I got well, my ex husband and I, we lost our place and so we moved into the Salvation army and we started coming down here, you know. Then we got divorced and life picked back up for me. I was able to move into another place and just go on. And then life happened again and I was homeless again, which is what brought me back up here. You know, I think it was two years ago.
- [38:03]
A
I was thinking two, two and a half.
- [38:07]
B
And it's just everybody around here has touched my life, you know, in amazing ways. We have a good relationship, you know, and I love every person down here. So in seeing the individuals out here who have mental health issues, I'm familiar with it because I have, you know, and it's a lot of people. I don't want to say scared, but a lot of people don't know how to handle people with mental illness. And there's not a lot of people who work with them, but I just want to help them. I want a place because back in the old days, they used to have, like a farm, a community place where they would send them, and instead of being in a hospital, they could work on a farm, deal with animals, you know, and learn how to be functional in society. And that's what part of my goal is. I want to be able to have a place for them that they can come learn how to be a productive member of society, get the help that they need, and just let them know that because they have an issue, somebody loves and cares. And I wouldn't have learn that or had the. I don't know what the proper word is for it to be able to want to do that until I came down here.
- [39:44]
A
Yeah. Hold me accountable to this. Okay, so I'm giving you. This is out for everybody to hear. Okay. We have connections here. Like, I've got friends that are at. We're going to get you finished with the ged. We can get that done. We can get you into Temple College easy. And the peer support stuff, easy. Because you'd be magnificent at that. Hold me to it. Like, this goofy world that we're in, you know, sometimes it's hard to figure out, navigate all this road on your own. Let's make it easy. Like, we can do that. Because you could be such a gift to so many here that. That's encouraging to hear. So that six months from now, we're going to do that.
- [40:37]
B
Yes.
- [40:37]
A
Okay. So, like, this is easy. Like, even after we can make a couple of phone calls, and I'll even say it out loud, Mr. Trevino or Mr. Pilgrim at temple College, okay, we go sit down in their office and we are getting the GED knocked out while we are getting the paperwork to get into Temple College and to get classes. And they've got money to do it for you and to help. There is so much resources out there that we could get that moving, and we're going to do that. All that one. And like, that is a team, collaborative effort there. So six months, everybody out there, you hold us to it. Come ask me to have you help Andrea, as has she gotten into. Well, yeah, we're going to do that. So then tell me a year from now, where's Andrea going to be? Maybe still in school a year from now.
- [41:33]
B
Yes.
- [41:34]
A
Okay, so five years from now, tell me about you got an 18 year old. Can you believe that you're going to have an 18 year old? And golly. So tell me about you. You're close to being an empty nester, but five years from now, tell me about your life.
- [41:54]
B
I just want to be able to do more for my community. My goal is to really focus and making myself available to the people in my community. You know, I want to be able to. I'm in the process of writing a book about my life right now.
- [42:13]
A
Are you really?
- [42:14]
B
Yes.
- [42:15]
A
So nice.
- [42:16]
B
I hope I'd buy it to. My goal for this book is to be able to inspire people worldwide to understand and to know that, hey, you're not alone in whatever battles you face, that there is somebody else who has been there and who has overcome. And it's just. My goal is to be able to reach more people and to help more people.
- [42:39]
A
You know what's crazy? In this goofy technological age we live in, what we are doing right now, there's people in. You name a country, they could go listen to this. Yeah, okay, so let me. And you just said it right there. But to somebody out here who's listening to this and is somehow going, I don't know why, but I can. That Jeff guy, he's an idiot. That's fine. But Andrea, man, I understand what she's saying and it sounds like my life. What would you say to that person right now? They feel all alone because they've lived in such a way. Nobody's ever shown them that they are loved and of worth. Nobody's for sure never said that. You know, for no, hey, I just want you to know I love you for no other reason other than you or you, you know, not that stupid boyfriend. I love you if this. I love you if this. No, I just love you because you are you. What would you tell that person right now? Because now you've got. We've got a platform like this. As goofy as it sounds, we got a platform. There may be somebody in South Africa that is sitting there listening to this that's going, nobody loves me. I am not worth anything. Tell me what you tell them.
- [44:14]
B
It starts with loving yourself, but whatever you do, don't give up.
- [44:20]
A
Yeah.
- [44:20]
B
Because at the end of the day, there's always someone somewhere that is in a worse situation than what you are. Even though you feel like you're at Rock Bottom, just look up, you know, because you're still here. You still have choices to make. Find what you like doing in life, you know, what makes you happy. Don't worry about anybody else or what their opinions are, whether or not you think they think that you're good enough or you can do this. Set your mind to what you want to do and go for it. And don't let anybody stop you from achieving what you want to do.
- [45:02]
A
Amen.
- [45:03]
B
And just find the light at the end of your tunnel.
