Shranda Call

1. Shranda Call FHS 1500

2. What a Unique Name! • My dad always tells me I must be destined for great things. Obviously my name is nothing close to common or popular. I am yet to find another person with the same name as me. The story of my name is extremely special and has given me a great story to share with others in my life. I have always had a defining name that has affected my life and how others respond to me. • I am always asked questions such as, “Were your parents hippies?”, “Did your parents want a black baby?”, “Is it a mixture of two names?” Because it is so unique, everybody wants to hear the real story. One day when my mom was 4 months pregnant with me, before she knew if I was going to be a boy or girl, she and my dad were discussing names for both genders. They didn’t make much progress but of course, they didn’t know that they wouldn’t have a say in it anyways. • That night, my grandmother on my mom’s side, had a vision come to her in the middle of the night. She said she woke up and saw a beautiful woman with long dark hair, wearing a white gown. The woman spoke to her and said her youngest daughter would be having a baby girl. She told my grandma, this little girl’s name is to be Shranda. She had my grandma say the name and spell it three times, to make sure she knew for sure what it was to be. • In the morning, she called my mom and said, “You are having a girl. You will name her Shranda.” Of course, my parents couldn’t argue that one after hearing the story! • At first I hated having such a “weird” name, but I have grown to love it. I love having a name different from everybody else. I think it defines me as a person and has given me a lot of personality.

3. From day one • I was born in Salmon, Idaho; the youngest of four children. • I was considered a “miracle baby” because of the traumatic birth my mother and I endured. • At the time I was supposed to be making my entrance into the world, the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck. I had no oxygen and my mom was losing an extreme amount of blood. The doctors weren’t sure they could save us both so they told my dad, “We can only save one. Who do you want us to save?” My dad swears he will never tell me the answer he gave, but in the end it doesn’t matter because by some miracle, my mom and I both survived. • I have a very distinctive birth mark on my neck from the cord. Even to this day, I always have people asking me if it is a rash, or even better, a hickey. This was something I was very embarrassed of for years, but I have now learned that it is just another part of me that is unique and gives me character!

4. Moving Around • I lived in Challis, Idaho until I was 4 years old. • We then moved to Carlin, Nevada; out in the barren desert. I attended kindergarten and first grade here. • Next, we moved to Cokeville, Wyoming to be closer to my mom’s family. I started second grade in Cokeville and continued on to graduation there.

5. The Power of Religion • Cokeville, where I spent the majority of my childhood, is a very small town of about 500 people. My graduating class was 18 people, which was considered large. • Because of the size of the town, and I suppose the proximity to Utah, the town was majority LDS and when I say majority, I mean about 450 out of 500 people. • My parents joined the LDS church a few years before they were married, therefore, myself and my siblings were all raised in the religion. • I found myself attending church regularly, reading scriptures, following all the rules and crying when anybody swore around me. All of my friends went to church and were baptized, so as a young elementary school student, of course I wanted to fit in and do what all my friends were doing. I was baptized at 8 years old and kept going very strong. • Eventually, my brother and sister fell away from the church and my mom and dad worked all the time, so it left my other brother and myself to go to church by ourselves. We went diligently for many years together but at the age of 12, something inside me snapped.

6. Small Town…… • As a kid, living in a small town was the best thing ever! But I soon learned that living in a small town has its advantages and disadvantages. It was nice because I could walk around town and not have to worry about strangers. I knew every person that lived there. But the downside, was the fact that everybody knew everybody…. A little too well. • Because it was such a small town, news (and gossip) traveled very quickly. This town is the epitome of the housewives who sit at home and gossip all day. • As a young kid growing up in Cokeville, I fit in with my friends. Everybody got along, we had sleepovers and birthday parties. But from the day I stopped going to church, suddenly everybody’s opinions about me changed.

7. …… Big Mouths • According to the majority of the town, if a person doesn’t attend church, he/she is a bad person. It does not matter what you have or haven’t done, if you don’t go to church, you are criticized. • I can almost pinpoint the first day I heard rumors being spread about me. It was only a few days after the second week I had missed of church. I heard rumors being spread that I was (edited for these purposes) doing provocative things, drinking, doing drugs, etc. As stated before, I was 12 years old when I stopped going to church. • Dealing with the people in this town made one of the biggest impacts on my life. It was a huge life changer seeing how people treated others.

