Hope

Hello, my name is Daisy-Mae Wesley. I grew up in a small village called Noatak, Alaska. I am Alaskan Native and my Inupiaq name is Tautuknaitchauq, after *Marylou Sours.

https://www.facebook.com/100001867405868/posts/pfbid0EnR9x6yNWvqFYYj9vfE1FSGSd1e7Pp8dnayuyXT2LRMRjv7f6tKTkbjdDJciqyWHl/?mibextid=MnnKW6

This is a link to a video of my hometown Noatak, Alaska.

There are so many challenges I’ve faced in my life, some I haven’t overcome yet.

One of the hardest challenges i’d say that led me to social work is substance abuse and sexual assault.

I grew up in a village where there is alcohol all around, and it is easy to access. Some of my family members would drink every so often and would go barge into my parents home without permission. My “uncle” was the one who would go to my home and look for me every time he was intoxicated. I grew up sleeping at my grandmas place and he lived there for a while, when everyone was asleep he would go move by me and touch my private parts. It happened for a while and I didn’t tell anyone until one day he got so intoxicated, he went into my parents house while we were all asleep and got fully naked and was in my bedroom. I woke up and went straight to my parents room before he could do anything to me and told my mom. Once she saw him naked in my bedroom, she knew why he was there and questioned me.

No human being should ever go through that. No one should be scared in their own home.

I would always tell myself as I was growing up that I would never make the mistake of being addicted to both alcohol and marijuana but being around it all the time made it hard to resist the temptations.

I was 11 years old when I first tried alcohol, specifically Grey Goose vodka. I remember telling myself after that I would never drink alcohol ever again but once I got into high school my friends would always ask me if I wanted to drink with them and every time I would agree with them.

When my mother was pregnant with me, she would smoke marijuana so I joke around a lot saying “but it’s in my veins, I can’t stay away from it.” I have a very bad addiction to marijuana. I can quit cold turkey for a while but I always start back up again.

My title name is hope because in every challenge I face in my life, I can always have hope.

All this led me to my path in social work by wanting a change in this world, wanting the future generation to realize that there are resources for the things they go through, that there are people in this world that are willing to help.