“I was born after 20 weeks, at 2 pounds and 15 ounces. I had atrial septal defect…
READ STORY“I’m the oldest of the kids in the family; I have four little brothers and a little sister, so I was always the one in charge if my parents weren’t around…
WATCH NOW“I never had any idea that I’d end up in the arts or production…
READ STORY“My husband battled with addiction when he was in his 20s, and back midway through the pandemic, right about 2021, he relapsed…
READ STORY“It was the summer going into fourth grade, and I was 8. I didn’t know I was bitten by a tick. I was scratching at something and had a red mark on my thigh, but not a bullseye…
READ STORY“I started riding back in 1978, when I got my first dirt bike. My father was supposed to get me a horse, but he brought me home a dirt bike instead…
READ STORY“I was born with a form of muscular dystrophy known as nemaline rod myopathy. I have had 35-plus surgeries, but I do not allow my physical disability or my medical challenges to define me…
READ STORY“I have always been and fitness into sports. I grew up playing sports. When I was younger, I played lacrosse and basketball, but track is what I went the furthest with…
READ STORY“When 9/11 happened, I was devastated, like everyone was. I found myself running more and more — because I’d always been a runner…
READ STORY“I was born in Graz, Austria. We baked a lot as kids. Baking and food are part of me and gave me the experience of becoming a baker in my second career…
READ STORY“I started performing in the sixth grade in Great Neck, both in school and in an after-school program at my community center called Levels…
READ STORY“My father moved from Ireland when he was 13, my mother from the Dominican Republic when she was 18…
READ STORY“My dad, Dr. Herodotus Damianos, started the winery in Peconic in 1979. He was an internist with a practice in Stony Brook…
READ STORY“I’ll be studying neuroscience in the honors program at Providence College in September while also running on the track team…
READ STORY“In 2014, my neighbor approached me and said, ‘You’re into sports — have you considered sports officiating?’…
READ STORY“I’ve been interested in history since my seventh-grade gym teacher talked about what she had done with the civil rights movement and leaders she had met…
READ STORY“I struggle with developmental and relational trauma from childhood – pretty extreme neglect and abuse…
READ STORY“I was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn. My mom moved us to Long Island for me and my sisters to have a better life…
READ STORY“I was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn. My mom moved us to Long Island for me and my sisters to have a better life…
READ STORY“I was never a good student in foreign languages — art, science and music were my favorite subjects…
READ STORY“I’ve always been an athlete. I played football and lacrosse and later turned to wrestling. I was a 300-pound offensive lineman in college…
READ STORY“Prior to becoming a teacher, I worked as a supervisor at a foster care agency for over 15 years…
READ STORY“When I was young, I went to a school for the gifted. I was struggling, and they couldn’t figure out why when I had a high IQ. I found out I was dyslexic and I have ADHD…
READ STORY“As the youngest of nine siblings — eight girls and one boy — raised in Massapequa Park, family, faith and gratitude were deeply ingrained values in my upbringing…
READ STORY“I was born in Port Jefferson and raised in Patchogue. My parents and grandmothers encouraged my artistic pursuits from a young age…
READ STORY“I was born in Central America and came to the United States in 2001 as a permanent resident…
READ STORY“I’m called the pink-haired music teacher. I’m like Ms. Frizzle from ‘The Magic School Bus,’ except I play music with kids…
READ STORY“Although I was a good athlete in high school, I always disliked running…
READ STORY“I like to think of myself as a musical ‘impresario’ because it’s more vivid than ‘entrepreneur’…
READ STORY“Jewelry has become my life. I love it…
READ STORY“Fire Island plays a humongous part in my life, not just because it’s my favorite place to be on the Earth…
READ STORY“I’ve been painting since childhood, and I never plan to stop…
READ STORY“Throughout my childhood, my family moved frequently across various towns in Suffolk County…
READ STORY“For cosmetic reasons, I got breast implants in 2000 when I was 27. In 2008, I exchanged my saline implants for silicone, believing they were a better option…
READ STORY“Throughout my childhood, my family moved frequently across various towns in Suffolk County. Now, as a new mother…
READ STORY“I was in my mid 40s and a friend said, ‘I’m going for a demonstration flight in a small airplane…
READ STORY“I grew up in Mastic Beach, and went to Tangier [Smith] Elementary [School], where I first brought my chess board to school…
READ STORY“I was born and raised in Thailand. I came to the United States for school. It was so difficult for me as an international student…
READ STORY“Soon after starting my career in the garment industry working in Manhattan and getting married, we looked for a house on Long Island…
READ STORY“Growing up on Long Island, I always enjoyed being close to my family. However, when I started middle school, I encountered severe racism and harsh bullying…
READ STORY“I did not know I wanted to study nursing. I just followed in my mom’s footsteps…
READ STORY“The idea came from a trip to Atlantic City with some friends a little more than 12 years ago…
READ STORY“When I was a kid, I was constantly rearranging my parents living room and my sister’s bedroom…
READ STORY“From when I was little, I wanted to be a chef. I watched Julia Child instead of watching cartoons…
READ STORY“Growing up, I had an interest in marine life, but I didn’t make it a part of my life until well after receiving my PhD in population ecology…
READ STORY“As a new social worker in 1995, I found myself swept up in the turbulence created by the AIDS virus…
READ STORY“In the first grade, I saw ‘Yellow Submarine’ at the Calderone Theater in Hempstead, and that changed everything…
READ STORY“I decided to become a vegan eight years ago due to improve my health after watching documentaries about the meat industry…
READ STORY“I was in construction for a decade. Four hours of my day were spent commuting. Then I met my fiancée, and she asked me what I was doing with my life…
READ STORY“I have always had a camera growing up. My dad had cameras around. We had a lot of photo books, so I feel naturally photography always surrounded me…
READ STORY“Writing was always easier than speaking for me, especially in my early years. I was a late talker…
READ STORY“When I was 16 and my parents told me that they were going to move to Arizona, I decided that I was not going…
READ STORY“Our story isn’t just one of things that have happened to us as in past tense. It’s a story of things still happening to us on a daily basis…
READ STORY“So much of what I do now is because of my late sister. I started making sugar scrub because my own skin was so bad, and I hadn’t found anything I loved…
READ STORY“At 13, my son Ben’s journey took a pivotal turn after watching ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’…
READ STORY“Between social, emotional and academic needs, there’s a lot to juggle at once. Teachers sometimes get overlooked and should be celebrated more…
READ STORY“The natural inspiration to make art started at the beginning of my life; throughout my childhood I wanted to draw and paint…
READ STORY“I am a 14th-generation bayman-slash-offshore commercial fisherman. I have grown up on the East End my entire life…
READ STORY“I was overweight at 245 pounds in 2007, balancing a pint of ice cream on my belly and watching Forrest Gump run across America…
READ STORY“I started in makeup about five to 10 years ago. I was in high school, and I saw a friend of mine who was really fascinated with it…
READ STORY“I have two jobs: By day, I’m a technical assistant for account managers at an insurance broker, and by night, I’m a sports announcer for sporting events…
READ STORY“I was born in Bay Shore, one of three, and was raised by two wonderful parents…
READ STORY“I was a shy child, afraid to be myself and of what others might think of me…
READ STORY“Endometriosis is a terrible disease that affects 1 in 10 women. Most women don’t know they have it…
READ STORY“My dad died at age 37, when I was 3. However, I had a next-door neighbor who took over as my father figure…
READ STORY“I had a hard time in school when I was a kid…
READ STORY“I started my reiki journey eight years ago. I’ve been professionally practicing for seven years…
READ STORY“When my wife, Lyn, and I joined the Peace Corps after graduating from college in January of 1965…
READ STORY“My inspiration is my dad. He successfully migrated from Liberia and obtained a PhD in chemistry from Columbia University…
READ STORY“It’s like sunshine with an ‘M,’ I always used to tell my students. I taught high school English for 58 years…
READ STORY“It’s been about a decade of ups and downs with my fertility. I have a very complicated story…
READ STORY“I always wanted a civil service job. I worked in retail for six years, and I took a bunch of civil service tests…
READ STORY“I went into the Navy when I was 21 years old. My great-grandfather was in the Navy. My father was in the Navy…
READ STORY“I used to bake cakes and cookies with my mom when I was younger just for fun…
READ STORY“Not many people who served in the Army can say they are also a figure skater, a rabbi, a TV and film actor and a professional photographer…
READ STORY“I have had a passion for swimming for as long as I can remember…
READ STORY“There were years and years of absolutely hating myself. I was an alcoholic who was depressed and suffering from severe anxiety attacks on a daily basis…
READ STORY“In 2019, I took my very first lash class because I decided I wanted to have a beauty business…
READ STORY“I am originally from El Salvador. I came to Long Island when I was 10 years old with some part of my family…
WATCH NOW“I was always in love with my bike. I lived on my bike, it was my world…
READ STORY“I was always surrounded by music. My dad taught himself to play guitar and sing…
READ STORY“My work has been grief work for most of my life. I got my master’s in thanatology, working with end-of-life issues…
READ STORY“I started photography as a hobby when I was around 12 or 13 years old, spending almost 100 percent of my time at the beach…
READ STORY“I have always loved horses since I was little. I started horseback riding when I was 6 years old…
READ STORY“Dance is just me. It’s the purest form of self-expression that I will ever get…
READ STORY“I came to this country in 1967 as an immigrant from Macao, China…
READ STORY“I started as a kid. My mom danced, and I was the last child, and my mom always had the hope that one of us would dance…
READ STORY“My father practiced veterinary medicine, and I had animals my whole life…
READ STORY“I first discovered puppets when I was a child growing up in Buffalo, New York…
READ STORY“I guess you can say I have always been an old soul because of my dad, who has always been my inspiration…
READ STORY“Fifteen years ago, my husband and I got a bulldog, Bella, from a backyard breeder, thinking that was the right way to go about it…
READ STORY“I grew up in a village located in Fujian, a coastal province of China renowned for its unique oolong and jasmine teas…
READ STORY“I have no background in dancing, but I’ve always been into fitness. When I was a freshman in college, I went to see a pole dancing showcase and fell in love with this art form…
WATCH NOW“I picked up my first drink at 15…
READ STORY“The events of 9/11 changed my life drastically…
READ STORY“When I was 5, I tripped and fell in the shower. My two front teeth got pushed up into my gums…
READ STORY“In 1970, as a typical college student at Cornell University, I had dreams of a fulfilling life…
READ STORY“Growing up, I experienced a history of child abuse in my family. I knew that I didn’t want to repeat the same cycle and become like my mother…
READ STORY“I moved here in the early ’90s, and I joined an inclusion class. Inclusion classes are when they take kids from special ed and mainstream them with the other kids…
READ STORY“I retired from teaching social studies in 1992 to care for my son, Nicholas, who is profoundly affected by autism…
READ STORY“I call myself a breast cancer previvor, someone who has a genetic predisposition to cancer…
READ STORY“I’m an elementary school teacher and will be retiring in 2025. I started making candles during the pandemic…
READ STORY“I’m proud to call myself a Caribbean-American, with familial roots stretching back to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Jamaica…
READ STORY“In the past five years, I’ve biked over 100,000 miles. Cycling is great for the mind, body and soul and gives you an avenue in which to stay fit while enjoying the outdoors…
