My story...

My name is Gardenia Hermida Roque, I was born on August 28, 1995 in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic. I moved to Santo Domingo when I was barely 3 months old and I lived there with my maternal grandparents as a child. I went to different schools, but where I finished was at the San Francisco de Asis Catholic School, where I graduated with honors at the age of 17 in July 2013. During my adolescence I stood out in reading Olympics and volleyball tournaments.
Later in August of the same year I entered the Universidad Catolica Santo Domingo where in 2016 I graduated Magna Cum Laude with a bachelor's degree in social communication. I also took different extracurricular courses such as Master of Ceremonies, Speech, Acting and Computer Technician. Also during this period, I worked as a presenter on the television program Gente Ready and played various roles in the Dominican electrical company Edesur for 3 years, such as agent community, customer service agent and loss analyst. 
At the beginning of 2017, for a few months I was also part of the radio program "Relaxing the morning with Gerald Ogando". Later in August 2017, I emigrated to the United States where I held different work positions in factories, until in 2018 I started working as a waitress in restaurants.
In 2020, due to the Covid19 pandemic, everything stopped for approximately 8 months, everything remained closed. It was there where I found the opportunity to return to one of my passions, which is writing. I created a blog where I posted what I thought about different topics. The pandemic was the most difficult time of my life. I lost my paternal grandfather to cancer and I didn't even have the opportunity to say goodbye, which is why I took refuge in reading and writing. After months in depression, I came back afloat when I realized that through my anecdotes and what I wrote I was helping others. That's how in 2021 when everything opened I went back to work but this time in addition to being a waitress I also worked as a kitchen supervisor for private Jewish events.
In 2022 I fulfilled my dream of marrying the love of my life named Felipe Lagares and also thanks to him I was reunited with God and I was baptized. I don't have children currently but of course I would like to have them in the near future. 
2023 represents a year of many changes for me. I changed jobs and now I am at La Casa de Don Pedro as a family worker, I also received the opportunity to study again and develop a personal project that excites me very much and that is helping people, especially those who live on the streets and society disqualifies. Currently, I am studying to obtain the Family Development Worker Credential (FDC) and Child Development Associate (CDA), I hope to continue developing and growing to be of support to others.