Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristal Zoemy Calzada Borrero
Hi Kristal Zoemy, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I would like to start off by saying, thank you for taking the time to read my story and understand my goals on a more profound level. My name is Kristal Zoemy and I am currently 30 years old. While I am still working on building my career, I enjoy helping others by providing a unique perspective, based on my life experiences, about mental health, parenting, chronic illnesses from childhood, among others through social media and content creation. Growing up I learned unconsciously to manage challenges from a young age. My mom, who has been a single mother my whole life, started and finished college when I was a child and started her career in nursing. I spent most of my childhood and teenage years with my grandparents since my mom worked long hours in a hospital in Ponce, Puerto Rico to make a living. During my teens I was impacted by a big challenge. I was diagnosed with scoliosis, a chronic condition that causes an abnormal sideways curve of the spine often in the shape of an S or C, at the age of 10 and got worse as the years went by. As a result, I had a spinal correction surgery after I turned 12. This process led me to a long and tedious recovery that affected my physical activity since I could not do any type of exercise or sports for almost 2 years as part of the healing process. Also, due to scoliosis pain management became part of my lifestyle.
With all this exposure in the medical field I started to become more curious about the different careers and opportunities to help others the same way providers and healthcare workers took care of me during this time. More specifically, I felt like I owed the hospital and the staff who cared for me at my most vulnerable moment. I remembered telling my mom that I was going to return to the children’s hospital where I had my surgery done as a volunteer as soon as I turned 18. Years passed and I decided I wanted to start college and prepare myself to become a pediatrician. I was able to go back to this children’s hospital in Puerto Rico and serve as a volunteer to support the activities they offer for children admitted. Our team provided entertainment and crafting supplies for different activities to children from the emergency room to Oncology (cancer patients). After a year, I had a gut feeling that it was time to start taking risks to take my career and experiences to a whole different level. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico and my native language is Spanish. I always daydreamed of following my “American Dream” by moving to the state of FL in the United States to complete college and seek for better growth opportunities.
In 2016 I made the decision and jumped right in. I can say it was the craziest and scariest decision I made in my life, but I did it. This is just the start of a long journey that I’ve been working so hard and learning so much from. After becoming a mom, going through postpartum depression, and having a late diagnosis of ADHD plus anxiety disorder I have been more involved in learning about human development, mental health disorders, and neuroscience research. This whole healing process helped me fire up my passion in the healthcare field focused on the curiosity and innovation within the functioning of the brain, neuroplasticity, human development, and neurodiversity. For me it is fascinating that the knowledge of these topics provides some guide map on how to work our brains in a way that can help us heal, manage our life challenges, and improve our mindset. At this point of my life, I am learning and gathering the tools that help me reconnect with my goals and purpose. I now believe even deeper that I have a purpose in this world that I need to fulfill. I know that I have so much to learn still but at the same time I have so much to give and share with others, especially with my Hispanic community that are so hard wired in a mindset where mental health is not as important as other medical diagnoses, and have gone through so much with immigration, racism, violence against women, and feeling of unworthiness. Most of the Hispanic cultures see emotions as a weakness and think people will not respect you if you show up with vulnerability. I trust and feel this is an opportunity for improvement that I could start focusing on to spread the word that is ok and healthier to feel and embrace your feelings and emotions. My goal is to serve others by providing tools and education on topics related to overcoming life challenges in this digital and accelerated era by promoting a “Growing mindset” especially for teenagers transitioning to adulthood and helping parents “switch off” survival mode to be more present and supportive for their family. I know that I have the potential and ability to simplify complex research or education focused on mental health, neuroscience, among others to a level anyone can understand by using everyday life experiences. I am ready to embrace my full potential in this field now that I have the mental clarity and focus to innovate and spread awareness about the power we all have within our brains.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Different grieving processes and the pandemic pushed me to make decisions that have led me to pause my goals and aspirations. The biggest challenge I’ve had it’s called Post Partum Depression. After I had my daughter, I can say that I completely lost my self. Motherhood is something that you will never be fully prepared to confront. Thanks to the early detection of symptoms, my willingness to asked for help, and the awesome support from my family, I was able to address it quickly. Despite all this experiences and challenges I have overcome, I have gone through so many stages of self-doubt, beating myself up, not feeling worthy of success, not feeling seen, not feeling enough to fulfill my calling, and so on. However, I have also gone through other experiences that make me realize the importance of keeping the promises I made to myself and started again where I left off. Giving up is not an option for me.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Currently I enjoy creating content for my platforms specially Tiktok, Instagram, and YouTube. I was normally creating content to uplift and support moms by sharing information based on what I’ve learned through books or my life experiences. I recently started my YouTube channel in which I am working on creating more educational content focused on human development, neurodiversity, and parenting. Something new I will be incorporating are topics and information related to ADHD. I believe there is so much education that needs to be done and I want to share my perspective as a mom with an ADHD brain.
Another way I enjoy creating is with a needle and endless yarn. I started my journey in crochet after I read a research article which indicated that crochet is a good way of learning mindfulness. I decided to teach myself with YouTube videos. Today I can say that it is the best thing I have learned to manage my anxiety and a great way to train my focus. Encouraging and spreading curiosity on others to start a new hobby they enjoy has become something important to me because, in my experience, this was the first thing that pushed me out of depression.
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I have so many good memories. My grandparents and my mom said that I was like white rice, I was everywhere doing everything. I was a very active child and had the opportunity to be in many thing like theater classes, dancing, modeling, swimming competitions, singing, and so much more. Living in Ponce Puerto Rico is something that I treasure in my heart and that I hope some day I can give my daughter the opportunity to experience. My birthday parties were usually in a park called “El Monagas”. Sundays after church we ate ice cream from “La Plaza de Ponce”. January 6th in Puerto Rico we celebrated “El dia de Los Reyes Magos” and is one of my favorite holidays, my grandpa helped me cut the grass to put under the bed so I could get my gifts (the grass was for the camels that carry the 3 kings with my gifts). Also, every year my whole family rented a place to stay near the beach called “Boquerón” in Cabo Rojo. A lot of the best memories that I have with my entire family together are in that place. When we stayed there, I spent the whole day from the beach to the sand and from the sand to the beach. The adults were either cooking something on the grill or playing dominoes while listening to music like salsa and merengue on the radio. Good old times!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoemy.k/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zoemykristal/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristal-zoemy-calzada-borrero-b1b890229/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@zoemy.k
- Other: https://zoemykrafts.etsy.com
