Ashley's Life
My story starts at the very beginning. My name is Ashley Nichole Chance, I am 19 years old
and I have a 2 year old daughter named Nichole. I was born in Flagstaff Arizona at Flagstaff Medical Center around 6:30 in the morning. My mother is Gerallyn Cody and she is Native American well Navajo to be specific. My father is James Chance and he is Italian. I have a full brother Kyle Chance and he is 21 with 2 beautiful daughters Jamie and Amber. I also have 2 half sisters which are Katie that’s 4 and Cassie that’s 8. I was raised on the Navajo reservation in a small town called Leupp.
Living in a very small town and on the reservation was a very different experience then what I’ve heard from my city friends. On the reservation it is a much harder life then what people have today. The closest town with a Walmart and Mc Donald’s is a half of an hour away which Is Winslow and the closest one with a mall is an hour away which is Flagstaff where I was born. Growing up I remember hauling water for the horses, sheep, my grandma’s house and my house. When we would shower we would have to heat up water on the stove and poor it in a bucket with cool water to make warm water. Then we would slowly poor the water on our bodies and shower.
For food I remember eating a lot of sheep meat and fry bread. On the reservation they call it mutton. My grandparents would butcher the sheep themselves. From as far back as I can remember my grandpa would have me hold the sheeps legs so he could skin it. My brother was really helpful and he would help my grandpa skin the sheep and take apart the ligaments. I would have to help my grandma and mom clean out the intestines. I thought it was so gross because I had to clean out all of the poop. When I would talk about how disgusting or gross butchering was I would get yelled at and my grandma would tell me to be thankful that my I had mutton to eat.
I really enjoyed my elementary school on the reservation. I went to the Leupp Boarding School from preschool to the 7th grade. The one thing I enjoyed the most was when we had Native American week at our school. Native American week was a week of activities, pageants, parades and bake sales. During the week they would have a list for one day being dressing like a cowboy, another day being traditional dress up day, hat day, maroon white and blue day because it was the school colors. They would have traditional pageants to pick the North hall and south hall prince and princesses. And the main event was the Miss Teenage Leupp. North hall royalty was 1st to 4th or 5th grade. South hall royalty was 5th or 6th grade to 8th grade. Miss Teenage Leupp was any girls from 9th to 12th grade. They even had baby pageants and the cutest babies that knew the most would win. The school even had fry bread making contest and the people that did not know how were taught to make it.
When I was growing up I remember playing with my child hood sweetheart. His name was Philbertson but everyone called him Lil Man. He was my best friend and we would play every day until the sun went down. He would come to my house every morning around 6:30 to 7:00 and come ask my grandpa if I could play. My grandpa always told him I was sleeping because I was never up until about 8. So he would come back every 30 minutes to see if I was awake yet. One morning my grandpa told him “If you want to keep playing with my granddaughter and coming to my house this early in the morning I want some sheep, cows and horses.” After that he waited till he saw me playing outside to come over. I had asked my grandpa why Lil Man wouldn’t come over anymore and he told me what he told Lil Man and I felt so embarrassed because he was my best friend.
My story sounds pretty simple but I also had my downs while growing up. My dad had left when I was 9 months old and my mom had a lot of boyfriends when I was small. When she finally did get married it was to a guy who was in the military and he was an SKS assault rifle man. From what I heard they are the worst men to get involved with. Well they got married about six months after knowing each other and he made my mom’s life hell. He was the most demanding, jealous and abusive man I knew. My mom was married to him for seven years and when she finally divorced him he wanted to change n be the man of her dreams but it was too late. After that chapter in my mom’s life I always told myself I would never stay in that situation or put my child through it.
High school was a very big chapter in my life. High school was where I first fell in love and came upon the biggest change in my life. Freshmen year in high school I fell for my brother’s best friend. He was my everything back then. We spent every single day together hoping that it’d never end but all happy stories’s come to an end. When he moved to Las Vegas it changed everything. I hated being away from him and we grew apart. One day he came home for a visit and that was the end of it. I was so depressed and didn’t care that I started going crazy and I met this guy that changed my whole life. He was the guy who impregnated me.
This guy was Marty Dolores. I had met him my junior year. We had only been dating for 3 months when we had a miscarriage on New Year’s Eve. Two months later I found out I was pregnant again and went even more depressed. I had started to get suicidal and tried to kill my baby but my ex that had torn my heart apart saved her. He told me that no matter what he would always be here for me and my baby even though it was not his child. He saw all the pain I was going through and wanted to be there for me. I did not want to be with the father of my child, but my family kept pushing it and I had to get away because of all the fighting so I moved to Denver Colorado.
