Presidential leadership headline

After my mother died, writing is what scooped me up from the underbelly of despair. I began writing about my feelings of pain and confusion of losing someone so close to me. The feeling of helplessness and loss was overwhelming at times. I felt alone in the world, despite family and friends. My large Italian family was a comfort and they were there for me, but I still felt so abandoned and alone. I still do sometimes.
Continue reading »

…

Until Dietz’s senior year of high school, her father made no real effort to meet her. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted to meet him at all. “I thought that he had taken 17 years to get up the courage to meet me, and I wanted my time to decide when I wanted to meet him,” Dietz said. Apart from the fact that he was an alcoholic, Dietz knew very little about her father before his death. But she was forced to learn quickly.
Continue reading »

Kristin Dietz isn’t your typical 20-year-old college student. Though she was an enthusiastic cheerleader in high school and almost always wears a coordinated outfit, Dietz has had a college experience that is nothing like most sweater set-wearing sorority girls’. During her college years, she has had to deal with more than most adults have ever faced in their entire lives. Just after almost losing her mother to cancer, her father was brutally murdered.
Continue reading »