Roxanne, an accomplished award-winning professional photographer, started her life out with many challenges.

The youngest of four siblings whose dad was short-tempered & abusive and whose mom was "doing the best she could."  Roxanne had a speech impediment that hindered her education, her social life, and her confidence & self esteem. To make matters worse, while playing with her sister & 2 brothers, Roxanne, at the tender age of 4, shoved popcorn kernels into each of her ears. She didn't tell her parents that she couldn't get them out because she was afraid of being severely punished by her father, plus speaking was a challenge for her. Fourteen years later... after years of speech classes, placement in lower-track classes in school, teasing and bullying, she finally made an appointment with an ear doctor and told him what she had done. Yes, the popcorn was still there! Once removed, she decided to work on improving her confidence, her speech, and her education.

Her challenges didn't stop there...

Roxanne's parents divorced when she was 9. At first she lived with her mom in "the projects", a low-income housing neighborhood. There wasn't much after-school supervision. Roxanne started to smoke cigarettes with the neighborhood gang. After a couple months she decided she didn't want to be there and she moved in with her grandparents until she was 16. They retired and moved away, leaving Roxanne homeless. Roxanne moved around from place to place during the last two years of high school. She was exposed to drugs and alcohol - but was able to realize that it was not the path she wanted to take and thus made more moves. She was able to get jobs, beginning at age 10, which paid for her school clothes because her parents weren't able to provide. Later, her jobs paid for her housing and food too.  

nor here...

After high school graduation, Roxanne moved to NYC and shortly thereafter the popcorn kernels were removed. She received a camera and photography lessons from a boyfriend and then she enrolled in college. Several boyfriends later, she started dating the assistant coach of her college basketball team - the team she was on for two years. He asked her to keep their relationship a secret - to prevent jealousy with her teammates. She became pregnant during the second year. Unbeknownst to her teammates, she was 5 months pregnant in the championship game (which they won). She needed to go on welfare to pay for the birth of her daughter and their living expenses. She dropped out of college. The end of their relationship resulted in the physical abuse of Roxanne. She left NYC, but that did not end her challenges.