When I first moved to Denver I started home school because I was pregnant and still had to finish my senior year. I did not want to go to a regular high school and deal with all the drama from high school kids. While doing home school I found out that I had to do like 2 more years at that school because the way the credits were set up. So I decided to get my GED. When I had called the Front Range Community College they told me about a program there called Gateway to College. It helped kids in 3 school districts to earn their high school diploma and some college credits while attending Front Range as a college student. I went there for about a year before I just started messing around and not really caring. So I got kicked out for failing a class 2 semesters in a row. I knew it was my fault and at the time I didn’t really care because after I had my daughter I had really bad postpartum depression.
During the beginning of my adventures at Gateway I met 3 girls that I befriended. There was Chynna, Robyn and Ashley. We were all close when we first met, hanging out every night, making daily plans to chill. But all happy stories come to an end. Ashley became too depressed for everyone and just wanted a pity party so we had to tell her what we really thought. And in time Robyn just became a mooch off of Chynna and I. And when we were honest with her she totally got defensive and just stopped talking to us. Well she blames Chynna for me not being her friend anymore. But now I have a really good, honest and trusting friend. She has been my only true friend I’ve had since I’ve made friends here in Colorado. When I first met her she did not want her own kids and since we’ve been friends she’s became a mother. She is a great mother and now that she has Asher we have more things in common. Our friendship grows more and more the more we hang out. I would never trade her for the world.
While the end of my journey at Gateway I met a girl named Robin in my volleyball class and we became friends but as we started to hang out more she just wasn’t the type of person I could see myself befriending. She was too depressed for me to deal with. I know its mean but I was depressed enough myself I didn’t want to be around more sad people. The benefit of meeting her and becoming her friend for that short period of time was her introducing me to my most recent best friend Jamie. She is like the other half of me. She is the only other girl that has my heart besides my daughter.
After I had gotten kicked out of Gateway I decided to enroll in an alternative school with my friend Jamie and I had turned in all the paper work but I could not get along with my step mom. So I made plans with my baby’s father for my daughter and I to go to the mountains to stay with him for a while until I got everything situated. While staying out there Marty and I kept fighting. One night it got really bad and the cops were called. He was taken to jail, charged with domestic violence charges and the state put a restraining order on him. I was so scared I didn’t know what to do or where to go so I packed all my stuff in my car n headed back to Denver. I didn’t want to go back to Arizona or my dads house and the only person I could turn to was Jamie.
Jamie took me and my daughter in. We lived with her most of the summer. We had so much fun, got to know each other very well. She helped me with a home and she helped me try to support my daughter because she knew that I had no one at all. But when it came time for her to go back to school, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t have a babysitter for my daughter or anyone willing to watch her so I could go to school. The only thing that came to mind was going back to my baby’s father’s house. It was the last thing I wanted to do but it was the only I could think of that would help me get done what I needed to do. Which was school and finding a job to support my daughter.
When I moved back to the mountains to get my baby’s fathers help everything was ok in the beginning. I got in to school at Yampah and my daughter was accepted in to the daycare which was a lot of help. I really enjoyed the school while I attended it. I was able to met and befriend a lot of other teen mothers that also live in Colorado. But for some reason me and Marty just don’t get alone and the fighting started up again. The bad thing is when we fight it’s not just words being tossed back and forth, it’s physical. So I wind up moving back to Denver, back to Jamie’s.
From all the moving and emotional stress I was so lost I didn’t know what to do. I tried my hardest to get on my feet but I just kept thinking of the bad and it just kept bringing me down. The first time I had moved back from the mountains I met Joshua Frazier. He was a really nice guy, well the nicest a guys ever been to me. Well when I moved back from the mountains this last time he became my boyfriend. He’s been keeping me on my feet, making sure I’m doing what I need to do to make a better life for me and my daughter. He just clears my mind from everything. Joshua is nothing I ever expected a guy to be. He’s not like the rest of them that just care about getting laid or when the next party is. He’s the most caring guy I’ve ever met. He puts me and AND MY DAUGHTER first. That’s the one thing that I love the most is his relationship with my daughter. She loves him to death, that’s her Joshy and no one can tell her otherwise.