READ STORY“When I started college, I was a bio major, but I didn’t enjoy it very much. I struggled a lot, and it made it hard for me to want to be in school because I felt very defeated…
READ STORY“Seventeen years ago, I found a small bald spot at the nape of my neck. Then another one developed right near it and merged into one softball-sized bald spot…
WATCH NOW“My family was into kart racing before I was even born. My older half-brother raced at Riverhead Raceway…
READ STORY“Playing lacrosse has been a passion for me since I was in fourth grade. I was introduced to it by my friend Maddie during show-and-tell…
READ STORY“When I noticed that residents of the AHRC [Association for Habilitation and Residential Care] visiting the Glen Cove Public Library were not engaging in our services, I created a program called Hooked on Books…
READ STORY“My name is Gaetano Giordano, but you can call me Tano. I come from a proud lineage of Italian immigrants, my parents, Cecilia and Francesco…
READ STORY“When I was in college, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I thought the easy path for me to be successful was go to college, study finance and make money on Wall Street…
READ STORY“I’ve been photographing since I was 3 years old. My grandfather was a professional photographer who worked for newspapers in New York City…
READ STORY“I originally grew up in Roslyn. What truly defines me is my unwavering Christian faith…
READ STORY“I have been drawing since I was 10 years old in Haiti. My parents didn’t know much about art, but they never stopped me from doing it…
READ STORY“When I was 17, my mom unexpectedly passed away. It was so jarring. She was 51 years old…
READ STORY“My mom passed away in a car accident when I was 11. I was in the car with her. Cooking kept me busy and kept me positive when I was feeling lost…
READ STORY“My father was a musician and started me on piano when I was 4. I was really intimidated by how good he was, so I started playing guitar to be just as good…
READ STORY“I immigrated to America from Haiti when I was 15 years old. I arrived at the airport with a lot of hopes, visions and uncertainty of not knowing what life would bring…
READ STORY“My husband got a rare form of leukemia and passed away in September of 1983. He was a deputy inspector with the Suffolk County Police Marine Bureau…
READ STORY“I am from Portland, Maine, originally, so I grew up by the water and always had a love for marine animals…
READ STORY“I never dreamed that mountain biking — and protecting and expanding our trails on Long Island — would become my passion…
READ STORY“Out of all the holidays, ever since I was a little girl, I had a passion for Halloween. I’m very good at makeup and hair, and I love to be creative in any way I can…
READ STORY“When I was 14, my dad decided we were moving from Brooklyn to Puerto Rico. His mom had moved a couple years prior to that, and he’s definitely what we call a mama’s boy…
READ STORY“When I told my guidance counselor in high school that I wanted to apply to NYU, she told me not to bother…
READ STORY“Just before the pandemic, I missed my annual mammography. I was taking care of my mom, who had a stroke, and she needed me…
READ STORY“We met freshman year of college through one of my best friends, Sarah. So, she gets all the credit for this because she introduced us to each other…
READ STORY“I grew up in College Point in Queens, which is a small town. But my now husband, who I met in high school, grew up on the Queens side of Floral Park, and it made us fall in love with Nassau…
READ STORY“I grew up with an older brother that skated, and I thought he was the coolest…
READ STORY“I was following a girl on Instagram. Her mother was posting her journey of fighting leukemia…
READ STORY“I was a cameraman before I even knew it. I’d watch movies and be so moved and affected by them…
READ STORY“I was the youngest of three sisters, so I figured I’d be the lucky one. My sister Melisande was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003…
READ STORY“I’ve always loved research. Honestly, with the right attitude, anything can be a puzzle or a thrilling mystery…
READ STORY“In a Greek-Italian family, food is a big focus. I grew up in my family’s restaurant in Port Washington…
READ STORY“I was always in love with music. When I was 6 years old, I started singing lessons. By 13, I was exploring my passion for songwriting…
READ STORY“My third daughter, Althea, saved my life. I was diagnosed with bladder cancer while I was pregnant with her, my last child…
READ STORY“I was born in Calabria, Italy, and my family and I immigrated in 1987. My father was always about the American dream, so he started different businesses…
READ STORY“My dad, Wayne, passed away two months ago. In April 2022, he was diagnosed with ALS [amyotrophic lateral sclerosis], also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease…
READ STORY“I was going through so much in my life from 2014 to 2020, where I was suffering from a very rare illness, Granulomatosis with polyangiitis…
READ STORY“I was actually born and raised in the boroughs, and then I moved to Long Island. I am a first generation American, and my parents were born in Indonesia…
READ STORY“Our son, Noah, was the most amazing baby boy. He was so strong and resilient and lit up a room with his big bright eyes and beautiful shining smile…
READ STORY“I was meant to be a lawyer. I was 3 years old when I came to America. As an immigrant, I can fully relate to the Latino law community’s experience…
READ STORY“I’m a CPA by trade. I was in accounting for five years, and then I transitioned into finance. I was working at my job for very long hours…
READ STORY“When I was 10 years old, I had a terrible case of acne that made me feel incredibly insecure about my skin…
READ STORY“I’ve always thrived in businesses that were entrepreneurial. My love language is innovation…
READ STORY“I’ve always loved helping people. When I was in high school, I was a candy striper, and I really liked it…
READ STORY“Finding out in 1979 that I was mixed-race on my dad’s side has been just an ongoing process of meeting the family and discovering ancestors…
READ STORY“I’m not a renaissance man. I like what I like. I have my interests — musical theater and classic motion pictures…
READ STORY“I grew up in a small town in Sicily. In my family, farming has been a cherished tradition passed down from one generation to the next…
READ STORY“I went to SUNY New Paltz to become an art teacher. Finding art teaching jobs was hard…
READ STORY“That day started like any other. I got to the World Trade Center at about 8:40 a.m. My office at Cantor Fitzgerald was on the 101st floor…
READ STORY“I had the same childhood dream as a lot of kids: You grow up wanting to be the next Major League Baseball superstar or NFL quarterback…
READ STORY“I am known as ‘The Movie Man.’ I earned that name while growing up in Jamaica, Queens…
READ STORY“We really didn’t know my son was deaf until he was 3 years old, when he started talking with deaf speech…
READ STORY“I first realized I enjoyed performing when I was in the third to fourth grade…
READ STORY“Aviation is a fascination that any child might have no matter where they are in the world; just look up in the sky…
READ STORY“I like to say that I specialize in making happy art, and that my work is proven to give an immediate mood-booster, with the goal to brighten up your day…
READ STORY“My mom had a stroke when I was 8 years old, and my brothers and I had to grow up fast…
WATCH NOW“I am a mom of two young kids. My daughter is 7 and my son is 4. I work part time as a nurse anesthetist three days a week…
READ STORY“My second child tried to commit suicide on May 16, 2019. I took her to Southside Hospital. They wanted to know why. She informed them she was being bullied…
READ STORY“I walked away from my union job, and I haven’t looked back since. Everybody knows me as ‘Big Red.’…
READ STORY“During the pandemic, I was introduced to podcasts and fell in love with them because of their on-demand nature…
READ STORY“I have always been involved in my community, especially during my high school days. There were many community events that took place, and it was easy for me to get involved…
READ STORY“I grew up in Port Jefferson. From a young age, I always wanted to be a business owner, but I wasn’t tremendously involved in school…
READ STORY“I moved to Massapequa from Flushing when I was 7 with my mom, dad and two sisters…
READ STORY“My grandparents owned Two Morrow’s Pub, which is an Irish bar in Patchogue. It was a very respected place for many years…
READ STORY“We were coming back from a party in early December 1996, and at the intersection of Glen Cove Road and Northern Boulevard there was a young woman driving eastbound on Northern Boulevard, and her car had stalled out completely…
WATCH NOW“My parents were very charitable people. My mother came from Poland when she was young; my father fled the Nazis from Austria…
READ STORY“My whole purpose and passion is helping young and adult men of color. I raised my son as a single mother…
READ STORY“I got the audition for ‘Rent’ in 1995; I grew up in Woodbury and Syosset playing in bands…
READ STORY“I had shortness of breath, fatigue, and couldn’t walk and talk at the same time. For nine weeks, I continued to get worse…
READ STORY“I started makeup to express myself and try to push myself into a creative space. When I was in college, I started working in a makeup store at the mall and really loved it…
READ STORY“My dad moved to out West when I was 5. My sister and I were raised by a single mother, living in two-bedroom apartments. We lived paycheck to paycheck…
READ STORY“I’d already been playing basketball in Europe for 10 years before the WNBA started, but there were whisperings about something happening in America…
WATCH NOW“My son, Luke, passed away last October just two days shy of his third birthday…
READ STORY“I met my husband later in life. I’m a serial monogamist. I was really into my career, and having a family didn’t cross my mind. When I was ready to start a family, it was a struggle for me…
WATCH NOW“When I was an undergraduate biology major, I met a chiropractor, a doctor who believes that the body can cure itself if you release its own healing ability…
READ STORY“My parents instilled a love for animals in me at a young age. We always had pets growing up, and they taught me to respect all living things…
READ STORY“I was overweight as a child, and I got teased a lot. I was also a huge fan of professional wrestling, and I wanted to be a wrestler…
READ STORY“My grandparents are from Ukraine, and they emigrated to Poland during World War II. I was born in Poland…
READ STORY“I was in a bad motorcycle accident and almost lost my right leg on July 31, 2021…
READ STORY“There were moments of sheer terror. I started off as a police officer in the Bronx in 1988, got promoted to detective and wound up doing undercover…
READ STORY“We came to this country in 1994 with nothing in our pockets. My first job barely made the end goals. My brother-in-law was in the gas station business…
READ STORY“Car shows, meetups — I’ve been going since I was a baby. I was born in East New York, then moved to South Ozone Park when I was 9; I’m 69 now…
READ STORY“My family emigrated from Greece in 1982 and brought the love of animals and earth with them…
WATCH NOW“When I was playing halfback for the New York Jets in the early 1970s, I had never heard of CTE [chronic traumatic encephalopathy]…
READ STORY“I went for a weekend away with my friends to Rochester to stay at a friend’s house and have a home-cooked meal. I went to Buffalo State…
READ STORY“I was born in Amityville but raised from a young age in Brentwood in a hardworking blue-collar family. My mom is from Emporia, Virginia, which is very Southern…
READ STORY“I was born in India and studied botany. I was engaged to my husband who was living in New York. In 1987, I followed him here so we could get married…
READ STORY“I’m an Asian Muslim woman, a proud mom of six kids. My oldest just graduated from medical school and got engaged. My parents are from Pakistan…
READ STORY“I remember after seeing Wicked’s ‘Defying Gravity,’ on Broadway … I had this feeling of ‘I want to do this. I want to be onstage.’…
READ STORY“I moved here from Italy about seven years ago. My mother was born in Brooklyn, but my grandfather moved back to Sicily when she was at a very young age…
READ STORY“Back in 2009, when the country was in an economic recession, I was let go from my job. I was with that company for 10 years. A few months later, my father died of cancer…
READ STORY“When I was young, about 11, I went to Italy for the summer with my uncle…
READ STORY“From a very young age, I struggled pretty badly with a learning disability…
READ STORY“I wasn’t feeling good last summer, and I kept putting it off. So I finally decided to make a physical appointment…
READ STORY“I was born in Huntington and lived most of my life there. I’m fortunate enough to work as a citizen advocate in the town where I grew up…
