AMY

“I was born and grew up in Oklahoma until my dad decided to become a missionary in 1999. He said God spoke to him and told him to move our family to Honduras in the wake of Hurricane Mitch. We were only planning on spending six months there to aid in recovery, but my dad felt moved to stay and now, 20 years later, my parents are still there. It completely changed my life and everything about me, really. I lived there for six years while my parents focused all their energy on the mission. Because of that, I essentially had to grow up overnight and learn to take care of myself. My siblings and I felt orphaned in a way….I think that’s a common experience for missionary kids. It was incredibly painful, during my most formative years. I didn’t speak the language and I wasn’t allowed to listen to any secular music, so I started reading a lot of books and writing the songs I wished I could hear. I actually wrote my first songs in Honduras. I was also coping with my sexuality as a teenager in this foreign place so that was something I wrote about a lot too. I knew from age 8 that I was into women and that it was shameful and that people would not be accepting of me. So, writing songs was kind of like therapy for me. I didn’t let anyone read them but that’s how I dealt with hardships. It was incredibly difficult to come out to my parents when I was 16, and I feel that I still have to ‘come out’ to them consistently because they see homosexuality as a struggle that can be overcome. It’s exhausting and I sometimes wish I had more accepting parents. But then I recognize I would not be who I am today without that challenge. I think I’m better for it.”