‘I can be at peace with myself and be comfortable in my skin.’

Greenlawn

“I was a chubby kid and gained weight after my daughter was born. It was never a problem for me until a year after my son was born. I’d gained so much weight that a pizza delivery guy asked me when I was going to have the baby.

“I had a gastric bypass on April 7, 2004. That day I had trouble fitting into a women’s size 28. It was a defining moment; I broke down crying. Within 18 months I dropped 245 pounds to 120 and wore a size zero. It was too much to lose for my 5-foot, 4-inches. I eventually settled between 135-140 and a size four. But I had all this loose skin, so I decided to take a yoga class at Inner Spirit Yoga Center with the attitude that I didn’t die, so I guess I’ll go back. I started squeezing it in on weekends. Then I just really started to like it. I rearranged my schedule so I could take a class daily. It made me feel in a good place and everything was toning up.

In 2007, the economy was changing so I was laying people off and telling them why they couldn’t get raises. I stopped feeling like I was helping them. That’s very difficult when you’re on a spiritual, holistic journey with yoga.

“At the time I was also a corporate human resources director. In 2007, the economy was changing so I was laying people off and telling them why they couldn’t get raises. I stopped feeling like I was helping them. That’s very difficult when you’re on a spiritual, holistic journey with yoga. It just kept eating away at me. I decided to get a yoga certification, then started teaching. Soon I was teaching 22 classes, seven days a week and I’ve been doing that for 10 years. In 2010 I left the corporate world and immersed myself in the world of yoga.

“To teach during the pandemic I took a 300-hour yoga teacher training online with My Vinyasa Practice. I had to record 20 videos of me teaching. The day after I got my certification, they called to say they had watched my videos and wanted me to mentor their students. What started as just a few hours a week evolved into a rapidly growing platform where I was honored with the roles of lead teacher trainer manager to people all over the world—and HR director.

“What’s different about this merger of HR and yoga is that I get to blend both worlds, helping people and watching them grow. It’s a beautiful feeling that’s not just physical for me; it’s also calming and cleansing. I can be at peace with myself and be comfortable in my skin.

‘I come from a family of nurses, so I guess it’s kind of in the blood.’

Massapequa Park

“I come from a family of nurses, so I guess it’s kind of in the blood. It probably goes back to my grandmother. She had nine children, lived in a small county called Mayo in Ireland and helped deliver babies and care for the sick. You know, back then there was no degree to do that. I guess it just came from something innate in herself.

“As the director of patient care services for women and children’s health at Huntington Hospital, I oversee labor and delivery, maternity, nursery, the special care nursery and pediatrics. I think, for all of healthcare, being hit with the pandemic was challenging at every level. Once we knew that there were more patients being admitted with COVID and more space was needed to be able to care for them, there were discussions about possibly having to utilize our postpartum unit as a medical unit for COVID patients. We had to then look at what we could do safely for our families after they delivered: where could they go to recover for a few days, as well as now assisting the staff that are normally on the postpartum unit to be able to care for medical patients with COVID.

We recently just had a family who delivered during the height of COVID and experienced the offsite location and were blessed again to come back and have another baby the following year. They were so happy with their standard of care at the offsite location that they chose us again for their next delivery.

“Our obstetrical patients would come in and deliver here. And then after they were stabilized and assessed, they were then transferred to an offsite location to continue their postpartum stay. Thank goodness that was a very short-lived moment in time; about a week. Once they saw the numbers trending where they needed to go, we were able to pull back very quickly and transition right back into our regular business, caring for mothers and babies and their families here at the hospital.

“We recently just had a family who delivered during the height of COVID and experienced the offsite location and were blessed again to come back and have another baby the following year. They were so happy with their standard of care at the offsite location that they chose us again for their next delivery. They were of course very ecstatic to not have to be transferred anywhere now, and they were able to go out to their private room in the postpartum unit to enjoy their stay. And it was amazing to be able to be with them again and experience the joy with them.”

