40th Birthday / Charleston, SC
I wasn’t sure if I’d ever actually write, not to mention publicly publish, any of this. But…
YOLO, right?
It’s not easy for me to talk about myself. I mean, I know ME already. I know my story. I know my accomplishments. I know my successes. Been there, done that, not that interesting. I also know where I made mistakes and what I could’ve done differently or how I should’ve better handled a situation. Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda. #LessonsLearned
I find people truly fascinating
I’ve always been far more interested in other people; their stories, their lives, their goals, dreams, successes, failures, their ups and downs. I like to listen, to absorb what someone is saying. I’m present and engage fully. I ask lots of questions. I’m good at getting to someone’s CORE. And I have a good bullshit meter.
Maybe you think that’s because my life was rather “average”, “normal”, hum-drum… #LOLforever
Like I said, I’m the soul inhabiting this body and actively living this life so I’m not very objective when it comes to sharing my backstory. But if I take a step back from the subjective, I, like most of you, have a rather fascinating history and maybe you’d even find my current life to be so.
I will give you the nutshell view and you can decide for yourself.
Hi! I’m Daria Meredith Rivera
Meredith being my surname and, as my parents didn’t bequeath me a middle name, I used it as a middle name after I was married in 2005.
I’m a bicentennial baby. Vintage ’76. My husband, Rafael, and I have 3 daughters, born in 2007 and 2012 (twins). You see A LOT of them in our social media feeds. I cherish the 4 of them. They’re my heart.
But I didn’t start out as an adult with a hubs and kids. So back to the beginning.
My parents were Scientologists
Though they divorced when I was a year old, they stayed in the “religion” through my early childhood. After their divorce, my mother and I moved from Ohio to Portland, OR and my father and my stepmother moved to the City of Angels, CA. I spent many hours under my mom’s desk in Portland’s Scientology HQ drawing pictures for both L. Ron Hubbard (Scientology founder) and to a young and not yet famous author, Neil Gaiman, whom my mom had briefly dated while living in London and remained friends with long-distance.
In 1980, Mount Saint Helens erupted in WA, and sent days of ash raining down over Portland. I have vivid memories of a city full of umbrellas, people moving to and fro, hurrying through ash and soot as they harried to their destination. It wasn’t long after this event that we re-located to L.A. to be closer to my dad and, of course, the hive of Scientology activity. Hanging out at Celebrity Center became a regular occurance.
For a couple of years I attended school run by Scientology and then eventually moved into another private school where the only truly positive memory was singing “We Are the World” for Michael Jackson, who sat maybe 10 feet away from me. Oh, the 80s. We were literally living in The Valley during the height of the Valley Girl days. Like Oh My God, For Real!
My father commit suicide in 1986, at the age of 36
I was nearly 10. My step-mom was 6 months pregnant with my sister at the time. She and my father had been actively extracting themselves from Scientology (which, btw, is not easy). He was still doing too many drugs, both the illegal kind and the legal OTC herbal kind in an effort to 1) drown out his suffering, and 2) to achieve enlightenment. There is much I could, and will most likely someday, reveal. I’m oversimplifying for the sake of brevity.
My father suffered from what we now know is bi-polar disorder. In ’86, psychological disorders were not treated with the type of therapy, concern, and care with which our medical system is struggling to achieve at present. Mania and depression was a life-long struggle for my dad and my mom can recount the time in 4th grade (they were school-mates) when he first tried to kill himself.
Also in the Summer of 1986, my step-mom gave a very traumatizing birth to my sister. It was a stressful, sad time. My mom and step-mom joined forces, bonded by their love of us girls and my dad, and their desire to keep us all together and provide a better, happier life.
Staying in L.A. was just no longer an option
(To Be Continued)
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