8. Bitter • I became very bitter towards the Mormon religion and all people in it. I had it in my head that every LDS person acted exactly like that; that they are better than everybody else. • After dealing with the rumors and games for a few months, I decided to rebel and really give people a reason to talk. I started cursing all the time, dressing provocatively; basically trying to act tough. This lasted up until the day I graduated high school. • I taught myself not to care what everybody else was saying and just tell them off if they decided to speak up. But, because it was a small town, nobody ever really spoke up, they just spread rumors. • Even up until the day I graduated high school, there were always rumors going on about me. I was pregnant multiple times, on all sorts of drugs, and who knows what else! Yet, I graduated with a 3.9 GPA, a college scholarship and the job smarts necessary to go out into the world.

9. No More Mommy • Looking back at my life, I’ve had some amazing highs and depressing lows. It has been quite a rollercoaster. But it’s easy for me to look back and see when my rollercoaster started plunging. • My mom was my best friend for years, just like a mother and daughter should be. I went to her for everything and loved spending time with her. My parents got divorced when I was 14. When they announced the divorce, I was actually relieved. They fought all the time and we all knew it was coming eventually. Although having my dad move out was very emotional for me, I knew it was the best for both of them, as well as us kids. • Although I wasn’t surprised by the divorce, I was surprised by the fact that my mom became engaged to another man only 2 months after the divorce was finalized. Obviously this was a huge shock, but the worst part was the man she married. I wish I was one of those kids that could say I love my stepparents, but that definitely isn’t the case for me. My mom’s new husband flipped my world upside down. • After we had to move into his house, things took a fast slide downhill. He completely changed. My sister and I were the only kids left in the house. She had just had a baby and we were in for the ride of our lives.

10. Defining Moment • October 11, 2002. The day my world flipped upside down. • This is the day I truly realized everything had changed. I was 15 years old. The day started out with my mom’s husband accusing my brother of stealing his fishing poles. In other words, he was just looking for a reason to scream at my brother. Things escalated very quickly from that point. My sister, brother and I were all standing in the kitchen screaming at my mom’s husband, for what felt like hours while my mom just stood by and watched it all happened. • He screamed at all of us; calling us names and accusing us of everything he could think of. He called my sister and I vulgar names, made up stories about having to drag us out of houses and we were all on drugs, etc. He told my sister she was a worthless mother, threatened to hit me in the face, spit in my face, left bruises on my brother’s shoulder and threatened to call the cops on all of us. • Once he finally realized the hole he was digging, he took off out the front door screaming and swearing. Meanwhile, my sister and I packed our bags and prepared to go to my dad’s. As I was packing my bag, at 15 years old, I watched my mom chase after her new husband of only a few months. This is when I realized she was a totally different person and I would never have that old relationship with her again. We grabbed our stuff, got my sister’s baby ready and we went to my dad’s house an hour away. • I don’t know how long it took my mom to realize we were even gone because she was too occupied with chasing after her worthless husband. Since that day I have had the bare minimum of a relationship with my mom. I don’t confide in her about anything, she is the last person to find out any news about my life and she has never come to visit me since I moved out of the house. I usually refer to her by her first name and often respond to people that my sister is more like my mom because she had to raise me when my mom was nowhere to be found.

11. Back and Forth • Because of the extremely broken relationship I had with my mom, and because of the hatred I had for her husband, I moved back and forth between houses a lot throughout high school. I went back and forth from my dad’s, to my mom’s, got kicked out of there and had to move in with my cousin, to my aunt’s and eventually had to end up back at my mom’s house. I took on a full time job along with my senior year of high school and my extracurricular activities so that I made sure I was home as little as possible.

