Contributing Writer I South Jersey, NJ
Allyson received a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Public Health from Rutgers University. She also completed two minors in Health and Society and Critical Sexuality Studies. Born and raised in Freehold, New Jersey, she has now embarked on her newest adventure by moving to south jersey and committing a year of service as an Americorps VISTA member. Four months into her service, serving as a VISTA in a mental health facility has shown to be a learning curve for Allyson, but definitely seems like it will be worthwhile.
Allyson’s favorite memories as a child always involve playing outside. Having a large backyard with woods and a creek to play in allowed endless possibilities for fantasizing survivor-type games and exploring.
Allyson’s first ambition as a child was becoming a hair dresser; every elementary school poster was filled with this dream. After reaching middle school her dream job switched to being a doctor, then to a lawyer. High school converted her desires to becoming a psychiatrist, which settled into psychologist upon enduring a year of biology at Rutgers, showing her that medical school may not be her path. Through college, Allyson entertained the idea of many fields including nursing, teaching, and business. Currently, she desires to continue her education by getting her Masters of Social Work, but has decided that her strongest desire is to be a full time mother when she decides to have children.
Allyson is a textbook middle child. In social situations, Allyson can be observed acting in varying ways like being too loud, being too quiet, talking too much, being on her phone the whole time, engaging the parents in conversation, playing with the children, or acting exactly how a person should act in a given situation. She perceives being a typical middle child as both a positive and a negative. The negative attributes would be when she takes things a little too far to obtain the Freudian level of attention that she internally desires, but being the middle child means that she is adaptable. She is able to have a conversation with anyone about anything if given the opportunity.
The biggest life lesson that she has learned throughout her life goes along the typical “be yourself”. But what she finds important about this idea is that everyone learns that while you cannot always be one hundred percent yourself in every social situation without hurting or otherwise insulting others, you can surround yourself with key people who enjoy the type of person you are. According to Allyson, this manifests itself mostly in close relationships with friends and partners. Too often, she finds that people, her younger self included, tend to find someone who is agreeable, or desirable in certain ways, and allow themselves to adjust to what that person may want them to be.
Instead she has learned, and wishes to convince others, that the most fulfilling relationships come from acting like you have nothing to lose by acting like yourself.
People, Allyson always wants to learn more about people. How they think, why they believe what they do, how you can change their beliefs and what experiences create different kinds of people. It is this curiosity that makes parenting so interesting to Allyson.