- [45:08]
A
Well, I will say this. And I must say one thing. Well, I will say one thing that I mean, and then I'm going to also tell you one thing, just completely in joke so you can get mad at me. Okay? But the one thing I do mean, and I hope you would hear, is. And not because I say it, but because God himself proclaims it, that you are a masterpiece.
- [45:38]
B
Thank you.
- [45:39]
A
And you were divinely created. God wove you together. Okay. And so out of that, I would say this, that both you and I share a commonality, that we were both raised by people that were not our true parents. God was our father.
- [45:59]
B
Right.
- [46:01]
A
You know, I had the luxury of that. I had the same people and I know them. You did not have that luxury. And then out of it. So the though the world. Because I. I can understand. I don't mean this rude. Like, for me, my dad, he's passed away. He passed away last year. He never verbally ever said the word I love you. And I don't know if he ever hugged me.
- [46:35]
B
Right.
- [46:36]
A
Yeah. That was just not something that occurred in our family. That's normal to me. So I do understand where you can go, man. Nobody's ever said that to me. My mother does. That's what mothers do.
- [46:51]
B
Yeah.
- [46:51]
A
You know, whatever. Okay. I'm not saying that I get that. And then we look for that in other places. So keep this in mind also that I do think you are. Your resiliency in your eyes and your determination is. It's beautifully impressive. That is the thing. I think that I really enjoy visiting with you on that. And I do think for you to make it to this point, I don't even think we've even seen the greatness that's going to come. Like lives are going to be changed and they're going to be truly touched because that you're in them. You know, until I keep that in mind and I will go on record, this is just me joking with her. And. And I won't say any names, but I will go on record that Andrea does have terrible chase taste in men. We joke. She's had some relationships up here that I'm like, come on, you're killing me, Smalls. Like, what in the world is. I'm just. That's 100% joke on that one that we've just messed around and on that one of going, God, what in the world are you thinking? That, that. But I get it and I do appreciate and I hope out there people would hear just briefly, you know, we just took a little bit of time here today to kind of get a touch into Andrea and I would encourage you even more, hey, come meet her. You know, she's up here, she's serving our people, you know, but to also to hear for all and everybody out there, she said it and we didn't even. This is not coaching. It's just over and over. We're going to hear the same thing. It's for us to come to this understanding that every person matters. They do, they do, they matter. And that's what we're about. We're in this commonality of understanding that, that we're of worth and that every single person has made decisions they are proud of and every single person has made decisions out there that they are not proud of. So it makes us humans. And so we have that we share as well. And the thing that unites us is those truths. Whether we have a house or we don't have a house or whether we're this or that, that's not the things that unite us. It's that truth. It's that we matter and that we are not perfect and we have made mistakes and we've had good things happen, we've had bad things happen. But we choose how we will go forward. I cannot do anything about the things I have done in the past. I can only choose to decide how I will move forward today. Yes. Okay. And so I appreciate that mindset. Andrea is going to keep climbing and we are going to, we're going to have a follow up podcast. When we do, we're going to have a graduation ceremony and then and we're going to have one where she is going to go to secondary education, whether it's college or whatever we're going to do to training and we're going to celebrate that as well. So wasn't terribly bad, was it?
- [50:31]
B
Wasn't?
- [50:31]
A
No, not too painful. We did not go anywhere and hopefully that you'd see that everybody up here is this crazy little thing that we like to call. Let me see what would that be the word we call them, Bobby. Oh, that's people. And they're humans.
- [50:52]
B
Yes.
- [50:53]
A
Okay. And they have stories just like everybody out there listening. And so I hope you enjoyed another good one. It's good to get to know Andre. I did not know this about that. You've seen. I am jealous on that. And Yellowstone is. I got to see it. I'd love to see an elk being born. And I'd love to see that moment where Andrea is able to look completely in the mirror and go, know that I am truly loved by myself and more importantly, by God that created me. And he created a beautiful, beautiful things.
- [51:34]
B
Yes, he did.
- [51:35]
A
He did.
- [51:35]
B
He did.
- [51:36]
A
Okay, so everybody out there, same thing that applies to Andrea, applies to you. And that is the simple truth that you are a person and you matter and your life matters. So I hope you live in that truth and that that God truly does. It's not just some bumper sticker that makes zero sense, but he truly does love us in ways that we can't even imagine, you know? And so whether you're on the highest of the high place and you're looking at that or you're in the lowest of the low, God is there with you, and he is. He's there to walk you through it. So I enjoyed it.
- [52:20]
B
I did, too.
- [52:21]
A
Okay, so I hope everybody has a great day, and thank you for joining us. Foreign thank you for listening to this episode of the Collage podcast, a production of Redcord Media. For more information on this and other podcasts, please visit redcordmedia.org.