Interviewed by Hannah Fusaro

‘I used to say that I always have to prove to people who I am and why I’m in the room, but I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t have to prove anything to anyone.’

Lakeview

“I decided at the age of 6 that I wanted to be a doctor because there were only two black doctors that everybody knew on Long Island. In my junior year of medical school, despite honors classes and being on the dean’s list, the pre-med advisor said, ‘You should probably rethink going into medicine and focus on becoming an African American professor.’

“Little did I know that they encouraged a large amount of Black and Hispanic students not to go into the field of medicine. I ended up working at Nassau County Medical Center for a year and then I did research at Winthrop Hospital that was published.

“Going to college was definitely not easy. People are always going to say ‘no,’ but if it’s something that you really want, you’ll figure out a way to do it. Even now, I still have people who don’t believe a black female can have their own office and can even be a doctor. I will go to a conference, and somebody will be like, ‘Oh, you’re a secretary?’

I think part of the reason why we have been successful is because many people want to see somebody who can relate to them, but also looks like them and can understand what they’re saying.

“I live in the same community where I grew up, in the same district where I am now the school physician. I had always wanted to own my own practice, so I started MS Family Medicine Health Care two years after finishing my residency, and then basically built it from the ground up. The first office that we opened was in Rosedale, and the people in the community were really grateful to have a doctor’s office there. Now we have more than 15,000 patients between that and a Garden City office.

“I think part of the reason why we have been successful is because many people want to see somebody who can relate to them, but also looks like them and can understand what they’re saying. Black people don’t say ‘diabetes;’ we say ‘sugar.’ We don’t say ‘hypertension;’ we say, ‘my pressure’s high.’ It’s about knowing the nuances of how things are described and understanding that this is just how people were taught.

“I used to say that I always have to prove to people who I am and why I’m in the room, but I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t have to prove anything to anyone. I’m doing what I want, how I want it. It’s up to you whether or not you accept the fact that I’m here, but I know that you need to respect the fact that I am here.”

Interviewed by Iris Wiener

The person profiled here has been a guest on Newsday Live.

‘I still have a loss from my dad, but I’m able to deal with it better through writing.’

East Islip

“My dad was a huge influence on me. He was a teacher in Brentwood for 28 years. He was an inspiration to a lot of students and he was always encouraging me to write. We’d see a movie together and he’d say, ‘You can’t write anything better than that?’ I wrote a play, and he was supportive of that. He was supportive of me entering play competitions, one of which I won for. He was supportive of my Disney Screenwriting Fellowship.

“He was the Long Island Ducks public address announcer, a teacher and a longtime radio DJ for WGLI and WGBB. They built this incredible block around him and a few other guys. Then he went into teaching and had a family and he ended up running the radio station at Brentwood High School.

“I teach English and English-as-a-new-language at the high school level in Great Neck and to adults to take the high school equivalency class. Teaching English as a new language is so rewarding. I’ve never had students who work harder trying to learn a new language.

Horror is cathartic – I exercised a lot of fears with my second book and a lot of my emotions with my first book.

“I came out of college and I was a journalist, covering the Long Island serial killer for a couple years and then I started producing a podcast called “Voices from Gilgo” and I’m doing a library lecture series about the killer. That started at the end of my father’s life. He was in-and-out of the hospital, and I was doing this podcast to take my mind off of it. He was encouraging of that too. Even when I would see him at the rehab facility, he’d ask me about it and say, ‘That’s great, good luck, be safe.’

“When he passed away, I was having a really hard time. I was very broken with his passing; thanks to therapy I’m a lot stronger than I was. I needed to have an outlet for my heartache, so I put together a group of short fiction horror stories that I published under my own publishing company, Spooky House Press.

“Horror is cathartic – I exercised a lot of fears with my second book and a lot of my emotions with my first book. I still have a loss from my dad, but I’m able to deal with it better through writing.”

Interviewed by Rachel O’Brien – Morano

‘At multiple points in my life I was challenged to succumb to what other people wanted me to be in order to approve of me.’

