PAST ISSUES

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Issue No. 7 QUESTIONS

For the Questions issue we are turning our focus from the outside world and bringing it inward. Each day for 100 days we will step out into the world and meet with one person. We will ask each person we meet the same 12 questions. At the end of 100 days we hope to capture our collective voice within this interwoven web of dialog.

Day 54: Lori Vega

What do you do for a living?

I am a private tutor.

What do you do to feel alive?

That’s such a complicated question for me. I try to do things that make me feel alive, but I don’t think I ever really do what will make me feel alive. What I think would make me feel alive is dancing. Even without music… I don’t do anything to make me feel alive. I pretend to. Sometimes I want to do more, but I just don’t have the time.

A lesson you learned from your mother:

That’s a really tough one. You want me to be completely honest?  A lesson that I learned from my mother is nothing. Nothing that I do represents my mother. I was adopted by my aunt and I always felt like I was not her real child. From my real biological mother I learned nothing because she was never around. I met her for the first time when I was 17. And my adopted mother did things to me that now being a mother I know I would never do to my child.

A lesson you learned from your father:

From him I think I did learn something. My father wasn’t my biological father. My father was the person who raised me and from him I learned that your dad or your mom is not the person who gave you life, but the person who raised you. He was the man that made me believe that to love someone was not only because you’re blood relatives, but because you’re together. He wasn’t my blood relative, but he raised me and we were together and it made us family.

What’s the most beautiful thing you saw today?

From the very beginning today was not a good day, but unfortunately I did not see anything beautiful today, but I did get a text message from my daughter at 6:21am this morning and at 9:20am when I received the text message I was worried that something happened. When she finally replied at 4:22pm she said she had a bad dream about me and it scared her and woke her up. And my response to her was that I was fine. The most beautiful thing that I can say I saw this morning, whether it was negative or positive, was her text message.

What’s one thing you wouldn’t want anyone to take away from you?

My kid, but she was still taken away from me.

What’s a thought you would like to never have again?

The thought of feeling lonely

If you could become an inanimate object what would it be?

I would like to become water. I would like to become water to help children survive. I would like to become that water that makes them live through hard days and hard times. If I could become knowledge I would like to become knowledge. I would like to become something that could help them become something so they wouldn’t have to suffer because I’ve suffered and I wouldn’t want someone to suffer the way I have.

When do you feel most loved?

When I am sharing intimate moments and I am being touched kissed and cared for that’s when I feel the most loved and it’s for a very short period of time.

If your life were to end tomorrow what would be left undone?

Not knowing if my daughter knew how much I really really loved her. I don’t know if she really knows.

What global issue would you take on if you didn’t have to worry about how?

My global issue has always been children. I work with children. It’s all about children. Giving them the love, the food the shelter everything that a child could need or want.

What’s the scariest thing that ever happened to you?

Losing my custody battle for my child when I’ve never been harmful. I’ve never been anything to be accused of. All I was was a woman who wanted a child and I lost her against a man who had money and power and I had nothing. I would never want to lose a child again.