Tiffany Dowell - My Introduction

[Tiffany Dowell]

Hello. My name is Tiffany Dowell, aka Dove, and I'm a 49-year-old married mother of three boys and two dogs, my husband's 10-year-old aging Morkie fur rat --(you're wrong spellcheck, a Morkie is a Maltese Yorkie cross breed) -- and my 4-year-old Siberian Husky, whom I feel too old to mush.

I currently live in a small, unincorporated community in Michigan surrounded by lakes. If you're unfamiliar with the term "unincorporated community", it's a geographic area that is outside the authority of an incorporated city or town and does not have its own municipal organization or official political designation. We don't have a bank; we have a wooden pavilion built over a part of a parking lot and an ATM. When I moved up here, we found bear poo in our shed, and bear tracks in our front yard. In short, a whole new meaning to the term "small town". We're not even a village, and I like that just fine.

In 2012, I finished my GED, scoring in the top 1% nationally. In 2016, I obtained a MSOFC certificate with a Summa Cum Laude 4.0 GPA.

I wrote in my younger years, and still pick at it here and there occasionally, but I have never published or shared my work, except on ONE platform, which is private and not public, and only to select individuals.

I spent six years of my life as a vagabond drifter, which is absolutely not the same thing as being "homeless". Drifters drift because they don't like conventional societal norms, seek adventure, and value their freedom. They are not people without a choice, they are people who make one on purpose. Why mention it? Because there are some things that life teaches you that you just won't learn any other way.

I spent 11 years (from 2006 to 2017) freelance modeling and loved every minute of it until I got off a plane returning from Las Vegas, Nevada with my bones feeling like shattered glass filled with molten lava. I suppose that that's a pretty clear "you're done", and I retired from it.

I'm a trauma survivor, in more than one aspect, and that majorly impacted my life and outlook, teaching me wisdom, perseverance, cunning, boundaries, compassion, benevolence, brokenness, healing, resilience, morality, faith, honor, duty, responsibility, the art of commitment, the art of letting go, and most of all, the life of a warrior with vast adaptability. They are qualities I work to instill in my sons every day.

In 2016, I built a non-profit online gaming community, which focused on free online counseling services, mental and emotional support, life coaching, ethics leadership, leadership training, crisis intervention, internet security and law enforcement, legal assistance, emergency relief, and physical security, among other things. I built a website for it and was the sole creator, administrator, and moderator, did all the advertising and marketing, and handled everything financially. It ran until August of 2023.

I worked in admin clerical and office settings for a bit, realized that being stuck at a desk gave me anxiety, and swapped to retail as a day job for a while. I have worked as an ICM, which is a freelance retail worker that runs around doing the jobs and cleaning up the messes that the store or company's staff isn't paid to do.

I've been on all sides of the fence, from the inner-city, out-on-the-street life to the multi-million-dollar summer house package complete with summer homes, yacht parties, and black-tie affairs. From the backwoods hick town to the average American city life. I've had nothing, clawed my way up to having it all, thrown it all away, walked away from everyone and everything, come back, rebuilt, and repeated some variation of the above more ways and more times than I can count anymore. I've walked through hell repeatedly, broken, healed, fallen, gotten back up, walked out, and then turned around and walked back in to carry a stranger out, come hell or high water a thousand times. I am too old and tired to bullshit anyone, for any reason, and least of all for anyone's approval.

We bought our house last year, in 2023, with the birth of my third son, promptly retired to the woods, and live a quiet, peaceful life now.

I'm an avid reader, PS4 gamer, and Texas Hold Em poker player (and yes, I'm good at it). I fish in the summer, last year I attempted my first garden (which was promptly eaten by slugs), and this year I went crossbow hunting for the first time. Yes, with a bow or SKS rifle, I'm a dead-shot, but that doesn't help when you're running a daycare center for the fawns.

I am brutally honest. I am not a follower, and I have no need for validation that results in seeking leadership. I don't respect titles, bank balances, papers on a wall, or material hoard piles, no matter how expensive the items are within it. Respect is earned with integrity, not bought with diplomas, bottom lines, and corporate accolades. I'm an INTP/INTJ, and it's pretty accurate if you look at both. If you paint yourself a god or a saint, you're either a liar or probably boring. People are dynamic, and scars and dirt can be as beautiful as wings and clean hands, but to know a person, it takes both. No one likes flat or one-sided characters, and life is just the same.

When I ask you who you are, can you answer? If you say I'm the CEO of this or that, I will tell you that I asked who you were, not what you did for income. If you say I have four bachelor's degrees, I will tell you that I never asked about your education, I asked about you. When you tell me about your house, car, etc., I will tell you I never asked what you bought. The mark of a man (male or female, mankind not male) is in the answer you didn't give.

If you have any questions, my PMs are open, I DO RESPOND to them, and I'm an open book. Lying, for me, is a waste of time. I am who I am, I do what I do, and I did what I did. If you don't like it, there's the door, you are not a prisoner of acquaintance circle, I don't measure myself by it, and you're free to walk out of it the same way you came in.

[Sharron L Hillman-Dwyer]

Wow, what a life story thanks for sharing.