Now we are living with him. First time I ever lived with my boyfriend’s family. But there a first for everything, I love it, they help me so much and they enjoy having a 2 yr old around. Right now it’s still hard for me to get everything together but now I have a great support behind me and I have a lot of confidence in myself.
and I have a 2 year old daughter named Nichole. I was born in Flagstaff Arizona at Flagstaff Medical Center around 6:30 in the morning. My mother is Gerallyn Cody and she is Native American well Navajo to be specific. My father is James Chance and he is Italian. I have a full brother Kyle Chance and he is 21 with 2 beautiful daughters Jamie and Amber. I also have 2 half sisters which are Katie that’s 4 and Cassie that’s 8. I was raised on the Navajo reservation in a small town called Leupp.
Living in a very small town and on the reservation was a very different experience then what I’ve heard from my city friends. On the reservation it is a much harder life then what people have today. The closest town with a Walmart and Mc Donald’s is a half of an hour away which Is Winslow and the closest one with a mall is an hour away which is Flagstaff where I was born. Growing up I remember hauling water for the horses, sheep, my grandma’s house and my house. When we would shower we would have to heat up water on the stove and poor it in a bucket with cool water to make warm water. Then we would slowly poor the water on our bodies and shower.
For food I remember eating a lot of sheep meat and fry bread. On the reservation they call it mutton. My grandparents would butcher the sheep themselves. From as far back as I can remember my grandpa would have me hold the sheeps legs so he could skin it. My brother was really helpful and he would help my grandpa skin the sheep and take apart the ligaments. I would have to help my grandma and mom clean out the intestines. I thought it was so gross because I had to clean out all of the poop. When I would talk about how disgusting or gross butchering was I would get yelled at and my grandma would tell me to be thankful that my I had mutton to eat.
I really enjoyed my elementary school on the reservation. I went to the Leupp Boarding School from preschool to the 7th grade. The one thing I enjoyed the most was when we had Native American week at our school. Native American week was a week of activities, pageants, parades and bake sales. During the week they would have a list for one day being dressing like a cowboy, another day being traditional dress up day, hat day, maroon white and blue day because it was the school colors. They would have traditional pageants to pick the North hall and south hall prince and princesses. And the main event was the Miss Teenage Leupp. North hall royalty was 1st to 4th or 5th grade. South hall royalty was 5th or 6th grade to 8th grade. Miss Teenage Leupp was any girls from 9th to 12th grade. They even had baby pageants and the cutest babies that knew the most would win. The school even had fry bread making contest and the people that did not know how were taught to make it.
When I was growing up I remember playing with my child hood sweetheart. His name was Philbertson but everyone called him Lil Man. He was my best friend and we would play every day until the sun went down. He would come to my house every morning around 6:30 to 7:00 and come ask my grandpa if I could play. My grandpa always told him I was sleeping because I was never up until about 8. So he would come back every 30 minutes to see if I was awake yet. One morning my grandpa told him “If you want to keep playing with my granddaughter and coming to my house this early in the morning I want some sheep, cows and horses.” After that he waited till he saw me playing outside to come over. I had asked my grandpa why Lil Man wouldn’t come over anymore and he told me what he told Lil Man and I felt so embarrassed because he was my best friend.
My story sounds pretty simple but I also had my downs while growing up. My dad had left when I was 9 months old and my mom had a lot of boyfriends when I was small. When she finally did get married it was to a guy who was in the military and he was an SKS assault rifle man. From what I heard they are the worst men to get involved with. Well they got married about six months after knowing each other and he made my mom’s life hell. He was the most demanding, jealous and abusive man I knew. My mom was married to him for seven years and when she finally divorced him he wanted to change n be the man of her dreams but it was too late. After that chapter in my mom’s life I always told myself I would never stay in that situation or put my child through it.
High school was a very big chapter in my life. High school was where I first fell in love and came upon the biggest change in my life. Freshmen year in high school I fell for my brother’s best friend. He was my everything back then. We spent every single day together hoping that it’d never end but all happy stories’s come to an end. When he moved to Las Vegas it changed everything. I hated being away from him and we grew apart. One day he came home for a visit and that was the end of it. I was so depressed and didn’t care that I started going crazy and I met this guy that changed my whole life. He was the guy who impregnated me.
This guy was Marty Dolores. I had met him my junior year. We had only been dating for 3 months when we had a miscarriage on New Year’s Eve. Two months later I found out I was pregnant again and went even more depressed. I had started to get suicidal and tried to kill my baby but my ex that had torn my heart apart saved her. He told me that no matter what he would always be here for me and my baby even though it was not his child. He saw all the pain I was going through and wanted to be there for me. I did not want to be with the father of my child, but my family kept pushing it and I had to get away because of all the fighting so I moved to Denver Colorado.