12. Run, Run as fast as you can! • I began dating my boyfriend my sophomore year of high school. He was 3 years older than me so he had already graduated. We dated for 2 ½ years before he proposed to me on St. Patty’s Day my senior year of high school. This was a huge shock to everybody that I was engaged while still in school. It was a very crazy time for me but I was thrilled. • Between the hatred for where I lived, the poor relationship with my mom, and the town I lived in, I was in a huge hurry to get out of that situation as fast as I could. I graduated on a Wednesday night. I had all of my stuff packed the day before and moved out the day after. My boyfriend and I moved here to Utah where I could attend school and he could get a good job. I hated the fact that I spent so many years in that town, but I knew if I didn’t get out quick, problems would just continue.

13. Change of Opinion • I stated earlier that my opinion of the LDS religion was very spiteful. This was hard to avoid considering the environment I was raised in. There were a few people there that I admired, but very few. • After moving to Utah, I was able to see a little broader prospective of the religion and of other people. Granted, Utah is very heavily weighted towards the same religion, but I found some really great people only shortly after moving here. • I moved to Orem where I attended UVSC. I was lucky enough to get some great roommates, but even more lucky to work with the best people. I started a job at Sizzler and became close to a girl who is still my best friend 3 years later. As far as religion and lifestyles go, we are polar opposites. I live with a guy I am not married to, I had a baby out of wedlock, I drink, etc. She has never drank in her life, never swears, was married in the temple. But even though she is extremely strong in her religion, she has never judged me for my actions. She is the best example of a religious person. She is able to stick to her choices while still respecting others. Because of her, my widespread idea of “all Mormons are judgmental and evil” has been blown out the window. I am much more able to respect others in their religion and look to the person rather than the religion.

14. Third Times a Charm • College has been a bit of a rollercoaster for me as well. Growing up I always knew I wanted to go to school. My dad was very adamant about me going to school, getting a good education and a steady and dependable job. • I moved to Utah right after graduation, but I went back to Wyoming in the fall to attend Western Wyoming in Rock Springs. My goal at the time was to major in Business Management. I attended one semester here and realized it was not a good place for me to be, so I moved back to Utah. • A year later, I moved to Orem to attend UVSC to continue my Business degree. Sadly, I was out of state (expensive!), so I only attended one semester there as well. • My third attempt was SLCC. After realizing how much I dislike Math, I decided Business probably wasn’t the best route for me to go. After many discussions with my dad, and a little encouragement from my Grandma, I decided to go into Nursing. I began school at SLCC in the winter of 2010. I am now in my 3rd semester and cannot wait to be done with my generals

15. Journey I always knew I wanted to be a mom. I have always loved spending time with kids. I became an aunt at 11 years old and I thought that was the best thing in the world. My boyfriend and I had talked about having kids right alongside the time we talked about getting married. After we had been together for 4 years, we decided it was time to start trying. Sadly, it didn’t happen easily for us. We tried for 2 ½ years with no success. I went to doctor after doctor. I was told I couldn’t have kids because of a surgery I had to have in earlier years. This was the most heartbreaking thing of my life. We had given up on the idea of having our own and just decided we would take things as they came to us. Little did I know, at the time I was having a CT scan for a tumor (thought to be one cause of infertility for me), I was already pregnant! The day I found out was incredible!

16. Because it was so difficult for me to get pregnant, I had high hopes for an easy pregnancy, safe delivery and healthy baby. Sadly, bad luck was on my side again and things definitely didn’t go as hoped. • I worked as a waitress while I was pregnant. I figured it was a good way to keep up my exercise and keep off some of the weight! One night at work, when I was 7 months pregnant, my left leg began to swell up and become very hard. I didn’t think much of it. Figured it was just swelling because I was pregnant and everything swells; also, I was on my feet for hours which is never good for a pregnant woman. I went home, figured it would go away by morning. • The next morning I woke up to a leg that was 3x the size of my right leg and bright purple. Once again, I just blamed it on pregnancy and got ready for school. When I got to campus and went to get out of my car, my leg gave out on me and I almost fell. I called my doctor who told me to go to the ER at the hospital. • I spent two hours waiting in the ER before finally getting into a room. They hooked me up to all the monitors, took my vitals, drew a lot of blood and things went bad quickly. My baby’s heart rate jumped and they had to rush me to the women’s center where they prepared me for delivery, at 28 weeks. The (not so happy) joys of pregnancy