READ STORY“My mother was the one who instilled the importance of education in my sister, Diana, and me…
READ STORY“When I learned at 37 that I had Parkinson’s disease, I was devastated. As a podiatrist and foot surgeon, I knew my medical career was going to end, and I was worried about my health…
READ STORY“Cup stacking is where you stack specially designed cups in certain sequences as fast as you can…
READ STORY“I’ve really been playing sports all my life. I started taking sports very seriously probably in high school, when it started to get competitive…
READ STORY“I worked in a pharmacy for all my life, most recently as a manager, but once I was diagnosed with three cancers in the same year during 2019, I started to wonder if there was something out there that would be more fulfilling…
READ STORY“I was born and raised in Miller Place. It was not easy growing up there. Everybody always made fun of me just for being different…
READ STORY“The original intent of my company was just bridal flower preservation…
READ STORY“I got interested in farming several years ago when I was in Vermont on the property of a couple who grew their own food and kept animals like sheep, cows and chickens…
READ STORY“My mom was diagnosed with inoperable cancer in 1994. I went to a psychic, and as I walked in the door, he brought up my mother…
READ STORY“I was always good with numbers and I loved formulas. I like how precise math is; there is no interpretation or gray area…
READ STORY“I was born with albinism, and my parents encouraged me to not let my limited vision stop me from trying new things…
READ STORY“I was a mess during the pandemic and was so ashamed that I tried to keep my emotions bottled up, which was unhealthy…
READ STORY“I majored in theater at NYU, and after graduating started a nonprofit theater company with my then-husband…
READ STORY“In 2013, I moved home to Long Island from Orlando. I had just gone through a tough breakup, so I was looking for something new to distract me…
READ STORY“After over two decades of leadership and management roles for corporate companies and then getting married and having my two girls…
READ STORY“I thought about helping first responders and veterans years ago. It’s been a dream of mine forever. I come from a family of military and first responders…
READ STORY“I was 15 when I came to this country from South Korea. In 1975, there were very few Asian people in Newburgh, New York, and I didn’t know American culture…
READ STORY“I was always shy, so I think musical theater was my way of expressing myself. I began when I was 5 with a little group of kids who did theater in a barn house…
READ STORY“I am a 15-year-old sophomore at Brentwood High School. I am in two organizations: Leaders of the Future and District 1 Youth Advisory Board…
READ STORY“My grandparents have been season-ticket holders since 1973. My parents are fans. My brother and I grew up going to games at Nassau Coliseum…
READ STORY“The first four years of Daniela’s life were full of memory-making and milestones, just like those of any other child…
READ STORY“I’ve been interested in octopuses since I was a kid, but now as an adult, I not only have them, I rescue them…
WATCH NOW“I always wanted a rabbit when I was a child, but my parents didn’t want the responsibility…
READ STORY“I’m an actor, singer and tap dancer. My big break was when I was 7 and shot the film ‘Prisoners’ with Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal…
READ STORY“When I was 11 years old, I got hit by a car and died on the spot…
READ STORY“Last year, I lost a lifelong friend unexpectedly and went through an immense amount of grief…
READ STORY“I’m the youngest of eight. My biological parents were not able to provide properly for us. That’s not a condemnation, just the reality of the situation…
WATCH NOW“Growing up in Liverpool, England, it was always football first for me – soccer here…
READ STORY“I’ve taught in higher education since 2003 and seen the transformative power of education. I also know the life-changing effect it had on me as a student…
READ STORY“I got into esports, or competitive, organized video gaming, about four years ago…
READ STORY“I’ve been making art since I was a child and discovered natural clay at Garvies Point…
READ STORY“I have always been a pet person. For the longest time, I was into big dogs only…
READ STORY“I’m the youngest of eight. My biological parents were not able to provide properly for us. That’s not a condemnation, just the reality of the situation…
WATCH NOW“I would write plays and movies in elementary school…
READ STORY“It’s funny how I got interested in gardening. My mother had a garden in the back of the house, but as a kid I was more interested in sports…
READ STORY“I would get onstage, and my voice would be quivering. I couldn’t breathe; my heart was pounding out of my chest…
READ STORY“I think I was always destined to end up in Hollywood. My childhood dream was to become an actress and/or comedian…
READ STORY“I was born in the Republic of Georgia and shuffled between orphanages until I was 4 and was adopted with my sister by our new family in Baltimore…
READ STORY“I’ve always been interested in history. When I was a teenager, I found myself really attracted to cemeteries…
READ STORY“I always loved the idea of the fading art on clothing, like the paint cracking after 20 years of it being washed…
READ STORY“Growing up, we had our challenges in a very impoverished area in Riverhead…
READ STORY“In January last year, I was pushing 300 pounds. My 2022 New Year’s resolution was to lose weight…
READ STORY“When I first started losing my vision, I had been a professor of English literature at LIU Post for over 50 years…
READ STORY“I’ve been dancing since I was 5. I grew up in the Bronx and went to the Paula Payson School of Dance…
READ STORY“When I was a kid, I didn’t really know I was adopted, but I felt like I was. It was a gut feeling…
READ STORY“I absolutely loved theater in high school, but I was never an actress. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t pretty enough to be an actress…
READ STORY“I was born in the Dominican Republic and came to America with my parents when I was 13 years old…
READ STORY“Our daughter Leah was diagnosed with scoliosis in 2004…
READ STORY“I grew up in Manhattan but spent most of my childhood summers in Montauk with my parents…
READ STORY“I was born and raised in Sweden and had never seen poverty there…
READ STORY“Growing up, I found it very difficult to relate to other children. I suffered from extreme separation anxiety…
READ STORY“I was working in higher education in career counseling when in 2010, I had a longing to return to the nonprofit community…
READ STORY“I-tri comes from my own experience. Even though I loved to swim and ride my bike as a kid, I never thought of those as athletic endeavors…
READ STORY“My journey with transplantation began when I was 13 years old. I made the first girls lacrosse team in Hicksville, and I was a competitive baton twirler, but I started to have these really severe stomach pains…
READ STORY“I grew up in Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood when it was mostly Italian, Irish and Jewish. I was usually the only Black child in school…
READ STORY“My oldest brother, Marc, was 41. He was a surfer. He’d surf all the time, through the winter and the storms…
READ STORY“I go by many titles – I am a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister and a friend. I have had multiple sclerosis for 22 years…
READ STORY“A lot of times when we do paranormal house investigations, you have a family who’s really scared, and they have nobody to turn to…
READ STORY“I moved back to Long Island in 1986 with my kids after my divorce, when my son Scott was 4 and my daughter was 6…
READ STORY“Eileen’s Free Bodega started from a friend’s suggestion. I was volunteering in the South Bronx at a community fridge where people could get fresh food any time they needed…
READ STORY“An unlucky injury led me to a lucky thing: finding yoga. I got into yoga 12 years ago. I was playing lacrosse for Adelphi and I hurt myself after one of my practices…
READ STORY“I’m a licensed massage therapist and was treating a client who just had twins via Cesarean who was having back pain…
READ STORY“As a found-object artist, I like to work with things that have a history to them. I like the hunt. I’m always looking for interesting things…
READ STORY“I was born in Guatemala, and I was there until I was 9. I moved to the U.S. in 2001. There was a bunch more opportunities for us here in the U.S., so that’s why we migrated…
READ STORY“I dedicate my life to kindness and compassion; I met my husband, John, through mutual friends when we were teenagers and we stayed friends throughout our twenties…
READ STORY“I always wanted to help the populations who most needed it in this world…
READ STORY“I started cooking around age 5, fooling around in the kitchen where my parents lived in Queens…
READ STORY“I’ve loved cooking since I was 8. I would mix weird food combinations…
READ STORY“I suffer with social anxiety, but I think art helps that. I have three murals on the Long Beach boardwalk…
READ STORY“When I was about 7 or 8 years old, my best friend died. He and I were students at Ludlum Elementary School, which is now Barack Obama Elementary School, in Hempstead…
READ STORY“Always in search of exotic places and strange faces, I’ve had the good fortune to wander across six continents, from burning deserts to icy glacial mountains to the glories of the American West…
READ STORY“I was 15 when I came to this country from South Korea. In 1975, there were very few Asian people in Newburgh, New York, and I didn’t know American culture…
WATCH NOW“I always wanted to work in hockey some way. I was never a good player. I’m not a general manager kind of person. I just couldn’t get a job working in hockey. This was the next best thing…
READ STORY“I always loved the lighthouse. I loved fishing underneath it as a kid, surfcasting there, fishing in front of it with my dad, working on boats underneath it back when the Coast Guard ran it…
WATCH NOW“I was born and raised in the Village of Southampton. My parents came here in the late ’40s from North Carolina and Virginia as part of the great migration of Black people from the South who came here to work on the potato farms…
READ STORY“When I was 7, my mom took me to see ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’ I had to get dressed up with a jacket and bowtie…
READ STORY“I watched Nickelodeon a lot when I was younger, but I never imagined that I would be on the channel, and everything happened by chance!…
READ STORY“The first time I remember not liking how I looked was when I was 7. I tried to eat healthier and join sports. In middle school, the self-hatred became overwhelming…
READ STORY“When I was a sophomore in high school, for a few weeks, I had been feeling not myself, in some pain and not sure what was going on…
READ STORY“I’ve had 11 surgeries on my left hip and I’m 47 years old. Initially, it started with a hip replacement gone bad on the left side…
READ STORY“Every year for Christmas, my mom got me the new Easy-Bake Oven. I never followed the directions on the little packets. Instead, I’d create my own cakes…
READ STORY“We met in our senior capstone class in college in 2019. I sat across from her on the first day. She thought I was annoying. I thought she was rude…
READ STORY“I found my life’s passion. I was in finance for many years, but it didn’t satisfy me. I always had an interest in psychiatry, so I took a job with The Jewish Association For Services For the Aged in Long Beach…
READ STORY“I have always loved movies and dreamed of making them. I finally got inspired to actually make that dream a reality during COVID…
READ STORY“I struggle with learning disabilities still to this day. When I was younger, I was diagnosed with low tone and low muscle, which basically means I didn’t develop quickly…
READ STORY“Ever since I was 7 years old, I’ve been writing poetry…
READ STORY“After I graduated high school, I went right to work on the back of a garbage truck in Brooklyn…
READ STORY“I didn’t really pursue filmmaking until I was in a car accident and subsequently beat cancer…
READ STORY“I feel like it’s an honor to carry on the Fortunoff name. My grandparents worked hard to create their family business 100 years ago, and my parents spent their lives expanding it…
READ STORY“As an artist, I was working in my studio one day. My dog, Dagger, came over and nudged me with his snout. I jokingly said to him, ‘Would you like to paint like Mommy?’…
WATCH NOW“I was born on the island of Grenada and came here when I was 16 or 17 years old, wanting to make a better life…
READ STORY“One of the biggest questions people have about metal detecting is, ‘What is everything worth?’ I tell people, if you do it to make money, you probably couldn’t afford the battery in your metal detector…
