Deonna Autobiography

DEONNA LEWIS: OVERCOMING FAILURE

I am not much on telling others about myself, but I will say that throughout my college experience it's getting easier and easier to do. I have found that I am even writing papers and introducing myself in an Algebra class. I never understood why someone would want you to write a paper in Algebra, but I guess some things are just not for my understanding.

I do want to tell you how I got where I am today. I am presently in Jacksonville, Fl. Wait! Let me tell you my name and some of the other things you might just need to know to get a better understanding of who I really am.

My name is Deonna Russell Lewis; I was born in Indianapolis Indiana at Marion County Hospital on twenty-third day of September. I am forty years old with three children, two boys and one girl; also two grand-daughters. When I was a freshman in high school I decided I wanted to join the Navy, that was my mission in life, it had to happen.

In deciding I wanted to go to the military and then finding out that I was a teenager that was about to have a baby without a husband or a clue, the Navy was postponed. So I had my first son at the age of fifteen, and my second at the age of eighteen, I was well on my way to failure. I didn't have any cares anymore nothing really mattered. I let my oldest son grand parents adopt him and I kept the one. Did that give me a clue that I was a total failure in the motherhood area? Indeed it did, but that didn't stop me. I went for a whopping third child and I obtained a baby girl.

Now, here is when I learned my lesson. A wonderful man with a plan, I thought! Let's get married he said, and have a daughter. I had the daughter but the marriage never took place. So then I became what I call a fool.

But on May 2, 1990 I woke up and realized I wanted to go to the Navy and nothing and nobody would stop me. I talked it over with my mom; she would help me with the kids. I joined the Navy where I was there for 6 wonderful years until I was injured in the line of duty, but that was the best time of my life. I know now that life matters and respect conquers. I regained my dignity and a sense of direction, my maturity level would lead me to tell others that teenage pregnancy is reality and that it is not so easy being a mom as it is being a mother. I decided to go to college to study law because I