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On November 30th 1987, at bar in San Francisco, a young Brit named Michelle Briggs looked over at
her friend Maxine and said, “I’m going to move to America, because it’s a dog-eat-dog race, and you can do
whatever you want to do in this country, and no one is going to judge you.” Flash forward to 2019. After 33
years in this country, Michelle is an American citizen.
Michelle was born in London, England in the 1960’s to a single mother in a mother-and-baby home,
much like those seen on the PBS Series Call the Midwife. “If you were Catholic, single and having a baby…
the baby would immediately be put up for adoption. But, my mother was like, “No, I will not put her up
for adoption. No, I will
make this happen.””
This is where Michelle
got her gumption and
bravery, which can be
credited for leading
her to the path she
is on today. “My
mother was always
a worker,” Michelle
says. “She always told
me, “You never ask
anybody for anything.
You do it yourself.
What you don’t
have to ask for, you
don’t have to thank
for.”” This remains
one of Michelle’s
personal mantras.
In her early
20s, not really
knowing anyone
abroad, Michelle
packed up her things
and her dreams and moved to America. “I’ve come a long way from the early 90s. I was very unsure of myself,
very needy,” Michelle explains. She quickly found herself in a dangerously draining monotony of working
three jobs, living paycheck to paycheck, all the while doubting whether or not she was even truly where
she belonged. “Just the whole not knowing...if I should be here or in England, because right now, here, I’m
struggling. Is it better for me to go back there or better for me to stay here?” Michelle recalls questioning.
Then one day, amidst the pressures and looming uncertainties, Michelle found herself frozen at a stoplight,
literally. A series of five light changes passed before the honking of horns brought Michelle to, and she
then knew something was very wrong. “I got back to my tiny house and sat there and was like, I cannot
move, I cannot do anything, and I need to be at work in five minutes. I cannot go,” says Michelle. She went
Written by AMANDA MANN Interviewed by NIKKI WHITE