WATCH NOW“During COVID, we opened our farm stand, and all vegetables were free. We did it in order to help support our neighbors who may have lost work during that time period…
READ STORY“I started drinking when I was 12 years old and was even thrown out of sleepaway camp for getting drunk…
READ STORY“There’s a lot of history in my life. It’s like 50 years of martial arts, so a tremendous amount of growth and change over the years…
READ STORY“It took overcoming depression and being an introvert to put my stuff out there. For a long time, my work was only found in my sketchbooks…
READ STORY“I grew up in a home that was very scary and unstable, but one positive outlet for me was the theater…
READ STORY“I never thought of being a fitness instructor. I was always an athlete growing up. I was going to school to be a teacher and then changed my major and ended up graduating with a communications degree…
READ STORY“When Macy’s was recruiting for volunteers at my college to help out at its Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2007, I signed up immediately…
READ STORY“I am a locomotive engineer who runs freight trains from Brooklyn to Suffolk. I initially got interested in railroads because of my grandfather, who lived in Huntington…
READ STORY“I always knew I wanted to be a nurse from very early on…
READ STORY“The first year we did Stage the Change, a one-day conference that encourages theatre students to get involved in global issues, I dedicated it to my mother who was a Holocaust survivor…
READ STORY“I am a cancer survivor, a suicide-loss survivor and a Parkinson’s disease warrior. Steve and I met in 1981. We were partners for 33 years before he took his own life…
READ STORY“I have been an inventor for over 20 years and I hold 13 issued patents…
READ STORY“I am an artist who shouldn’t be alive. In 2013, I survived a car crash on the Southern State Parkway where my car was hit, went airborne, spun and landed on the grass median…
READ STORY“I’ve played basketball all my life, I played college basketball. I’m an assistant coach for boys varsity basketball and head JV coach at Half Hollow Hills High School East…
READ STORY“I survived a brain aneurysm in 2008; I’m blessed every day I get out of bed…
READ STORY“Nobody believes it when they learn I will be 101 in November…
READ STORY“I was always an artist. In high school, my art teacher would get frustrated with me for always doing my own thing in class. I even failed one semester. Now one of my paintings hangs in the main office…
READ STORY“I became an Islanders fan day one. My dad was a huge Islanders fan. Two or three days after I was born, he went to a game and caught a puck…
READ STORY“I have always stuttered, even as a small child. I was teased in grade school. They would imitate me and make fun of the way I spoke…
READ STORY“I grew up as the only girl in a house with two older brothers and an older cousin…
READ STORY“As a child, I had a lot of allergies and asthma. I didn’t know what going to the chiropractor really did, but I knew if I went, I was able to play outside…
READ STORY“When I was 3, my father and I found a turtle with a missing leg in a park near my grandmother’s house…
READ STORY“I worked as a photographer for local Huntington papers. I became fascinated with the history of the town and started to write my own column on the subject…
READ STORY“This started because we used to decorate and dress up for Halloween at a campground for a competition. One woman said, ‘You’re not going to win.’ I went up there and I didn’t win, and I was so annoyed…
READ STORY“I started playing the djembe, an African drum, when I was 2 years old. My mom took me into a drum store in New York City, and it was the first instrument that I saw…
READ STORY“I went to the doctor more than a decade ago because I noticed a little raised bump on my head. I wondered if I should be concerned about it because my grandmother had skin cancer…
READ STORY“I have always found my footing in the arts, and I love the idea of merging the arts across all categories…
READ STORY“I started doing yoga when I was married with two small children. My sister-in-law inspired me to take classes at the Huntington YMCA…
READ STORY“It started when I was 3, 4 years old. I used to go around my house interviewing my family, just asking random questions…
READ STORY“It was a regular night. I went to sleep, woke up, and when I was doing my morning activities, I noticed that my eyes were dry, and I couldn’t really move my face…
READ STORY“I was hiking in Hither Hills in Montauk in 2011 … That day, I was bit on my arm by a brown recluse spider, and later I became partially paralyzed from the chest down…
READ STORY“My dad calls me in from the living room and says, ‘You need to see this.’ He points to the TV screen of a singer who just got the Golden Buzzer and says, ‘See this kid? You’re gonna marry this kid’…
READ STORY“My son, Steven, is 12 years old and is a swimmer. This is his fourth year on a nationally ranked swim team. Last year, when everyone returned to school, he developed very severe allergies…
READ STORY“From the age of 7, I knew that I wanted to play piano for the rest of my life. I pursued it in college, thinking that I wanted to be a pianist and a music teacher…
READ STORY“It’s a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air two-door. It was called the Tri-Five era. Cars from those three years — ’55, ’56, ’57— are still very fashionable…
READ STORY“I always think about my experience growing up being Shinnecock and how important storytelling is and knowing the truth of what happened here…
READ STORY“I’ve always been more comfortable in the water than anywhere else. It was something I was always interested in. We just didn’t know how to go about it because I have cerebral palsy…
READ STORY“I started working as a librarian in 2004. I was inspired by my best friend, Mary Robinson, who has worked in libraries since we were teenagers…
READ STORY“Growing up, I always wanted to write stories. Initially, I thought I would write the next Great American Novel, but then I realized that I was more drawn to comics…
READ STORY“I am the second child and first daughter of Igbo Nigerian immigrants. Nigerian parents and culture really value education…
READ STORY“I’m a person with autism who loves to do theater. I do so many shows, it’s really entertaining for me…
READ STORY“I live in Hauppauge but grew up in Commack after moving there in 1957 at age 5, when it was nothing but cabbage farms…
READ STORY“I began as a dishwasher and busboy making money so I could go out with friends. I kept at it and moved up the ranks…
READ STORY“Deep down, I had always wanted to be involved with the arts – particularly arts education – because my education in the arts was so integral in shaping me into the person I am today…
READ STORY“When we started at West Hempstead High School, the first time we went into the school they were having auditions for the seventh-grade dance…
READ STORY“I grew up in East Meadow, and I consider where I grew up as my spot in the world…
READ STORY“This started when I was young. I was about 10 years old. This is 1941, the beginning of World War II…
READ STORY“I had hydrocephalus, which causes fluid in the brain. I was surgery-free for 13 years until 2010, when I had a shunt revision where they found out my shunts were detached from my head…
READ STORY“I was always a baseball fan growing up. I got it from my dad, who took me to Yankees games since ’95…
READ STORY“Being diagnosed has never stopped me from wanting to dance. It pushed me to continue with something that I love…
READ STORY“I journeyed to Sedona, Arizona, to find myself. I decided to visit there after I visited a yoga studio that had these amazing sparkling red rocks on their walls that called to me…
READ STORY“I am a product of the ’60s, a true hippie! I met my husband hitchhiking. We traveled cross-country for three months, and we got married two years later…
READ STORY“I’ve always loved dogs. I grew up in Smithtown; we had an acre of property, really kind of in the sticks right by the Nissequogue River…
READ STORY“I’ve been a Roman Catholic nun for 54 years with the Sisters of Charity Halifax. I worked in Peru for 10 years with women and youth…
READ STORY“When I was 4 years old, I got really sick on Christmas Day and had to be rushed to the hospital. I stayed there overnight, and when I woke up in the morning, I received a big bag of toys at the end of my bed from the Child Life Program at Good Samaritan Hospital…
READ STORY“I was devastated when I lost my grandfather in the sixth grade. I didn’t handle his death well. Now that I teach sixth grade, I realize that it’s confusing if no one is talking to you about the process…
READ STORY“As a Jewish South African, the first black person I ever met was our maid, Miriam Lusenga. When I was 2 years old, my mother died, and when I was 9, my stepmother passed away, too…
READ STORY“Throughout my life, I had tiny psychic experiences. I would see different figures in my house and things like that. My mom shared with me that when she was younger, she had experiences, too…
WATCH NOW“Six years ago, I lost my son James to a drug overdose. He was 19 years old. We found out that he was going to be a father; now I have a granddaughter…
READ STORY“The way my life has evolved, as I get older, the more I realize what we do is not truly about us…
READ STORY“I began dressing up as Abraham Lincoln for my middle school students on the Friday before Presidents’ Day weekend…
READ STORY“I’m originally from the South Bronx, but moved to Bellmore in 1972, and I’ve been living here 50 years now. I’m turning 91 in September…
READ STORY“A mental medium is what most people are familiar with when you mention mediumship, speaking with the dead…
READ STORY“I am an artist and often have more creative ideas than I have the ability to carry out, particularly now in my post-stroke body, which is healing slowly…
READ STORY“I joined the band in March of 2019. Before joining, I hadn’t played the keyboard in years because life got in the way…
READ STORY“A couple of years ago, a friend of mine asked me if I’d be interested in jamming in an all-female Bon Jovi tribute band, Radio Active…
READ STORY“After 58 years of marriage, the last 10 of which were consumed by the relentless attack by Parkinson’s disease on my husband, it struck its final blow…
READ STORY“I chose a career in early childhood education and had the joy of working with the youngest of children as both a teacher and administrator…
READ STORY“My channel opened up 15 years ago as a spiritual medium. I started meditating and started taking classes and revealing my faulty thoughts…
READ STORY“I got the bug for it when I was 5 or 6 years old; I would be singing around town, and I got a lot of attention for it…
READ STORY“If there’s something I need, I’ll try to make it. The satisfaction I get in making things is magnified whenever I share it with somebody else…
READ STORY“A lot of wake-up calls happened during COVID. In no way was it a good time for anybody…
READ STORY“After the shooting in Parkland [Florida] in 2018, I went to my first meeting for the L.I. chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America…
READ STORY“When I graduated from high school, I gave up a soccer scholarship to attend dance classes back home on Long Island with my first mentor, Deidre McCarthy…
READ STORY“I was 17 and shoveling the driveway; my hands got so cold that my parents said it must be frostbite. My fingers got so swollen that I had to get my class ring made bigger…
READ STORY“I had gotten divorced, celebrated my 50th birthday, and was faced with the question, ‘What do I now?’…
READ STORY“I was born in 1929 in New York City. I was one of the first incubator babies. My father, Constantine, was in World War I. He was a doughboy and was mustard-gassed…
READ STORY“I had always been musical as a kid growing up in Roslyn Heights. My parents, who were not musicians, lived next to a successful composer named George Kleinsinger…
READ STORY“My son, Anthony, turns 20 in July and is totally blind due to a disorder called osteopetrosis. I thought I was having a perfect pregnancy, and he wasn’t diagnosed immediately after birth…
READ STORY“Being a chef and a stand-up comedian are similar because both food and jokes make people happy, and if you don’t deliver, the people will let you know it…
READ STORY“I come from a first generation of immigrants, from Barbados and El Salvador, and grew up without a father…
READ STORY“As a kid, I would always compete against my brother, because he was older than I was. If he could go bowling, then I had to bowl…
READ STORY“So my father was actually a photographer, but it was something he did on the side…
READ STORY“I had just retired, and I was looking for something that I was passionate about that involved the environment and wildlife conservation…
READ STORY“When I was graduating from Holy Trinity High School, I was trying to think practically, so I thought I wanted to be a computer engineer…
