I never planned to be here where I am now. I was born with many hidden handicaps and a family that liked to move because they couldn’t cope. The reason we first came up here was because my dad dreamed to find gold in 1974. I was young, going to school, what set me back from learning was moving around.
I thought at first the Yukon would be it. But after a year and half we moved. We came back in 1976 and back and forth a few times to farmland in BC and back to the Yukon. I never had a root for sticking somewhere until finally it was one of my dreams to be a cartoonist. I wanted to be famous. I wanted to go back to school. So in 1986, I went back to school and went back to Yukon Learn and then things started going good for me.
Then my family wanted to move down south and I said no. I put my foot down. I had a summer job and I was doing pretty good on my own. I had to prove myself. Then, when they came back about a year and half later I fell into their lives and went back down south and started over again. At first it was good but my family started to be different and it was rough. It was a small town and it was hard. I was in and out of welfare, up and down until 1987 when my mom and dad split up. And the main family came here and ever since then I’ve settled down.
Little did I know that at my next job my body couldn’t take it anymore. With my carpal tunnel syndrome my arms would get tired and that was my first let down and then I started to be myself. I came out of the closet, changed my name and that is who I am now. Even the name I had, my family didn’t like it. I didn’t want to be labeled on one side of the family or the other. I stuck to it. I went Outside, did my treatments and started over again.