Brightwaters

“When I was a kid, words that were used to describe me were just words and they had no power over me. I grew up in Astoria, the epicenter of diversity. I got to just be me. Nobody thought twice about somebody assigned female sex at birth wearing masculine clothes. I was a boy, even though that’s not the word that others used to describe me. I never felt I had to be put into a category.

“It wasn’t until my parents moved my sister and I to Long Island when I was 13 that things changed. My peers would give me looks and criticize how I expressed myself with clothing. I felt pressure to change who I was in exchange for acceptance. In high school I was a really depressed kid. I attempted suicide twice and was hospitalized. I didn’t have support and I just wanted to be liked and accepted.

“When I went to Stony Brook University, I was isolating myself from other people. I saw a flyer for the LGBTQ Club and decided to check it out. I befriended many queer academics and came across folks who were trans. I knew that I was trans, but I didn’t have the language to understand what I was going through. I knew the body parts that I had, the clothes that I liked to wear, and who I was attracted to romantically and sexually. I thought I was a lesbian.

When I fell into those traps I was miserable, versus when I stood up, recognized who I was, embraced it, and pushed forward. We all have our own demons that we’re fighting.

“When I learned ‘transgender’ I thought, ‘Oh my god. That makes so much sense!’ That club gave me the space and confidence to be who I was. Years later, when I found myself getting depressed again, I decided to volunteer at the Long Island Crisis Center.

“After a few months I was trained to become a Crisis Intervention Counselor. During the training, the director for Pride for Youth held a workshop and told me about a job opportunity. Pride for Youth took a game-changing chance on me. Now I am the PFY Director of Suffolk. I oversee our sexual health-based services. Nietzsche said, ‘No price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.’ At multiple points in my life, I was challenged to succumb to what other people wanted me to be in order to approve of me. When I fell into those traps I was miserable, versus when I stood up, recognized who I was, embraced it, and pushed forward. We all have our own demons that we’re fighting.”

Interviewed by Iris Wiener

‘You can be anybody and you can accomplish anything, and we are our only limit.’

Valley Stream

“When I was 6 years old, I started to limp. My mother’s friend’s son had Legg-Calve-Perthes disease and pointed us in the right direction to a specialist, where I was diagnosed with the disease, where the blood supply to the hip bone stops, so it starts to die. Every day for five-and-a-half years, three times a day, my mother and I would sit together and do physical therapy exercises to shape my hip bone. From first to sixth grade, I was on crutches. My school didn’t know what to do with me; for a while I wasn’t allowed out at recess. I was sedentary, so I learned guitar, the arts. That was definitely an outlet for me.

“Thankfully, I’m one of the success stories. I experience stiffness or soreness but I’m totally fine. It gave me a new perspective. I think I can empathize with children. I think that’s something that would have helped me; to talk to somebody. Empathy and social skills are really important for kids, so I want to impart that on students.

I started training youth teams at night while I worked at an accounting firm. I looked forward to the night much more than the day, so I got my master’s in elementary education.

“Later, I was able to play soccer and played at St. John’s University, which at the time was number four in the nation. Then my athletic career fell apart. I had injuries that caught up to me, so in my sophomore year, I walked away. I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I started training youth teams at night while I worked at an accounting firm. I looked forward to the night much more than the day, so I got my master’s in elementary education. I really liked helping the little ones, and I got my first job in a high-needs charter school in Brooklyn teaching sixth grade. That was eye-opening, and I saw I was able to make a difference.

“I then came to teach sixth grade in Valley Stream, and now I’m an assistant principal there, and I’m studying for a doctorate in educational leadership. I hope to be a principal one day.

“While we were virtual during the pandemic, I made a YouTube channel about “Mindset Moments” for teachers to focus with their kids; hold them accountable with a weekly goal. A publisher approached me, and we turned it into a book. You can be anybody and you can accomplish anything, and we are our only limit. If you believe in yourself and you put in the work, you can achieve things far beyond your imagination.”

