About

When I was 20 years old, my plans for my life, career, family, and future fell apart. One day I was an active sophomore in college, the next I was quadriplegic in the Intensive Care Unit, having suffered a massive brainstem stroke. I could not speak, swallow, or blink. Because I could hear, I listened as doctors warned my family that I had as little as 48 hours to live. There was nothing for us to do but pray. My faith sustained me in ways I can hardly explain, and a year later I walked back onto my college campus on my own two feet.

Eventually, I earned a B.S. in mass communication from Texas Wesleyan University, along with a Texas teaching certificate in English in 2002. Then in 2010, I earned an M.A. in English education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Currently, I am pursuing an M.Div. at the King's University in Southlake, Texas.

I taught public high school and intermediate grade English for ten years. In 2007, the Texas Education Agency awarded me the distinguished honor of Texas Secondary Teacher of the Year. Currently, I write and speak full time, sharing messages of hope and endurance with education, business, and church groups across the country. Almost everyone walks away with a renewed sense of purpose.

I write and speak on hope and endurance because if there is one thing I know, it is how to keep going.

All of my communication -- books, posts, keynotes, and trainings -- centers on practicing hope and endurance. I have learned that even when a situation seems impossible, it is never too late. But in order for someone to keep going, they need a steady supply of encouragement. That is why this blog offers just that:

• Encouragement for education.
• Encouragement for every day.
• Encouragement for health and mobility.
• Encouragement for goal-setting.
• Encouragement for spiritual growth.
• Encouragement for writing.

No matter what you are going through, you need encouragement.

You will find plenty of it here.

Take some for yourself, leave some for others.

And then keep going.