Michelle’s Rockin’ Attitude

Every now and then you meet someone who totally takes the perspective you have of your own life and tips it upside down.

I had the pleasure of meeting Michelle Medina through a networking site and after a few chats got to know her incredible life story.

I invited Michelle to be interviewed here and am so pleased she agreed.

With a little bit of rock n roll, Law and Order, a great sense of humor and a whole lot of soul Michelle is testimony that there is no adversity that can’t be kicked on it’s butt.

Please take the time to read Michelle’s incredible story!

Who is Michelle Medina?
I’ve spent 24 years trying to answer that question.

I still don’t have all the pieces to myself, but I’m finding them.

I’m an animal lover, a hard rock/metal connoisseur, a humanitarian by nature, family oriented, addicted to chocolate, a hopeless romantic though I’d rather not admit that, and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit’s number one fan! Dick Wolf if your reading this. . . Wink wink nudge nudge!

Where do you live and why do you love it?
I live in Montrose Michigan. It’s the smallest town on the map and I don’t love Montrose.

What I do love is the snow!!! It’s beautiful! My mother described it as being white and pristine, well it smells pristine!

It smells clean and brings back a million memories with my brother.

Falling through the ice that used to cover our ditches in the winter and jumping off the roof into a pile of snow! *No, my parents weren’t home when he convinced me to do that.

I was 6 at the time and have never looked back. A 140 foot drop at an amusement park or a rollercoaster that goes so fast it can rip your earrings out, no, they don’t scare me. I enjoy them!

Of course, I don’t wear earrings! Lol.

*Flint, approximately a half hour away has the Machine Shop. Now, that’s what I love! In that concert venue, I have seen people come alive!

I’ve met the guys from Nonpoint 12-13 times there! Actually met and hung out with them. They know me by name. Their singer Elias Soriano is a true old-fashioned gentleman and has a stunning voice! One you could drown in!

I’ve seen Seether play there, another band with an amazing Frontman, Shaun Morgan.

A beautiful soul with a gorgeous, heart wrenching voice that packs a punch like no other. Phil Spector had his wall of sound, Shaun Morgan has a Wall of Emotion!
The Machine Shop and the snow are the two things I’ll miss about Michigan when I move to Texas.

Tell me a little bit about the challenges you have faced in life?
I was born with a rare birth defect called a Tessier Cleft.

Only 10-20 people in the entire world have it and they don’t know why it happens so it’s not something that can be fixed at this time.

My face didn’t form properly, think of an open faced baked potato, and that’s what my face looked like when I was born.

I had no eyes, only sockets.

Because my face was open like that I was swallowing and drowning in, my mother’s Amniotic fluid.

They told my parents I might not survive, and if I did I’d most likely be brain-damaged, physically weak and sickly, deaf and so forth.

I’ve had 65 surgeries to date to correct the problem, but I still have a hole in my hard palate.

You lose your modesty in surgery.

People held me down. They looked at me, poked and prodded me.

I felt like just another entertainment piece at a freakshow, an exhibit, a newly created specimen to be violated and talked about, NOT SOMEONE TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED.

People think that blindness means deafness, that disfigurement means you are a mute who can’t think, feel or see anything that goes on around you.

You have no heart, no soul, no depth, no nothing!

I went to public schools and usually lacked the Braille books I needed, even when they had the summer months to prepare!

So much for an Individual Education Plan holding any water!

I was punched, kicked and spit on during elementary and middle school. We sued the school and “won” if you can call it that,but it was a hollow victory.

It wasn’t about the money.

The money couldn’t erase the memory of me standing at the bathroom sink washing spit off my face.

It didn’t give me self-esteem, friends, it didn’t give “ME” back to me.

By the time I hit high school I was ignored.

People would talk about me as if I wasn’t there. I was a nameless,faceless nothing. I didn’t warrant a passing glance let alone a smile or an offer of friendship.

After I graduated in December of 2003 *6 months ahead of my class* I came home and sank into a depression the likes of which I can’t put into words.

Up until then, I had to show my face. I had to go to school. I memorized book passages and worksheets so I could get work done.

I moved on autopilot, a walking robot, a numb nothing.

Now I didn’t have to do that anymore and I didn’t.

I just dropped off the face of the earth.

Six years later, I’m slowly emerging.

Michelle with her Aunt Gloria

I started emerging when I met Elias Soriano for the first time in November 2005. He moved me to tears with his compassion and heartfelt words.

He, Shaun Morgan of Seether and Aaron Lewis of Staind moved me to start writing my autobiography! A super difficult thing to do, but something I can’t wait to give birth to!

What have you learned from adversity?
I have learned that I have two choices. I can be a hard, cold, unfeeling, hateful person.

I can hate the people, the places, the things. Or, I can take the things I’ve gone through and allow them to mold and shape my character.

I can overcome or be overwhelmed, choose life or death, love or hate.

If I choose the latter instead of the former, my life will be nothing.

It will have no meaning and I won’t help anyone.

I won’t help doctors to try and change some of their methods so their patients feel like people, I won’t help parents and teachers see the error of ignoring bullying and pretending it doesn’t exist.

I won’t meet more of my favorite bands, rock and hold babies starved for attention, or adopt tons of animals so they aren’t dying or suffering!

Most importantly, I would lose myself, and I’ve already spent too much time in loss.

I want to be found, acknowledged and loved, and do the same for others!

What is one thing you know now that you wish you knew when you were younger?
I wish I had known what “special” and “miracle” really meant.

People around me said I was “special” or a “miracle baby” and I thought it meant things would be easier for me. Ha! *smile* THAT’S NOT WHAT IT MEANT BY ANY MEANS!!

I now don’t like those words much.

I’m not special or a miracle, I’m human and most of the time, I like to be human.

What song sums you up?
Seether – “Fine Again” It’s a constant struggle to move forward, you fall back but then you get up and go again.

That’s what life is all about …

What makes you laugh the most in the world?
The small things. Being at a concert and hearing Shaun change up the lyrics to one of his classics like “Fake It” or “Fine Again”.

Elias telling me “You rock!! You totally rock!!” when I gave him a bag of Reece Peanut Butter Cups.

He was truly like a kid in a candy store and I loved it!

My Cocker Spaniel Daughter Sadie crawling to me on her belly when I ask he who the baby is.

My Kitty Daughter KittyKitty doing high rise acrobatics on my shoulder or sleeping on my shoulder.
We call her a Paracat! You know, Parot, well she’s a Paracat. I sometimes wonder if she was a bird in a former life.
Watching the American version of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” at midnight and trying desperately not to wake my parents in the next room with my hysteric laughter! The gallows humor of Law & Order: SVU.

What is the rest of your life going to be about?
Since you don’t have room for a book, I’ll sum it up in one sentence.
Saving the world!

Naturally I can’t do it single handedly, but I will work on the issues that are closest to my heart and leave a long lasting legacy behind me.

Keep in touch Michelle, what an amazing story and an excellent rest of your life mission! I  look forward to the book and more meetings with rockers! Thanks for the interview!

Oh and if Dick Wolf leaves a comment here I will totally be blown away haha.