• #BearsOfBaylor — “55 is just an age. I can still hang with the students.”

    “My title is assistant director of wellness, and my responsibilities are I get to come to work — according to my husband, I get to come play every day — and I’m in charge of the group exercise classes, all the 40- to 50-person classes of zumba, yoga, pilates, cycling that we have.

    “I just turned 55. Here’s a funny story: I have a wedding, so I dropped off my dry cleaning this morning. As I was driving around the dry cleaner, I saw a big old sign that says ‘Senior Discount 10%, 55 and better.’ So I come around, I hand the lady my clothes, and I said, ‘Don’t forget my 10% discount!’ And she yelled back, ‘No it’s for people 55 and older.’ I said, ‘I just turned 55!’ And she goes, ‘No you’re not!’ And I said, ‘Let me show you my drivers license!’

    “Most women are so ashamed of their age. They don’t want people to know. I want people to know that I’ve lived a great life. I was struggling at first, because I was born and raised in a third-world country, in Thailand. I came here with nothing, and I have education now. I’m working in a college setting, and I get to impact a lot of people.

    “You know, 55 is just an age. I can still hang with the students. You know I’ll be playing sand volleyball later! And I can hang with students when I teach — I teach volleyball classes here — and when I get out there and play with them, they have no idea that I’m like their parents’ age. They have no idea that I’ve gone through 11 knee surgeries and both of my knees are bionic, titanium. See, I’ve gone through a lot of struggles, but life is great! So I get to bring that joy that I love, and be able to impart that to my students and to the coworkers that I work with.”

    #BearsOfBaylor

    [Every Baylor Bear has a story; #BearsOfBaylor brings those stories to you, one by one. These stories, these people… This is our Baylor.]