No going back

By Melross P

Some people have it lucky; some live their entire lives in the same place and don't have to go through the hardships of moving multiple times and going through family and mental struggles in a short amount of time. During this time, a person may feel so much emotion happening at once and that alone would really be able to impact someone.

This is Taylor McCance’s story from her home land in Ontario, California, all the way to her life now in the Bay Area of San Jose, and how she found her peace of mind and empowerment through this experience.

“Uhm, [it was] good and bad. My childhood wasn’t the best but I had a lot of good memories in Ontario,” McCance said.

Ontario was where McCance originally was and in other words, her homeland at the time. Although she experienced more bad than good there, she sure does love the food and the people.

Ontario was where McCance grew up and although it had its moments, she for sure still misses it very much.

“I miss Ontario, mainly the food. Every time we would go down there to visit my grandparents, we would also go visit the food. Like, we gotta hit all the good places," McCance said.

McCance was also once apart of a Girl Scout troop when she was very young long ago. This filled her with peace of mind and empowerment.

“I really enjoyed it, especially when I was younger and I loved going camping. There's a lot of things I got to experience that I probably wouldn’t have experienced without Girl Scouts,” she said.

But at the same time, hardships can happen even in good experiences.

“As I got older, I kinda just wasn’t in a good place mentally for it and sometimes I felt like a babysitter for the younger girls and I moved away from where my troop was,” she also said.

The more and more McCance would grow up, there would be more hardships and good moments that McCance would have to face. Around a time in her life while she was still very young, her parents split and she had to go through the hardships of homeschool, online school, and in person almost back to back in a short amount of time. These moments were only the start for her to be even stronger and the start of her peace of mind/empowerment.

“My parents split and so getting away from my father gave me peace of mind and safety and empowerment. Like, we outta here,” McCance stated strongly.

And if there’s one thing or anyone that could ever make McCance’s day and something that could always be there for her, it has to be her cat Mochi.

“I got Mochi in 2019 and I still have her today and she's about three. We say her birthday’s May 4th, because ‘May the fourth be with you.’”

“So, I’m not the biggest fan of Mochi actually. Yeah, Mochi was named Mochi for a pretty cringey reason but when she rolls up and curls into a ball she looks like a piece of mochi,” McCance happily expressed.

Today, McCance lives in San Jose, CA, as a student in Yerba Buena living her best life and enjoying it, as she takes the experiences throughout her life and turns it into her peace of mind and empowerment.

Now, in 2022, McCance is now living her bestest life here in San Jose.

“It’s pretty good actually…I have a lot of good friends now and school isn’t too bad. Although junior year is probably gonna whoop my a**, right now I seem to have a lot of good teachers. I'm just looking forward to stuff so things are great,” she said confidently.