READ STORY“My mother and father were always for me being a firefighter, even though other people told me you have to be some kind of crazy to go into a burning building when everybody else is running out…
WATCH NOW“My mother, Ruth Nasca, passed away after a short illness in 2018 at 89. A prolific artist, she made art almost every day for over 70 years…
READ STORY“Five years ago, I went through a routine mammogram and sonogram appointment. The mammogram was normal, but the sonogram detected a tumor…
READ STORY“In sixth grade, for my yearbook, they asked, ‘What do you want to be when you’re older?’ and I said I wanted to be a chef…
READ STORY“My dad would take me dumpster diving in the mid- to late-’70s. He had a body shop, and we would pull old car wrecks out of the side of a hill and scrap ’em…
READ STORY“I started Love, Nana about a year and a half ago in my house…
READ STORY“My wife Kathy and I were getting ready to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary in September 2014. That Labor Day, I got a cold and my wife caught it from me, but she got a cough. She went to the doctor; they did chest x-rays and saw something there…
WATCH NOW“It started with watching early pop cartoons and Disney when I was a kid. I loved the way they looked, so I started doodling…
READ STORY“After retiring from teaching in Corona, I became a poppy for my grandchildren…
READ STORY“I was teaching for 10 years at different schools, trying to find that niche, that place for me…
READ STORY“I grew up in this [school] district, and what drew me here to work was luck, faith and blessings…
READ STORY“I went to Hofstra for college to play football. My dad was doing things in the community, and he became friends with the mayor of Hempstead, who was looking for someone to run a youth program…
READ STORY“I was born in the U.S., but most of my family came here from Ecuador. When I was a teen, on weekends my uncle would take me to wait with undocumented immigrants in Farmingville looking for work…
READ STORY“I started shooting 35 mm film when I was in 10th grade. I was on varsity cheerleading, and I dealt with a sexual assault…
READ STORY“I’ve been interested in history pretty much all my life. I was a docent during the bicentennial at the Old House and Schoolhouse…
READ STORY“I found I needed to fill some of that extra time I had after I finished my stint as mayor of Sea Cliff. I became a tour guide…
READ STORY“They thought I had meningitis. They gave me last rites, told my family I was going to die, but I didn’t. A few months later, I went to see a neurologist, and he told me I was having seizures…
READ STORY“I grew up in Glen Head, was an honors student in high school, sang in the chorus, studied ballet, performed in the plays. Ordinary, really…
READ STORY“My whole life, my family’s been in and out of hospitals: my grandma, aunt, grandpa, great grandpa and great grandma all had medical issues…
READ STORY“My dad was a teacher in El Salvador. It was during the civil war in the 1980s, when teachers were often a target for their ideas, that he emigrated to the U.S., and my mother joined him…
READ STORY“When I was a girl, my dad owned a jewelry- and watch-repair shop in Brentwood…
READ STORY“In 1989, my wife, Angie, was pregnant with our second child, and, unfortunately, at birth there was a major accident…
READ STORY“I was always curious about my dad’s service in World War II. My late father, Paul Clare, suffered from PTSD, having nightmares and often screaming his friend Jay’s name…
READ STORY“I love learning about the government and the way our country works. I was taking a law class when I was in the ninth grade…
READ STORY“This is really my sister’s story, but I’m telling it; it’s like a donor’s narrative. She has a super rare autoimmune disease called IgA nephropathy…
READ STORY“We got inspiration from Instagram to start this particular business…
READ STORY“I was born with cerebral palsy. When I was very little, I had to be confined to a wheelchair because it was very difficult to walk…
READ STORY“I always enjoyed films when I was young and was the kind of person who would stay up to watch the late show and the late, late show…
READ STORY“We rescued him six years ago. We named him Buddy after the movie ‘Elf,’ and then once he started playing piano, we added Mercury…
READ STORY“Ten years ago, I had an idea for a story. I’m an attorney by trade, but I said to my wife, ‘I think I’m going to write a short film…’
READ STORY“I always wanted to be an artist, but I just didn’t know how I would make a living of it. I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 11, so my mother always told me to make sure I have a job that has benefits…
READ STORY“I’m a father of six, but we did lose one. We’re angel parents. My oldest daughter, Kelly, was murdered in 1976 on Fourth of July weekend in Astoria, Queens…
READ STORY“Growing up, I was horrible at baseball at first, really awful. I still loved to play. It was a bonding experience with my dad…
READ STORY“Maggie didn’t want to be known as the girl with cancer. It’s odd she got struck by this. We wonder how and why all the time. She was 16 when she was diagnosed…
WATCH NOW“My life of loss began the day our young mom left due to childhood wounds of her own, and though her choice deeply impacted us, I have come to understand how losing her own mom at a young age traumatized her…
READ STORY“I’m doing music because I couldn’t live without it. I grew up in Germany until I was 14. My parents were missionaries after WWII. My mother was a singer, and my father was a saw player. I was surrounded by a love of music…
READ STORY“When I was a kid in Oceanside, I had an inordinate amount of energy, and I wanted to be an actor. I never deviated from this goal…
READ STORY“I always struggled in school. I had trouble focusing and was always acting out, getting in trouble…
READ STORYIf you look at my high school yearbook, it’s always things like, ‘Have fun in New York!’ And then I got pregnant six months later…
READ STORY“When I was growing up in Massapequa, I didn’t really find Long Island that interesting. I didn’t think there was much history here; everything seemed to be developed…
READ STORY“I was always interested in airplanes as a little kid. Growing up, I saw movies like ‘Iron Eagle’ and ‘Top Gun,’ that’s what did it…
WATCH NOW“I first became aware of Network Support Services Inc. when I was in Otisville State Correctional Facility serving a 25-year sentence for an offense I didn’t commit…
READ STORY“I suffered from a brain trauma in 2009, when my daughter was 6 months old. It turned my whole world upside down…
READ STORY“My mom died in a car accident heading to my stepsister’s rehearsal dinner. Then my father got hit by a car walking across the street and died on impact. My stepfather, who I look at as my own dad, got into a car accident as well and lost his leg…
READ STORY“In 2004, I had completely debilitating exhaustion and blaring headaches where I would see spots. I was diagnosed with lesions on my brain…
WATCH NOW“I am an EEG technician. EEG, or electroencephalography, is used when someone has seizures. We attach leads to their head to assess them. It falls under the umbrella of neurodiagnostic technology…
READ STORY“As a kid I always did well in science, and I asked my grandma for books about animals…
READ STORY“My father’s first car was a 1956 Buick Special, and for his 25th wedding anniversary, my mother got him an old beat up ’56 Buick Special that we found…
READ STORY“It started when I became ordained as a minister in a church. I was working with young people, and I noticed a lot of them had things that were going on…
READ STORY“My husband passed away in 2016 tragically and unexpectedly. I’ve had to raise four kids on my own, and it’s been difficult…
READ STORY“My name is Desiree. I’m 9 years old and I had an idea: Instead of throwing out our seeds, we could save them and grow them in our local farms…
READ STORY“You have 45 good years; I call that youth. Then you have an option, depending on your genes, of going downhill or, depending upon your decisions, going uphill…
WATCH NOW“Before COVID, I was running an entertainment event planning company and photography business while also working for an airline. It all stopped in March 2020…
READ STORY“Peter and I knew each other growing up playing tennis tournaments in our teenage years. We committed at the same time to play at Williams College, where we’re seniors…
READ STORY“I was born with a rare chromosome disorder called chromosome 18q deletion. It occurs when the long arm (q) of chromosome 18 is missing…
READ STORY“I was in eighth grade when I had my first panic attack. After school, my mom drove me to the doctor, where they put a tube down my throat, diagnosed anxiety-induced asthma, and gave me an inhaler…
READ STORY“My mom was an immigrant from Guyana, working two jobs while my grandmother raised me. Horses were not an option for someone living on Section 8 housing in Brooklyn…
READ STORY“I’ve played baseball all my life, and many people helped me along the way, but my high school coach was probably the biggest help…
WATCH NOW“I always liked stand-up [comedy] when I was younger but never had the guts to do it myself. In 1977, I saw an ad for a comedy club in Massapequa, and it was open to anybody who wanted to try…
READ STORY“I’m 29 years old and have a learning disability. I also have anxiety (PTSD) from being bullied very badly in school as a kid…
READ STORY“Last summer was my 62nd year as a lifeguard. I’m probably the longest working lifeguard in the U.S. that still has to pass the competitive test…
READ STORY“I started my own digital marketing agency in Oceanside back in 2013. Social media, web design, SEO were all very new things to me at the time…
READ STORY“I was born in Ireland in a lovely little county in a village on a plateau called Roscommon…
READ STORY“I’ve been a makeup artist for almost 20 years. I didn’t think I was going to end up in the makeup industry, but I fell in love with it…
READ STORY“I was trying to teach my son how to ride his bicycle around the time COVID happened. He was a very active kid, and I was very much overweight…
READ STORY“As a social worker, I’m trained to help other people. But as a person living with an extremely rare form of eye cancer, I’ve also found myself reaching out for help…
READ STORY“When I was like 16-17, there was a guy who used to sleep under a bridge in a park near my house in Freeport. He was the first homeless person I ever met…
READ STORY“When we were younger, we would always bake together. She would stay over my house and wake up in the middle of the night and ask to bake…
READ STORY“I went to school at Temple University, where I studied advertising, specifically copywriting, which is basically writing headlines on billboards and scripts for TV commercials…
READ STORY“I’ve been on a stage since I was 3 years old. I was never the most talented person in the room, but I was always the one who worked the hardest…
READ STORY“The first club I ever went to was on Long Island. I met a couple of friends who were promoters that started to rent out nightclubs…
READ STORY“I was a very angry teenager. I was a magnet for fights and being in the wrong environments and choosing the wrong things…
READ STORY“I wasn’t anticipating being part of a school district after I graduated. I had no interest in being a teacher, but it kind of fell in my lap because I have a passion for sports…
READ STORY“I was a shy kid. I didn’t have a stellar self-esteem or body image, but when I was onstage dancing, I felt strong and confident…
READ STORY“I’m an entertainer at Gossip. But I am not a stripper. What people don’t understand is I am actually an exotic aerialist…
READ STORY“Climbing is way harder than people think. These big, strong, muscle guys show up and can barely climb to the top. It can take years of practice and training…
READ STORY“My grandfather and parents were immigrants, I’m first generation. They opened a pizzeria in Amityville in 1969. I’ve been in the pizzeria business all my life…
WATCH NOW“One night in 1974, I went with a friend to a youth singles group. We had a good time. Weeks went by. Suddenly, I got a call from some man asking for Marilyn…
READ STORY“We got Brody as a puppy. When he was about 2 years old, I decided that I wanted to volunteer. My kids had gone off to college. I loved dogs, and I was obsessed with Brody, so I decided to do pet therapy…
READ STORY“There weren’t many options on the Island for girls to play hockey when I got into it at age 12…
READ STORY“I always knew I wanted to be a father. And the two things I’m really good at in life are being a father and being a football coach…
READ STORY“I’ve been cutting hair for 20 years. I started when I was in 11th grade just to make some of the kids want to hang out with me more…
WATCH NOW“My husband was in the NYPD during 9/11 and spent three months after it down on the pile digging. He was a healthy guy that worked out seven days a week. He retired in 2009, and by 2013, all the health issues started…
