Hi! I’m Alyssa!
I’m the one behind the screen of The Mama Bear Monologue!
First and foremost, thank you for being here! I began using writing as an outlet, but it quickly became a passion of mine, and I’m excited to share my experience with you!
I’m 29, a Pittsburgh, PA native, and a yoga enthusiast. I’m married to my high school sweetheart, and we have 2 kids together- Gabby and Ian-ages 13 and 6, respectively. Before you start doing the math, I’ll do it for you- we had our oldest when we were 15. We managed to stay in school, hold down part time jobs, and we walked across that graduation stage with the rest of our class. (And to absolutely brag about it, I did so with high honors.)
After high school, we upgraded to full time jobs and moved out on our own. We got married in 2015 and had our son 2 years later. After so many obstacles, we finally felt like everything was coming together.
In July of 2019, right before our youngest was about to turn 2, our world got turned upside down when he was diagnosed with multiple brain tumors. His official diagnosis is pilocytic astrocytoma. He also endured a brain injury in September 2022 as a result of one of his tumors hemorrhaging, as well as received an autism diagnosis in 2020.
Being a mom shows you strength and resilience you never knew you had. Having one child when I was still a child myself, and another with a cancer diagnosis, my motherhood journey has not been like most. On top of that, I need to still have a relationship with my husband, who I’ve been with for half our lives. We not only had to learn about one another, but we had to learn about ourselves through these seasons. I’ve learned so much already, and yet, I still have so much to continue to learn.
And I want to share it with you all.