“When I was in High School my family life was pretty chaotic. My High School English teacher assigned me to write an essay and she submitted it to a contest and I won. She sent me a cactus as a congratulations to my home. But I had just procured a 1986 Ford Mustang and I was living in the car in the parking lot of the Little Caesars where I worked. The cactus plant was returned to her as undeliverable without an explanation. So the teacher asked my step-sister why it looked like I didn’t live there. My step-sister said, “Ask Melea.” The next Friday the teacher, Mrs, Schaeffer who was 28 years old, invited me to dinner at her house. She said, “I don’t know why you are living in a car but at this rate you aren’t going to graduate or go to college.” So she and her husband Eddy invited me to live their basement and in return I had to go to school, apply to college, mow their lawn and wash their sailboat. I lived there for one and half years. After I graduated I attended Rockhurst University.” - Melea Seward is a strategy and communications consultant. #damnrightiatetheapple