Kim Byrnes:  

Life Well, It's been a long road I've traveled. Things are wonderful now and I am truly blessed today. When I left West Allegheny, I moved to Florida to be with my dad who I never really knew. Things didn't go the way I would have liked and I moved back to Pgh a few months later. I got really depressed because I felt I had ruinded all the things I had worked so hard for at West Alleghey. By March of my senior year I had sunken into severe depression and quit school with only a few months to go till graduation. I tried to pull out of the hole I had dug myself into, took my GED and started at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. I graduated from there in 1997 with an Associates in Graphic Design. I then went to New York City to interview for a designer position at a big design firm. I hated that city, it scared me! So, I came back home and didn't take the job. For the next few years I tried to find myself, figure out what I wanted to do. I free-lanced here and there using my degree occasionally but never really felt content. During that time, I met my first husband. In 1989, I had my daughter, Noelle. It was the happiest day of my life. My life again turned for the worst when my marriage ended. With another dissapointent in my life I felt like I couldn't deal and I chose to turn to alcohol and eventually drugs for comfort. I spent the next several years an alcholic/addict in and out of rehabs and institutions. There times when I felt totally useless and didn't even want to go on. I would focus on my daughter, Noelle to keep me going. In March of 1995, my life was a mess, ...Expand for more