ello, my name is Rita Michaels, and here is a little bit about myself:

     I am 35 years old. Not to be immodest or anything, but I consider myself to be happy, productive, and pretty well-adjusted individual. I have great friends with whom I can openly communicate with, without the fear of being ridiculed in any way (this is a very important point for me).

     I work at a market research firm in Glendale, CA as an Accounts Payable and Payroll Manager and have been for over 6 years now. I love to go to the movies, listen to music (all kinds), take trips to the beach and I adore shopping. Recently, I purchased a condominium, so, much of my spare time goes to creating my new pad (and part of that is shopping!).

     I have chosen a very calm, yet productive, lifestyle with which I could grow and enjoy life as it should be enjoyed. The key to my improvement, I believe, is to have fun and be down right silly. That is how I like my life to be and strive to create.

     But life was not always this way for me. As a child growing up, I was excessively unhappy. I grew up amidst fear, ridicule and a suppression of individuality and opinion. I was literally stripped of hope at obtaining any success or happiness in life (my intention here is not to assign blame to anyone, but to depict the actual picture of my early years).

     I turned to drugs and alcohol for help at the age of 13. I chose friends who were alcoholics or drug addicts. There was barely I time when I was straight. My mind became dull and my thinking very slow, yet, I continued doing drugs. Alcohol became a crutch in life. It aided me, or so I thought, in opening up and feeling a sense of freedom. After a time, I began to black out during my drinking binges and my parents were going crazy with grief at my behavior.

     I was truly at the bottom dregs of life where all was hopeless and no reason was there to go on living, at least that’s how I felt.

      After high school I got a job. Drugs became an occasional habit, however, my alcohol habit had not ceased, it was my only release. To be blunt, my view of life that it thoroughly sucked. How was one to be happy? How can one truly not be at the mercy of a bleak existence? I absolutely desired the answers to these types of questions. I needed to know! I needed to change my life around!

     At 19 years old, a friend I was close with in high school told me to read a book, “Fundamentals of Thought” by L. Ron Hubbard. I didn’t know who L. Ron Hubbard was. I read the book and I loved it! I wanted to find out more. I read more books. I realized there was hope and that I could possibly achieve the happiness I had only dreamed of. The rest is history. I have been off drugs, I no longer drink alcohol (in excess) and have been an active Scientologist ever since. I have spent the last sixteen years gaining knowledge of people, life and existence, and best of all, achieving happiness through the study and application of the doctrines of Scientology.