Interviewed by Rachel O’Brien – Morano

‘I realized that when you’re flying it’s like being out in the middle of the country. No one is up there and it’s calm and relaxed.’

Syosset

“My entire life has revolved around planes. My dad used to work at JFK, and after work he would take me to see planes taking off and landing. That led me to Purdue University to study aerospace engineering. I want to be the guy that, when people have questions about planes, they know they can come to me and ask. I have the credibility, knowledge and experience to talk about them. I want to do everything with engineering.

“It’s really cool being up there looking down, almost like you’re in a separate world. You feel so disconnected, but you also look out and feel, ‘Wow, I’m thousands of feet off the ground’. It’s an interesting duality. I’m still working on my pilot’s license. Sometimes I fly solo. One of your big milestones in working for it is doing your first solo flight. Afterwards, training starts picking up. You need to feel comfortable with taking off and landing.

I have learned that with flying, it is one thing to read about, watch and see it, but it’s another thing to actually do it. Until you do it yourself, you don’t understand all the intricacies and the nuances of it.

‘You start doing more technical things like flying to other airports, exploring more, completing more maneuvers, and experiencing simulated weather. I have learned that with flying, it is one thing to read about, watch and see it, but it’s another thing to actually do it. Until you do it yourself, you don’t understand all the intricacies and the nuances of it.

“I have lived on Long Island my entire life; it wasn’t until I left that I realized that the rest of the U.S. doesn’t look or feel like Long Island. There is a lot of free space. It was a culture shock to see how densely populated Long Island is. The drive to my college in Indiana is 14 hours. Once I was past Pennsylvania, I would see corn fields and nothing else. When I got back from my freshman year, I was talking to people and it felt like everyone here had drunk five cups of coffee. I realized that when you’re flying it’s like being out in the middle of the country. No one is up there and it’s calm and relaxed.

“From my first year of being away from the busyness of Long Island, I learned to be more patient and understanding with people’s time. More teenagers should give going away to school a shot. They will learn to appreciate Long Island more and realize what they don’t have when they go away. They’ll also discover something new.”

‘2015 and even this past year were hard, though they are reminders that we have one life and need to keep moving forward and doing what we can to enjoy the ride.’

East Hampton

“2015 was hard. I was diagnosed with an unruptured brain aneurysm at age 35 after attending a 5k honoring a friend’s sister, who had passed away of a ruptured brain aneurysm.

“Multiple doctors had told me nothing was wrong, despite experiencing facial drooping and tingling. At the 5K doctors spoke about tests and symptoms and I knew I needed those tests. After surgery, the doctor told me my aneurysm was growing and would have been a fatal rupture if left untreated. Also, within that 12 month period, I lost a dear friend and a cousin. They were ages 35 and 48, respectively. I had started Exploring Paths in 2013 to teach students how to cycle and to get them out exploring and experiencing what NY had to offer. Partnered with the YMCA and Citi Bike classes began, as well as rides to museums, nature preserves, anywhere that might spark an interest, and seeing their reactions to these destinations and experiences was incredibly fulfilling.

“My aneurysm and Sanae’s and Monique’s passing strengthened my desire to find a way to ensure more students and those wanting to explore had the opportunity. That’s where I wanted to make an impact. My career has been in technology, though wanting a mix of my passions I had been toying with the idea of making Exploring Paths full-time.

My aneurysm and Sanae’s and Monique’s passing strengthened my desire to find a way to ensure more students and those wanting to explore had the opportunity.

“In 2019 I began building a tech platform to encourage teens and the young-at-heart to explore the world. COVID sped it up. In March 2020, I was hospitalized, and that April I lost my job. Needing to fully recover, I decided to move to Long Island and spend time on Exploring Paths. EP launched in May, and in addition to helping youth and families find destinations to visit, our app will be supporting local museums’ youth programming. We have 162 explorers and over 1,100 global in-person and virtual destinations and experiences for them to find. I’m also excited to expand the program to Long Island and will begin teaching classes this summer. 2015 and even this past year were hard, though they are reminders that we have one life and need to keep moving forward and doing what we can to enjoy the ride.”

