Marilea Rabasa

"Marilea’s life has involved interfacing with several world cultures. She married a man who joined the Foreign Service and for fifteen years she traveled from Nicaragua to Ecuador to Greece to Italy— with three kids and a dog.

She moved on to a new phase of her life where she consolidated her cultural experiences with her vocation in the classroom. She was an English as a Second Language high school teacher for seventeen years in Virginia. Toward the end of her teaching career, she earned her Master of Arts in Teaching. That journey was critical because it was a Master’s in Reflective Practice.

Now she’s retired from teaching with time to reflect back on her fortunate life and put some of her stories down on paper. Her two award-winning memoirs chronicled the generational substance use disorder in both Marilea and her daughter. Her third memoir, a love story she’s written with her partner about traveling around the national parks in the U.S., is scheduled for publication in early October. She also writes shorter pieces and poetry for various publications.

Writing is a terrific form of self-discovery, and it helps Marilea put her life into better perspective. This has proven to be a valuable right of passage for many men and women in their golden years, and she hopes in the future to teach life-writing to seniors. "