READ STORY“I went to St. John the Baptist High School and went to college on a soccer scholarship at the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut. I went on to play professional soccer for a couple of years…
READ STORY“Having a child with Down syndrome changed my life. I think that sometimes we find it hard to know what our purpose is, you know? And I’ve given that thought…
READ STORY“My entire family were big animal lovers, and my mom always set an amazing example. She was a volunteer for so many not-for-profits, and we gave back any chance we could…
READ STORY“I was born in Peru. My grandparents were farmworkers who migrated to the capital of Peru, to Lima, and once there, the only jobs they could find were cleaning and working in houses and as babysitters, just like immigrants here…
READ STORY“I was a shy, introverted child. When I was 6, my grandfather brought me to a magic store and bought me a magic trick…
READ STORY“We were coming home from a rock concert and were about a mile from our house when we got hit head on by a young woman. She was doing about 60. We were…
WATCH NOW“I founded ERASE Racism in 2001 after being hired by the Long Island Community Foundation to develop a project to address racism rather than its symptoms…
READ STORY“I come from a family of artists. It was always in my blood. I won ‘most artistic’ in school and all that, but my real passion was music…
READ STORY“As a Central American immigrant who became the president of Pronto of Long Island community outreach center in Bay Shore, I have seen the pursuit of the American dream from both sides…
READ STORY“It was a constant struggle growing up in a religious home, wanting to be an entertainer despite my parents wishing I’d become a leader in the ministry…
WATCH NOW“When I graduated from Farmingdale High School, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. I started getting into making Vines, which were these 6-second videos, and I had a couple of friends who would tell funny stories on Snapchat…
READ STORY“I had a crazy health scare during my sophomore year of college. I was a healthy student and soccer player. I was walking to class and had a headache like I’ve never had before…
READ STORY“I was in the Air Force during Korea. I served for four years as a medic…
READ STORY“She went to camp one morning in the summer of 2019, and I got the dreaded call that she was really sick. She had a headache, something was wrong with her leg, and they had already called 911…
READ STORY“I was diagnosed with autism at the age of 4. My mom was working as a nurse at Brunswick Hospital, and my dad was about 20 years into the moving business, when my mom found out there was something wrong with me…
READ STORY“I’m originally from Port Antonio, a small town in Jamaica. At age 6, I started getting sick all the time. The doctors gave me a penicillin shot but didn’t test to see if I was allergic. It turned out I was…
READ STORY“My family has lived on Jamaica Ave. in Plainview for 30 years. We have been decorating our house for Christmas for a long time, and we keep adding more to it…
READ STORY“I originally lived in Merrick, but when my parents got divorced, my mom and I moved to Las Vegas after junior high. I got in with the wrong crowd, dropped out of school in ninth grade and got hooked on methamphetamine…
READ STORY“I grew up in Central Islip, and I was always into art. Down the block from my house were an abandoned power plant and a psychiatric center. It was covered in graffiti, and I found a can on the floor, and I used it to write my name on the wall…
READ STORY“Seven years ago, I was asked if I knew of Ward Hooper, because there were similarities between his paintings and my photographs. I didn’t, so I checked him out on social media…
READ STORY“My mom always reminds me, from the moment I could start picking out my outfits, I never let her dress me. It’s been my choice with how I want to express myself…
READ STORY“I have nine children and my husband had a good full-time job as a computer systems administrator for the IRS…
READ STORY“My significant other passed away unexpectedly in October 2019, and my goal was to find a stable home for my 16-year-old son and my 5-year-old daughter. We stayed with my sister…
WATCH NOW“I grew up in a tenement in Manhattan’s San Juan Hill neighborhood, demolished in the ’50s to build Lincoln Center…
READ STORY“One of the misconceptions about people who are transgender is that it’s a lifestyle choice. I laugh inside. A lifestyle choice is I’m going to move to…
WATCH NOW“My mom owns women’s clothing boutiques in Smithtown and Commack. Her primary mission is to make every woman feel valued and great about themselves…
READ STORY“In 2013, I was asked to rescue Long Island’s annual Puerto Rican Day Parade when the organization that had been running it had no money to cover the expenses…
READ STORY“I always try to have a positive energy. Growing up, my two sisters passed away, and I never knew how to handle it…
READ STORY“I delivered my stillborn, beautiful baby girl, my first daughter, Diana Hope, on June 13, 2017, at 8:10 p.m.…
READ STORY“As an understudy, it’s very hard to step into roles where people expect to see someone else…
READ STORY“Even when I was a kid, I wanted to make sure people around me were happy…
READ STORY“I started boxing when I was 15 or 16. My dad got me into it. When I was growing up, I had pictures of myself at 4 or 5 years old with gloves on, but I didn’t know how to box…
READ STORY“I’m a Brooklyn transplant and I came to Long Island three years ago. My parents were in two different facilities here: Dad was right down the block in a nursing home in Long Beach and my mom was in an assisted living home in Far Rockaway…
READ STORY“I started playing guitar early, about 10 or 11 years old. My father had a music store: Al Marino Music Center in Williston Park…
READ STORY“I am a strong believer in educating and advocating about pediatric cancer, especially brain tumors, because it might save another child’s life…
READ STORY“I have been an athlete my entire life. Basketball was my main sport. My dad was my coach and I was probably 6 or 7 when I started. He treated us equally, he didn’t come down too hard on me…
READ STORY“My parents moved from Haiti around the mid-80s. My dad always said that the first few months, it was just such a culture shock…
READ STORY“It was quite a shock when I delivered. I knew right away something was different. We were unaware that Thomas would be born with Down syndrome. It was scary hearing that your first child is special needs…
READ STORY“I think that a lot of kids today struggle with coming out. It was really hard for me. I wasn’t really into sports, and I didn’t relate to many boys in my grade; I always knew…
READ STORY“I’m known as the Bra Lady. Through word of mouth, people come to see me from many miles away because I’m the Bra Lady…
READ STORY“My dad is passed now, but he would challenge us and say, ‘Work harder, but never forget you need to help someone else.’ He was a Navy frogman and a decorated New York City fireman…
READ STORY“One day, I was at the reference desk of the East Islip Public Library where I work. I got a call from a young man asking about the comic con at the Cradle of Aviation Museum…
READ STORY“I grew up on the Shinnecock reservation and went to Southampton High School. Since the reservation was basically in the middle of Southampton, we had a community in and outside of school…
READ STORY“I’m a junior at Marist College in Upstate New York. While I have been here, I’ve seen a lot of people struggling, especially during COVID-19…
READ STORY“Since I was a little kid, I loved coloring books and drawing superheroes. I didn’t take art classes until I was at Walt Whitman High School. I would get into a lot of fights because I moved to Huntington from Queens at 10, and the places…
WATCH NOW“Our daughter was born on Nov. 8, 2019 — the best day of our lives. Everything was storybook perfect for the first five weeks. December 15, that’s when every parent’s…
WATCH NOW“I was told I was singing in the stroller, so music has always been part of my life. My dad was a FDNY lieutenant, but also sang professionally…
READ STORY“My husband and I met on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, in Israel, which is an important place for Christians because it’s where Jesus lived most of his life…
READ STORY“When my first child, Jason, was around 10 months old, we noticed he wasn’t hitting developmental milestones…
READ STORY“Our daughter was born on Nov. 8, 2019 — the best day of our lives. Everything was storybook perfect for the first five weeks. December 15, that’s when every parent’s…
READ STORY“I have been beatboxing since elementary school, when I was doing it for fun and didn’t even know that’s what it’s called…<
READ STORY“On the morning I lost my 20-year-old daughter, Laura Lee Snyder, to suicide by train, Oct. 27, 2010, everyone in the house woke up at 4:50…
READ STORY“As an independent filmmaker for 42 years, my career has had crazy highs and lows…
READ STORY“In 1991, I was 34, married with two children, ages 9 and 6, when on a routine checkup with my primary care doctor, she found a lump in my breast…
READ STORY“I think it was where I grew up that made me ready for what happened. I was born in the Dominican Republic, where we had a house in the country…
READ STORY“I have been involved in lacrosse for years and I’m being recruited to teach fundamentals in Kenya…
READ STORY“I’ve always had a head for music. No matter what genre. I was raised by it. It was always a part of me…
READ STORY“In the summer of 2018, I get an email from a parent at the school where I work. It’s six in the morning and he tells me, ‘I don’t know who else to call. Hindi just died.’…
READ STORY“My family life was very chaotic. I never knew what school I’d end up in, or who I’d be living with. There was violence. I never knew when I’d be moving again…
READ STORY“I grew up in Deer Park. It came down to wanting to fit in. I thought that stuff was cool. All the cool kids cut class, all the cool kids smoked weed and that’s what I wanted to be like…
READ STORY“I am a singer, actor, teacher and life enthusiast. I’ve used the pandemic as an opportunity to sharpen my ax and get back into the audition world…
READ STORY“I always say I am my happiest when I am surrounded by my family and friends eating great food. My mom is from Italy and my dad is from Lebanon…
READ STORY“I was always a fish. You can ask my parents. They could never get me out of the water, even as a little kid I just always loved being in the ocean…
READ STORY“I’m a lot of things: Psychic medium, ordained minister, certified personal trainer/sports and nutritionist…
READ STORY“I think the comedic world where I’m from is very simple and it needs to be reinvented. So, I feel like it’s my obligation to the future of this community on Long Island to give them something to be proud of…
READ STORY“My high school guidance counselor told my mother there was no point in applying to good colleges because I wouldn’t get in and if I did, I’d drop out within a year…
READ STORY“I thought perhaps my story could help someone out there who’s grieving. I lost my brother to suicide 10 years ago. One of my brother’s legacies is definitely his uniqueness. He was so fun and just an amazing person…
READ STORY“I grew up with an abusive alcoholic father. I always felt like I didn’t belong in my family. I hit my teenage years without having a real father figure and that got me involved with a lot of wrong people…
READ STORY“I’ve been an artist for over 20 years. My first influence was my kindergarten teacher. She was so enthused about art…
READ STORY“My grandmother, Ann Asparro, was living with Alzheimer’s for about four years. She was at Parker Jewish Nursing home and, every Sunday, I would go and have breakfast with her…
READ STORY“I came to the U.S. in the early 2000s because in Ecuador there was an economic collapse, and the country declared a state of crisis. There was no money circulating and no opportunity to get ahead…
READ STORY“I always enjoyed pushing myself physically. In 1966, there was a transit strike in New York City. I was living in the Bronx. It was a cold winter. I biked from the Bronx down to City College for my master’s degree throughout the entire strike…
READ STORY“I had a kidney biopsy in January 2012, and they said at some point I would need a kidney transplant or dialysis…
READ STORY“I’m originally from a tiny town called Quaker Street in upstate New York — it had one stop light, a general store, Quaker meeting house, a tavern and my grandfather’s diner. My parents owned the store in town, and we lived in an apartment over the store…
READ STORY“I was an actress for many years before I became a nurse, but I always had this push to go into medicine…
READ STORY“I’m a Long Island guy. I don’t claim to be from anywhere else. I graduated from Baldwin and from a kid, ‘Subway Art’ and ‘Aerosol Art’ and all those books, when those came out, I literally just looked at them all day long and studied them…