When I first moved to Denver I started home school because I was pregnant and still had to finish my senior year. I did not want to go to a regular high school and deal with all the drama from high school kids. While doing home school I found out that I had to do like 2 more years at that school because the way the credits were set up. So I decided to get my GED. When I had called the Front Range Community College they told me about a program there called Gateway to College. It helped kids in 3 school districts to earn their high school diploma and some college credits while attending Front Range as a college student. I went there for about a year before I just started messing around and not really caring. So I got kicked out for failing a class 2 semesters in a row. I knew it was my fault and at the time I didn’t really care because after I had my daughter I had really bad postpartum depression.
During the beginning of my adventures at Gateway I met 3 girls that I befriended. There was Chynna, Robyn and Ashley. We were all close when we first met, hanging out every night, making daily plans to chill. But all happy stories come to an end. Ashley became too depressed for everyone and just wanted a pity party so we had to tell her what we really thought. And in time Robyn just became a mooch off of Chynna and I. And when we were honest with her she totally got defensive and just stopped talking to us. Well she blames Chynna for me not being her friend anymore. But now I have a really good, honest and trusting friend. She has been my only true friend I’ve had since I’ve made friends here in Colorado. When I first met her she did not want her own kids and since we’ve been friends she’s became a mother. She is a great mother and now that she has Asher we have more things in common. Our friendship grows more and more the more we hang out. I would never trade her for the world.
While the end of my journey at Gateway I met a girl named Robin in my volleyball class and we became friends but as we started to hang out more she just wasn’t the type of person I could see myself befriending. She was too depressed for me to deal with. I know its mean but I was depressed enough myself I didn’t want to be around more sad people. The benefit of meeting her and becoming her friend for that short period of time was her introducing me to my most recent best friend Jamie. She is like the other half of me. She is the only other girl that has my heart besides my daughter.
After I had gotten kicked out of Gateway I decided to enroll in an alternative school with my friend Jamie and I had turned in all the paper work but I could not get along with my step mom. So I made plans with my baby’s father for my daughter and I to go to the mountains to stay with him for a while until I got everything situated. While staying out there Marty and I kept fighting. One night it got really bad and the cops were called. He was taken to jail, charged with domestic violence charges and the state put a restraining order on him. I was so scared I didn’t know what to do or where to go so I packed all my stuff in my car n headed back to Denver. I didn’t want to go back to Arizona or my dads house and the only person I could turn to was Jamie.
Jamie took me and my daughter in. We lived with her most of the summer. We had so much fun, got to know each other very well. She helped me with a home and she helped me try to support my daughter because she knew that I had no one at all. But when it came time for her to go back to school, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t have a babysitter for my daughter or anyone willing to watch her so I could go to school. The only thing that came to mind was going back to my baby’s father’s house. It was the last thing I wanted to do but it was the only I could think of that would help me get done what I needed to do. Which was school and finding a job to support my daughter.
When I moved back to the mountains to get my baby’s fathers help everything was ok in the beginning. I got in to school at Yampah and my daughter was accepted in to the daycare which was a lot of help. I really enjoyed the school while I attended it. I was able to met and befriend a lot of other teen mothers that also live in Colorado. But for some reason me and Marty just don’t get alone and the fighting started up again. The bad thing is when we fight it’s not just words being tossed back and forth, it’s physical. So I wind up moving back to Denver, back to Jamie’s.
From all the moving and emotional stress I was so lost I didn’t know what to do. I tried my hardest to get on my feet but I just kept thinking of the bad and it just kept bringing me down. The first time I had moved back from the mountains I met Joshua Frazier. He was a really nice guy, well the nicest a guys ever been to me. Well when I moved back from the mountains this last time he became my boyfriend. He’s been keeping me on my feet, making sure I’m doing what I need to do to make a better life for me and my daughter. He just clears my mind from everything. Joshua is nothing I ever expected a guy to be. He’s not like the rest of them that just care about getting laid or when the next party is. He’s the most caring guy I’ve ever met. He puts me and AND MY DAUGHTER first. That’s the one thing that I love the most is his relationship with my daughter. She loves him to death, that’s her Joshy and no one can tell her otherwise.
Now we are living with him. First time I ever lived with my boyfriend’s family. But there a first for everything, I love it, they help me so much and they enjoy having a 2 yr old around. Right now it’s still hard for me to get everything together but now I have a great support behind me and I have a lot of confidence in myself.