Stay Tune this Friday February 8th at 630 PM EST on Transition Radio http://www.blogtalkradio.com/transitionradio/2013/02/08/jala-mckenzie-climbing-lifes-mountain
Jala A. McKenzie-Burns was born of biracial parents on
November 11, 1965 as Dave Edward Morris. Abandoned in the hospital, she was
placed into the foster care system and adopted by an African-American family in
1972. As a young child, she personally experienced the racial unrest and was
taunted for her dual racial heritage. On top of this, she found herself
expected to live up to society’s demands of her as a boy and a young man, while
she yearned for the things of a feminine nature. To hide the truth of who she
felt she was inside, she joined the U.S. Marine Corps, worked in the political
arena, graduated from college, married, and raised a child. In all that time,
pain and depression followed her that she could not express her true nature.
When her adoptive father died, she fell into a deep clinical depression, which
triggered an attempted suicide and admission into a psych ward. After revealing
her desire to express herself as a woman, her adoptive mother rejected her,
sending her on a journey that eventually united her with her biological mother
and sister, and later with her other siblings. In 2004, she began transitioning
into the woman that she is today. In January of 2006, she legally changed her
name. Through this period, she continued to experience depression and was
admitted numerous times for hospitalizations due to her unhealthy methods of
coping. In 2010, after the death of her adoptive mother, she was reunited with
her biological mother and siblings. At this point, through the support of her
family, reading, and hard work, she began to overcome her depression and move
into a new stage of life. Do something for somebody every day. This is the
motto by which Jala lives and by which she shares the common experience of
climbing life’s mountains. Jala raises the question, “What impact would society
have if everyone did something for somebody every day?”
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