17. Troublemaker • Luckily, they were able to stop the contractions, relax the baby and get everything pieced back together. • After 31 hours in the hospital, dozens of ultrasounds, an MRI and lots of blood drawn, I finally received the answer of what was causing my leg to swell; I had a massive blood clot in my left hip. Of course this is not something any mom wants to hear when she is pregnant. My mind immediately raced to my baby and what was going to happen. • I was told I have a genetic factor, along with the pregnancy, that caused the clot. I was taught what I had to do for the remainder of my pregnancy, which consisted of giving myself a shot of blood thinners in my stomach twice a day. This was hell for me. Needles do not bother me, but having to do it to myself was torture the first few times. Luckily, I adjusted and got pretty used to it to where it didn’t bother me anymore. • I had to quit working, had to quit school because I was put on bed rest (only 4 weeks before the end of the semester), and spent the remainder of my pregnancy sitting at home.

18. January 6th, 2011 – best day of my life! • On January 5th, at 37 weeks pregnant, I had the lovely experience of having my water break. Made the phone call to my boyfriend who hurried home from work and we rushed into the hospital to get our baby boy out! • Once again, things did not go at all as planned. I ended up being in labor for 28 hours. Because I was on the blood thinners, I was not allowed to have an epidural for up to 12 hours after my last shot. Luckily, my little guy had his own plan. He decided to hang out for awhile and I was able to get the epidural, but things didn’t progress as hoped. • After 28 hours of sitting in the hospital with no baby, I started having really bad chest pains and was short of breath. This was a huge scare because of the clot in my leg. They were concerned the clot had moved into my lungs so I was rushed into another room where they cut a hole in my neck and threaded a filter down into my vein to try and catch any pieces of the clot that may have broken off. After that, I was rushed in for an emergency C-section. Again, not as planned. The epidural had worn off and I could feel everything! I started screaming and they had to put me under. I woke up 3 hours later, after all of my family and everybody had the chance to see my baby before I did. But the first time I held him was heaven! He was perfect! I was so glad that even through all the trauma, he didn’t have any complications.

19. Work, School, No Time for Play • This semester of school began 3 days after I had my baby. Because I had a C-section I was required to stay in the hospital for 5 days so I made my boyfriend bring my computer to the hospital so I could start school while still there. School has been a challenge this semester. I have all online classes, but I have to time my work around when my baby is sleeping or content enough that I can do my work. • I also returned to work 4 weeks after having him; back to waitressing. I work on the weekends so that my boyfriend can be home to watch him.

20. Lessons Learned • Although my life has been difficult at times, it’s a lot easier to look back at all my experiences now and learn to appreciate them in their own way. I am stronger because of everything I have endured. • Losing my relationship with mom taught me what kind of mom I want to be to my son. He is the most important thing in my life and I always want him to know that. • Growing up in a town with so many inner issues made me learn to ignore the bad and just take in the good; don’t worry so much about what other people say. I am doing the best I can and I am proud of myself, regardless of what others say. • Being in and out of school has made me very independent. My parents have not given me any help towards paying for school or anything since I graduated high school. I have learned the power of good work ethic and have worked two jobs the majority of my adult life. • Going through all the complications with my pregnancy made me appreciate it that much more. It was so hard to get pregnant that I still consider it a miracle that I was even fortunate to have a baby, even though it was a rough journey. It was definitely worth every minute. It has also made me more compassionate towards other people going through hard times. I know things could have been a lot worse for me. • My son Kleyton is my world. He has changed me in so many ways. Many people think I am young to have a kid, but I knew I was ready for it. It’s tough but I love every minute of it!

21. My life has changed exponentially over the past year; mostly due to a newborn bundle of joy. I wouldn’t say this is where I imagined I would be at this point in my life, but I like to think I’m doing alright for myself. I have two more semesters of generals and then I will apply to the nursing program. My son is now 3 months old and brings so much joy to my life with his huge smiles and his conversations. Work is definitely not ideal but it pays the bills and I have a roof over my head and clothes on my back. Although I would have preferred an easier life in a lot of ways, I know everything that happened has just made me stronger. Where I am now