READ STORY“I began my career after college in rehab counseling for New York City, a challenging situation with a 100-person caseload…
READ STORY“I grew up on the island and I had a normal childhood. I graduated with honors from Albany’s business school in 2012. Everything was great and then I wound up having an injury in the gym…
READ STORY“I was 16 when we suddenly had to call 911 for my mother. She had been ill for a while, but one day in our Sayville home, she just passed out on the floor…
READ STORY“My husband, Steven, and I went to Oceanside High School together. He was dating a friend of mine. I knew of him, and he knew of me. We went to school in the ’90s. It was not usual for Italians, Irish or other Caucasians to date Spanish, much less Indian people…
READ STORY“On the morning of September 11th, I worked on the 87th floor of One World Trade, north tower, at the May Davis Group, a retail investment banking firm…
READ STORY“I saw a video in 2014 about people helping to welcome babies with Down syndrome. I was shocked. The video says, ‘Welcome to the family. Welcome to the world.’ That’s when I realized that most parents of newborns with Down syndrome only hear, ‘I’m sorry.’…
READ STORY“Tattooing kind of saved me from a pretty dark time in my life. My mom was diagnosed with cancer and passed away 10 years ago as I was starting to get into it…
READ STORY“My mom had two young kids when she was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, which is typically found in children. Because of this, she was treated on the pediatric floor at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; her roommates and everyone on the floor were kids…
READ STORY“I was born and raised in Puerto Rico and came here when I was 19 to study at Stony Brook University. I studied in the Department of Linguistics, and I was always interested in the science of language, how it sounds, I liked the research. I worked…
READ STORY“I am a performer extraordinaire with 35 years in show business. It started when I was 5 and I became a competitive swimmer. I swam in three junior Olympics.’ My focus switched to gymnastics at the age of 7 when I discovered that I could throw my body…
READ STORY“I was the first African-American woman in the U.S. to earn a Ph.D. in the field of radiochemistry. I didn’t set out to be the first, I didn’t know until after I defended my thesis. I wanted to be a medical doctor when I was growing up, a trauma…
READ STORY“I have a charming, charismatic, understanding special needs son. He has a rare genetic disorder called Koolen-de Vries syndrome and it went diagnosed for 19 years. He has developmental delays and learning disabilities. He’s 28 now and Dr. Gail…
READ STORY“It was her first birthday party when I gave my daughter a piece of cake for the first time. Within minutes she had hives from her eyelids to her toes. The doctor tested her for egg allergies and he said, ‘Egg allergies rarely travel alone.’ It took…
READ STORY“Growing up gay in the ’90s wasn’t always the most welcoming situation. It helped galvanize me to be a voice and make a difference in many different causes. I work in communications, and I’ve been lucky enough to support organizations…
READ STORY“”My mother had to get an emergency C-section after realizing I wasn’t moving in the womb. It turned out my umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck. I only had about a half-hour to survive, so the C-section was done immediately, less than…
READ STORY“I moved to Long Island 30 years ago and got actively involved in the Sikh Gurudwara in Plainview. Diversity awareness and outreach are always a great challenge for immigrant communities, irrespective of their ethnic and religious background…
READ STORY“For most people around here, on Long Island and Massapequa in general, we spend our summers at the beach. It’s a way for us to be there all day, every day. I started lifeguarding when I was 16 at Bethpage Pool. The pool is a lot calmer…
READ STORY“I grew up with a fraternal twin brother who is skinny. People were always comparing us. From day one he was smaller, and then he was taller and blonde, so we looked nothing alike. He never struggled with being picked on for being fat; I was…
READ STORY“I loved being known as the piano man. Music created a home for me where I felt noticed when I didn’t at home. I’d take every opportunity I could to play piano for my middle school’s chorus. The school musical took up most of my…
READ STORY“Mollie, our daughter, was 20 years old and a sophomore in college when she discovered a mole high on her thigh. She called us from school because she was alarmed. It was bleeding through her pants and, not having a background in…
READ STORY“I left “Corporate America” in 2008 and moved back to Greenport, the village where I grew up. It called me back, as I missed the small town feel but knew I wouldn’t miss the hour-and-a-half commute I was making from Brooklyn to Manhattan…
READ STORY“Like every other teenager, I was on my phone a lot during quarantine and my mom threatened to throw it out the window if I didn’t get off of it. I was on the social media site TikTok and I scrolled to the next video and I saw somebody…
READ STORY“As a science teacher and research scientist in Brentwood Union Free School District, I’ve dedicated 20 years of my career to getting more people of color involved in the sciences, to be the voice of change and the ones moving the legislation…
READ STORY“I’m an Armenian American, and a lot of my work in the arts has been connected to the Armenian genocide and recognition of it in the U.S. My grandfather was a child survivor and became a famous cubist impressionist painter in Cairo, Egypt, where…
READ STORY“I’ve always loved to perform. I’ve played piano, sung, acted and danced. I’m not sure why it started, but in the ninth-grade I started having bad anxiety attacks. I didn’t know that’s what they were at first. I thought I was going crazy…
READ STORY“As a kid, one of my favorite movies was “Pirates of the Caribbean.” I knew every line, I would dress up as the characters, and I’d act out the movie. However, it was in dance class that my family realized I was born to be on stage……
READ STORY“In 1967, I applied to the Peace Corps and was assigned to teach English in Ethiopia. I didn’t go, but I sometimes wondered what I missed out on. When I retired in 2003 at 57 as an elementary school principal, I was accepted to a program called……
READ STORY“I was a child actor in local theater, and what I loved most about it was being in rooms of like-minded weirdoes who felt like they didn’t fit in. Everyone was able to come together and enjoy telling stories. I certainly felt “othered”……
READ STORY“When I was growing up, being open and yourself was not always accepted. My childhood in Babylon Village was a process of self-discovery, and I didn’t even know what being queer looked like. I knew I was different but didn’t understand……
READ STORY“I’m a mom from Long Island. I have three kids and they’re all pretty much a year apart. Paige was always my wild one. She was my number three and I let her do what she did. I let her beat to her own drum. She wore whatever she wanted……
READ STORY“The fire happened on the morning of March 29. I had been feeding cats in the backyard and some had kittens. I let some in the house. I was able to get a mother cat and three kittens out because they were close to the door. A police officer saved…
READ STORY“We got Kody in the summer of 2013. I refer to him as my firstborn. He’s my fur baby. This was the first dog that I had as an adult living on my own with my husband, and my husband never had a dog growing up. We worked together good…
READ STORY“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…
READ STORY“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…
READ STORY“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…
READ STORY“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…
READ STORY“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…
READ STORY“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…
READ STORY“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…
READ STORY“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…
READ STORY“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…
READ STORY“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…
READ STORY“I never planned on becoming a teacher let alone teach watercolors. For my entire professional life, I had my own marketing and advertising agency. I had longed to be creative so I designed my own line of greeting…
READ STORY“I’ve been a funeral director for more than 35 years. The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the most challenging times ever for funeral directors. It felt like a combination of September 11th and the AIDS crisis; this was…
READ STORY“I have always been singing, but it was in 8th-grade that I got the lead role in a play and I thought, ‘Oh, this is interesting.’ That same year I competed in my middle school’s ‘Berner Idol’ and I won…
READ STORY“In November 2019, I found out I was pregnant. But my new OBGYN in Commack said I wasn’t pregnant. He said I have a “molar pregnancy,” which is a noncancerous tumor in the uterus that comes after a nonviable…
READ STORY“I love being a geriatrician. For me, geriatric medicine is not just the care of older adults and vulnerable people; it’s the care of families as a whole. We help people navigate through complex health systems…
READ STORY“Singing is such a part of human existence. There is no culture on earth that does not sing. We have this drive to make music with our voices. I think in young people it’s especially pronounced…
READ STORY“I was not a particularly sociable young man. Theater and being able to play piano was a way for me to not ‘literally’ communicate with people, but to still communicate with people. I felt really uncomfortable…
READ STORY“Rockettes wasn’t something I ever thought about doing. At the time, they were trying to diversify more. They were having workshops geared toward minorities. I went to these workshops where you…
READ STORY“My mother dabbled in art, so I was interested as a kid, but I never took an art class. I didn’t start drawing until I was in college and I did one charcoal drawing when I had spare…
READ STORY“I teach the Comsewogue High School choir, direct plays and musicals at the school and I’m the girls’ varsity cross country coach. The mindset required to become skilled at a sport or in music are…
READ STORY“I was always struck how people with substance issues were misunderstood, stigmatized or viewed as a caricature by the community at large and by medical providers. As I started to…
READ STORY“I always wanted to be a teacher since I was little. I’m one of six children and we had one TV, so we had no choice but to make up games and we always played school. I got my teaching degree…
READ STORY“Growing up, there wasn’t a lot of empathy towards children. There was a lack of love. I became very depressed. I didn’t feel heard or valued. I would go to school and keep my head down…
READ STORY“I grew up in India and I had a knack for biological sciences, I completed my master’s in Zoology, and I was ready to venture ahead. My dream was to come to America and do research…
READ STORY“I have an auditory processing disorder. It was a challenge socially and academically and also because I couldn’t hear in my right ear, I’m deaf in that ear. It was very hard…
READ STORY“Our wedding was amazing, but as we planned it, we would meet photographers and DJs who’d ask, ‘Is that legal in New York? You do that there?’ We had conflict with family who were…
READ STORY“During infancy, my parents — having noticed my not responding to noise — consulted doctors until they could find one that agreed with their suspicions. It was recommended…
READ STORY“My husband, Raghu, and I were friends for many years before getting married. We met at a church in Queens. I would call him for good chai recipes because he was known…
READ STORY“I suddenly found myself trying to figure out how to teach. When I was 16, I gave drum lessons to third graders over the summer to prepare them for the fourth-grade band. I would teach my…
READ STORY“I’m a third-generation preacher. I follow in the footsteps of my father and grandfather. I did church planting and parish work for years, but in 2010, I felt I needed to get back into chaplaincy…
READ STORY“I’m an artist and I have been designing one-of-a-kind jewelry since 2003. I transitioned to full-time almost six years ago after leaving the corporate world. I sell my work by…
READ STORY“I got into magic because I was terrible at sports as a kid. I remember playing with cards and coins and reading books about the history of magic. I was one of those kids who didn’t want…
READ STORY“I’m a substance abuse counselor. I’ve been doing this for 12 years. I’ve been clean from drugs and alcohol for over 13 years. The first time I remember using alcohol was just past my…
