Maritza

Maritza calls herself Friendly, kind, grateful, funny, generous. She grew up in the Caribbean and now lives in a Southern suburb with her husband, a grown son in college who lives at home, and three dogs, all girls. She has a college degree and was not working at the time of the diary. She is proud of her culture and sums up its influence in one line: I think how you was raised shape who you are. She writes briefly and plainly; many of her answers are a sentence or two.

Her view of a life is generous: Positive or negative every moment of your life define you. She chooses three. Her degree, because helps me to have a job. Her marriage, which she once thought would never happen, maybe because my parents divorced after I graduate from college. And becoming a mother: I have issues to get pregnant but after five years I have that wonderful blessing.

Asked about a challenge she overcame, she goes back to one month before her wedding, when someone tried to take her car at gunpoint. It was very traumatic but the help of friends, therapy and my husband I was able to move on with my life. One trace remains: After that I'm always check my surroundings. She tells it in two sentences, and puts the weight on the help she received.

Her health is something she manages. She was diagnosed with a thyroid condition about seven years before the diary and takes medicine every day; it does not limit her, because I have control of my health. Her mother lives with diabetes, so I have to watch my sugar intake. She does all the shopping and checks the store flyers twice a week for deals. A friend, a counselor who eats carefully, got her to try salmon five years ago, and after I try it I love it. Her son finds her cooking too healthy and makes his own. A neighbor sends over party food that Maritza quietly does not eat, without ever saying so: She's a great person nothing to do with that. Her heritage, she says, plays no part in what she eats. Her favorite treat is sugar free strawberry jello with a touch of whipped cream (fat free). A vegan diet is not for her: I love salmon, yogurt and a lot of products made from animals.

Her superpower is not hers, she says: no super power for me prayers change everything. Her weakness is the first moment of a crisis, when she cannot yet take charge, and that makes me feel weak, as when her mother was in the hospital for surgery. She reads, prays, and talks to her husband or a friend. Reading is the best for me. She keeps ginger chews nearby, watches gentle holiday movies, and says, I don't use food to stressed out. Her 2 a.m. person is her best friend, always there for me no matter what. Her wish for the world: Every change start with ourselves.

Her Day 5 goal is three words: Always cut the sugar. She has already begun, Reading the labels of everything I buy, and sees nothing in her way: If you focus in your own life and think of the future nothing will stand on your way. Her letter is one line. The brevity fits a woman who, across five days, keeps saying the same thing: she has decided, and she is doing her part.