‘I could write an 88,000-page book of everything that went wrong. It’s all about staying focused and being determined to rise!’

Bethpage

“I was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when I was 18 months old. I wasn’t hitting my milestones physically, and it prompted an evaluation. After the diagnosis, my mom began to enroll me in early intervention services. I had physical, occupational and speech therapy at home multiple times a week. There came a time when my mom and uncle were realizing that my developmental disability was not intellectual, only physical. This realization was first happening when I was being taught how to communicate with a speech device. Before the speech device, I only communicated through my own version of sign language.

“As I became proficient with the communication device, my intellect started to be much more pronounced to my family and school officials. As a child, I don’t ever remember getting down about my physical limitations. Being disabled was my normal. I pretty much did everything that other kids did — but in a modified way. I don’t consider myself having challenges. When I think about challenges, I think of overwhelming struggles. I don’t have that. Mainly because whenever I want to do something, I give it all of my focus until I am done.

You can do anything that you put your mind to. You simply have to eat dirt sometimes and have the determination to push forward.

“On December 7th, 2019, I participated in a ceremony where I was one of the people who received their blue belt from a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy. This promotion has to be one of the best highlights of my life! Three years ago, I knew nothing about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu except for the necessary general information. I’m still infatuated by my physical improvements and knowing how to use my body discrepancies to aid me. My teacher treats me like anyone else in his class. He has no pity for me and doesn’t hesitate to call me out if I’m not training at maximum. I’m pumped to see where this takes me next.

“You can do anything that you put your mind to. You simply have to eat dirt sometimes and have the determination to push forward. I’m 32 years old, I’m in no pain, on no medication, in excellent physical and mental condition, have had a job for 10 years, have an apartment, and get through this crazy world with a smile. I could write an 88,000-page book of everything that went wrong. It’s all about staying focused and being determined to rise!”

Interviewed by Jay Max

‘The geneticist who’s been doing this for 40 years had never heard of the condition when she told us that Eli has it.’

Port Washington

“Eli was born in April 2019 and at first everything seemed normal. Shortly thereafter, we just sensed that something didn’t feel right. Doctors said it’s colic or he’ll outgrow this. On July 4th, 2019, I took him to the hospital and said, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but there’s something wrong.’ He stopped eating, he was screaming all day and night…I didn’t know what else to do. One specialist said we should do a brain MRI and the finding was that there was abnormal development in the front of the brain. That led us to do a genetic test and a couple of months later we had the diagnosis of FOXG1 syndrome, a brain disorder that causes an abnormal amount of the FOXG1 protein to be developed.

I remember asking her, ‘Is there any hope that there could be a treatment?’ She basically said, ‘I’m sorry, but there is no hope.’ Through the tears, we knew immediately we were not going to accept that fate.

“In Eli’s case, he only has approximately half of this protein that is really critical for cognition. The disorder is marked by an inability for most patients to walk, talk, feed themselves, to basically do anything independently. Literally everything is impacted. The geneticist who’s been doing this for 40 years had never heard of the condition when she told us that Eli has it. We learned that, at the time, there were less than 700 patients in the world that are known. I remember asking her, ‘Is there any hope that there could be a treatment?’ She basically said, ‘I’m sorry, but there is no hope.’ Through the tears, we knew immediately we were not going to accept that fate.

“So, we started a foundation focused on bringing a therapy to the clinic. We made it our mission to recruit the top scientists to help us come up with ways we could solve this problem. Our preliminary data is showing that this condition may be reversible if we get to the children early enough while the brain is still developing. This is very much a Long Island story for us because so many of our friends and family right here, in the place that we both grew up, have been in the arena with us. We are grateful to have a community of people who have made this cause their own. At the same time, we still have a lot of work to do. The path to the clinic has been very challenging — but we are not going to give up. And since time is of the essence, we don’t have the luxury of walking. We have to run.”