About the author
Who is Joe Fedison anyway, pretty much nobody. I am a single parent who has similar concerns as most people do. I want my son to have a better life than I have, I try to be healthy, I wish I had my teeth fixed, I think about losing my hair, and people who ruin the world drive me crazy. I believe in the American dream where anyone can take an idea, take a risk and try to make their dreams come true. It hasn’t happened for me, but I keep trying.
I was born in Atlantic City, NJ and moved many times growing up, changing schools 12 times within 12 years. I attended three different schools in 4th grade and then again in 9th grade. My family was always on the short end of the economic scale, but it wasn’t until high school that I even realized we were poor. It is funny how, unless someone puts a label on your situation, you are totally fi ne with what is normal to you. From 5th grade to 12th grade our years as a family of five were lived in trailer parks, apartments and campgrounds and although there were many struggles, I also remember a lot of fun times.
Interested in math and science, I did well in school and was accepted to the University of Rochester as a Physics major. Four years later I graduated with a BS in Optics Engineering, which was in 1987. I consider my years in college to be some of the greatest times of my life. I loved being around people, joined a fraternity and still have dreams about being there.
After college I didn’t make the best financial or career choices and my life has not been easy, but I never blamed anyone else for the decisions I made. I married in 1993 and had a son in 1994. I also moved and started a new job within the same year. Unfortunately things didn’t work out with my marriage, so I moved back to my hometown and brought my 2 year old son with me. That was in 1996. I never remarried and the temporary 2 bedroom apartment we moved into is still our home in 2012, not by choice.
I don’t need to explain to anyone how tough it is being a single parent, especially when you have limited family resources. Leaving my son to be raised by someone else wasn’t an option, so I figured out how to work from home as much as possible and followed the rule that says, “You do the best with what you have.” I still work from home when I can and my life is nothing as I thought it would be 25 years ago, when I graduated college. Not that it is bad, just different. My son just turned 18 and I feel my life is about to begin a new chapter. As always, I am optimistic about