Meet the Writers: Say hello to Terri Mitchell!

I was born in Georgia and raised in south Florida. I grew up in paradise; I am reminded every time we travel home that I was raised in a vacation destination and had no idea. I moved to Corpus Christi with my husband and son 12 years ago so my husband could pursue a career in federal law enforcement. I have been here for all these years and I still struggle to identify anything that I really love about Corpus Christi that feels sufficient. I like the ease of flying in and out of this airport and the fact that even if there is traffic nothing is more than 20 minutes away. For the most part, I tolerate living here. The wonderful village that we have is the one thing I can say that I truly love about Corpus. I have met some people that I will love forever; people that I know I can depend on. There are times when I enjoy the slower pace and the ease of flying out of this tiny airport. I get homesick often. When I go home, I am reminded that home is not always geography; home really is where my husband and son are.

I have been married to my husband for 16 years. My husband is one of the funniest people I have ever met. He’s annoyingly calm and he absolutely adores me (the feeling is mutual). He is the strong and very silent type so people often wonder what we have in common. We have lots in common but the most important thing is that he chooses me and I choose him- every single day. I had always known that I wanted to experience motherhood but I never thought about how many kids I wanted to have or anything like that. People always made it seem like you have to have CHILDREN as opposed to A CHILD. I am a one and done mom!!! Our love child, our son Noah (whom I refer to as The Young King) is 14 and we are tackling his first year of high school. He has been a joy to raise and I love walking through life as one of his guides. Don’t get it twisted, this mom life is not for the weak! WE basically practiced gentle parenting just by chance; these teenage years are proving that parenting styles have to change with the circumstances. We are currently in the, “Matching energy,” phase of parenting. I will let you know how that goes!

When the opportunity to join the collective came about, I took a long pause. I really had to ask myself if there was anything I had to say that was worth hearing. Then I wondered if my perspective or my experience would be offensive. I had to be very honest with myself. I live in south Texas and I am a black woman raising a black son; I deal with things that most of the moms of the friends he has have no idea about. There are REAL differences that I deal with as a mom that they will not ever understand, but there are lots of other moms having the same struggles that I have. For the most part, I am happy to share the reality of our life with others- how else will people ever learn to see the similarities in our differences? Ultimately, I made the decision to join the collective because I do want all moms to feel like they can be seen and heard. I would love to share some of my life, my experiences, and my perspectives with people. At the end of the day, it really takes all of us to make this human experience as good as it can be and I am really committed to being on the right side of that. I hope to always be a part of making things better.