READ STORY“I came from a family of educators, specifically teachers, principals and administrators. Because of that influence, the importance of education was instilled within me…
READ STORY“When I was a kid, I drew a lot in my spare time and my Mom took me to a community arts center in Sayville. It was a great place, and I had this teacher…
READ STORY“I went on my first diet when I was 10. I weighed 110 pounds and I was ‘supposed to’ weigh 90. The doctor made it sound like a dire situation. I’ve been told throughout…
READ STORY“My uncle tells a story about me being 3 years old and not leaving until he put on The Beatles. If he skipped a song, I would know it. I remember…
READ STORY“I never had a focus in high school or college. There was never something I wanted to do. I knew I needed money and wanted some sort of stability for myself before…
READ STORY“At 14, I got into the restaurant business. I started as a dishwasher, moved my way to a busboy, and eventually became a waiter. I fell in love with the industry…
READ STORY“I was diagnosed with meningitis at 3 weeks old, and from that I developed hydrocephalus, which is a build-up of spinal fluid in your brain. Everything…
READ STORY“Special Olympics is the only place Zach can go and see people with Down syndrome. I’ve never seen such a competitive streak in him since he started playing. As…
READ STORY“I am a retired New York City Police Department Sergeant and currently a Police Science/EMT instructor. I started with the NYPD in the 79 in Bedford-Stuyvesant…
READ STORY“I had a miscarriage at two months. It was traumatic. The first thing people say to you is, ‘It’s so common.’ Despite that, almost nobody talks about it. The whole…
READ STORY“I’m a college baseball coach and my season was canceled due to COVID-19. People can sulk or use this opportunity to help others. I decided I can’t just sit home…
READ STORY“Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) is a genetic condition which affects the collagen in your body. My joints are loose, and things pop out easily because…
READ STORY“I decided to get my master’s in education because I had reverse motivation. When I was growing up, I had a teacher who wasn’t good, and I always thought I could be a…
READ STORY“At 26 years old I was in college, I was working full time, had mutual funds and I was saving to buy my own home. My mother died. She taught me…
READ STORY“I finished my sophomore year, and nothing had panned out in terms of internships. Other people were completing internships and I felt like I was wasting my time. I had been…
READ STORY“At the age of 3, Ryan was diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorder. At the time, I didn’t realize that PDD was autism. When my son was 4, I wasn’t sure what his abilities…
READ STORY“I remember the moment I first laid eyes on her. I was in my final clinical rotation for occupational therapy school at Cerebral Palsy of Nassau County. She was walking across…
READ STORY“I was working at a vaccine clinic upstate when a woman brought Tucker in and mentioned that he was going to wind up in the shelter that night. She said that she found him 2 miles…
READ STORY“The Year of Living Dangerously is a movie that is on my top 50 list. However, I would call 2020 the year of hitting a brick wall. I have lived in a nursing and…
READ STORY“I’m very proud to be Shinnecock. My mom studied American history at Dartmouth and my mom is involved in my education. She would review all of my curricula…
READ STORY“When I got to college, things changed. It was a period of self-discovery…
READ STORY“My husband and I grew up modestly and we didn’t have anything handed to us. We felt like our son Andrew had to learn the value of a dollar. We told him…
READ STORY“My son was born with Cavernous Transformation of the Portal Vein (CTPV). Oxygen wasn’t getting to Gary’s liver, so a part of it died. Because of this his spleen is enlarged…
READ STORY“I have mast cell disease, a rare hematological/immunological disease. I had a stem cell transplant in July 2015, using my stem cells. It wipes out…
READ STORY“After college, I was first a pharmaceutical rep. We learned about the human brain and narcissism. I was married at that time, with two young…
READ STORY“Joe and I met in our first-grade classroom, room 108 at Albany Avenue School in Farmingdale School District. I remember telling him I had a…
READ STORY“I was incarcerated at 19 due to a family member’s mental health crisis, a serious family violence tragedy. Before that, I was this college student…
READ STORY“l left ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ on Broadway having no idea what was ahead of us with the pandemic. At the beginning of it all, I did this thing with…
READ STORY“I started doing wildlife photography. I thought it would help with my anxiety and other developmental disabilities. I was a very shy, timid person. I always had a passion…
READ STORY“Larry was born with a congenital condition of his right arm. He woke up with a lump in his armpit. It was really bothering him. We were worried…
READ STORY“I didn’t start out as a drug addict. I was a scholarship athlete and I went to culinary school. Then I had an accident in 1994 and had numerous…
READ STORY“People assume someone’s college choice is a reflection of their intelligence and their abilities; I know it’s more than that. My top college choices were out of my family’s…
READ STORY“I learned early on what racism was because I was bullied for being Chinese in elementary school. It was very difficult, because I would tell…
READ STORY“I instantly connected with the ‘Harry Potter’ series because I loved the fantasy aspect of it. When I was 9, I picked up the first book and couldn’t…
READ STORY“I’m a member of the medical staff at Rikers Island, and in my spare time, I trap cats there for TNR – trap, neuter, return. I have worked there for…
READ STORY“I am a very specific type. Because of who I am and what I look like, there’s not much out there. The last theater gig I got was the Off-Broadway…
READ STORY“When I was born, I was a big baby. Like 9 pounds. And the doctors at that time, they used forceps. The doctor, instead of pulling my neck, he pulled…
READ STORY“My daughter Cadence is 15 and suffers from a rare condition, FoxG1 syndrome, a neurological disorder that makes her non-verbal and…
READ STORY“I had it myself in March and after seven days in, I was asking, ‘Why am I not getting better?’ I kept coughing. I felt so short of breath…
READ STORY“My mom and I always joke that it was from the womb. She danced until she was eight months pregnant with me. From what they’ve told me, I always had…
READ STORY“My friend’s father had a video camera, and through playing with it I taught myself filmmaking. If it wasn’t for him, I would never have known…
READ STORY“When I was growing up, I always had dogs. I lived in various parts of London and I would take my dogs to the park and run them off leash. There was no…
READ STORY“My mom was 16 when she had me and I grew up in poor sections of Glen Cove. My mom has limited education. She was also addicted to drugs…
READ STORY“The food is Salvadorian staples, pupusas, eggs, plantains. Everything is homemade. My parents came here in 1977 or 1978, they were from…
READ STORY“I was really excited about 2020. I had cool jobs lined up, like performing in ‘Legally Blonde’ as Paulette, but they were completely decimated…
READ STORY“My parents would do the snowbird thing where they’d be here most of the year and then in winter, they’d have the warmth of India. My kids…
READ STORY“We found out I was pregnant in March of 2017. Everything was going pretty good. There were no indications anything was wrong. When…
READ STORY“My parents divorced when I was young; it was a messy situation for both of them. I decided to play sports to keep me active and mentally focused…
READ STORY“I noticed at a young age that I was a visual learner. I was really bad at school, wasn’t gifted in that way, but I would turn projects…
READ STORY“At 12 years old, I taught myself how to play piano. I always loved music. In the ninth grade, I played keyboard and sang in my first band, Blitzkrieg. At around 19…
READ STORY“I like to say that cooking is the love language of our family. My parents, especially my dad, loves cooking. He has the ability to know through…
READ STORY“I grew up in suburban Chicago as a disabled, queer person, who was an actor. I understood that I was disabled because I had to deal with surgeries…
READ STORY“I was in business school at NYU and decided to graduate a semester early. I had a ton of loans so starting work was the practical, realistic choice…
READ STORY“I’ve always had an eye for radio and television. I didn’t know what I wanted to do in school, and I was a little intimidated growing up…
READ STORY“Eventually, you let the universe choose for you and I think that’s why I became a teacher and, later, an EMT as well. More than 25 years ago…
READ STORY“When I came to the U.S. from India in 2011, I had my own image of what it would be like. I had no idea! I was 21 and I came with my entire family…
READ STORY“My mom is an immigrant from Colombia and my dad is an American, so I grew up in both cultures. But I didn’t always have a connection to culture. Being bicultural, I want to…
READ STORY“My ex and I had a dachshund and we inadvertently created a monster out of her. She constantly had to be near me. We thought it was adorable, but we created a lot of separation anxiety…
READ STORY“I grew up in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn until I was 18 and my parents moved us to Long Island, which was a little bit of a shock to the system. Every summer, I used to go to YMCA…
READ STORY“I was home when I got the phone call. My doctor said it was good news and bad news. I knew the bad news, but the doctor said the good news is we got it at an early…
READ STORY“My great grandparents had a bakery in Costa Rica and I grew up with my mother baking cakes as a little girl. I started my baking business at 30 when I was living in…
READ STORY“Bear is turning 6 and he was born with spinal muscular atrophy. When we found out Erin was pregnant, we were having twin boys, but one of the pregnancies didn’t continue and…
READ STORY“We met through mutual friends from AA. At that point, I was a little shy of 8 years sober. We wound up getting our own…
READ STORY“For 30 years, it seems that any time I have ever done anything within the theater I have been the one to be asked to dress in drag. Seven years ago…
READ STORY“My dad got sick out of nowhere. He started losing a ton of weight. He started to get weak. I found out he had stage 4 lung cancer. Three weeks later…
READ STORY“Our experience using a known donor has been very positive because he’s an amazing person and he’s made the whole process very stressless. There did come a lot of unexpected things…
READ STORY“I started a boutique at the beginning of the pandemic when I had more time. My daughter Zoe is a kindergartner and she’s super creative…
READ STORY“About two-and-a-half years ago, my brother passed away very unexpectedly at age 34. I’m 34 now and next month I will surpass him…
READ STORY“For my 16th birthday, my parents bought me my first camera. So, I started taking a lot of pictures. And I loved music. I was seeing…
READ STORY“I have hearing loss, which I knew about since I was 6 years old. I was wearing hearing aids and knew about the batteries and my older…
READ STORY“They found out in second grade that I couldn’t see well. They gave me a special kind of desk that was on a slant so I would…
READ STORY“I grew up in Trinidad and my grandma was this strong woman who would put you in your place in two seconds. We’d go hunting…
READ STORY“I lost most of my family to cancer. I lost my brother to brain cancer and my father to CJD, the human form of mad cow…
READ STORY“I went to the circus and said, ‘Can I be a clown?’ They said, ‘You can be an usher.’ And that’s how I started, at the very bottom. But I had…
READ STORY“I was 20 weeks pregnant and went to my regular OBGYN and they told me the baby’s not cooperating, you have to go somewhere with better…
READ STORY“We came to the United States in 2001, when I was 9 years old. We migrated from Argentina, like many immigrants, following that American dream…
READ STORY“I had a tire shop in Glen Cove and I was looking to do something else. I was getting bored. I was at my friend’s house and his wife came outside with…
READ STORY“I found out when he was nine months old and my mother was watching him. I was working and she called me up and said, ‘I think you better…
READ STORY“We went to the Garden of Eve Chickapalooza and that’s how we got our first chickens. You pay $10 for the class and got a free…
READ STORY“I call it my ‘hijab story.’ I am a visibly Muslim American woman because I wear the hijab, which is a scarf that I wear on my head as part…
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