Melissa Butler

I am a student at New Mexico State University, currently working towards my bachelor's in foreign languages with a focus on French and a minor in Mandarin Chinese. I am minoring in Sociology. Once I have my bachelor's degree I plan to go on to work towards my master's in French and obtaining a degree in Sociology as well. As a young teenager, I had a very serious fall that resulted in a concussion, which changed my life forever. I had to take a couple of years to heal and adapt before I could finish High School--and that's never stopped me from accomplishing anything. Instead of winning or feeling sorry for myself I instead got up every day and worked hard to figure out how I could adapt to live a healthy and normal life. Though "normal" is not necessarily the right word. At 16 I started a party supply company with my mother that ran successfully for 5 years when we decided to close it. From there I started an event planning business with my mother (who has 25 years of experience) that thrives today and employs 3 other people, thus far. Easy to say that I've figured out to live a great life despite having a TBI (traumatic brain injury).