Michelle Sharmaine Felder was born on November 22, 1967 to Dorothy Mae Green and Darnell Phillip Felder Sr.  On this day in 1967, I was a scorpio, but as the calendar and zodiac dates have changed, I am now a Sagittarius.  My mom says that this explains my moodiness and my tendency to have multiple personalities.  I was born in Baltimore, Maryland where I lived until I was 18 years old.

At 18, I moved to Washington, D.C. to attend Howard University on an athletic scholarship in track and field.  Not only was I a first generation college student, but I was the very first person in my entire family to attend college.  This caused excitement and resentment within our family structure, but I did not let this slow me down.  I knew that the best way to improve my family situation was to get my education, so I left.

This is where my life was touched by two very important people.  The first was my track coach, William P. Moultrie.  Coach Moultrie believed in me when all others had stopped.  As a junior at Southwestern High School, I was highly recruited by numerous colleges and universities across the U. S.  However, as a senior, I pulled a hamstring muscle and my scholarship offers began to dwindle.  One coach was very persistent.  He came to my house in Baltimore and was sitting talking to my mom when I came home from school.  I don't know exactly what he said to my mom, but she was pretty sure that Howard University was the place for me.  Coach Moultrie acted as a coach, a father, a confident and a mentor.  Under his guidance, I made All American 6 times, broke numerous school, track meet and stadium records, was ranked in the U.S. Top Ten, was ranked in the World (52), and qualified for 3 olympic trials.  While at Howard, I completed the requirements for a
B. A. in Accounting.

The second was my husband, Quentin Hollis.  I don't even remember the first time we met.  You see, I was on my way to track practice and Quentin said, "Are you on the track team?"  He said that I just looked at him and kept walking.  A few weeks later, I noticed him.  He only attended Howard for one year and he was headed back to California.  I'll never forget the day that he looked into my eyes and said he was leaving.  The last thing that he said to me was, "If you go with me, I know that I will marry you".  I lacked two classes for graduation.  I completed those classes that summer and we were off to California in August 1991.  We were married on January 14, 1993.  The rest as they say is history.

On July 22, 1994, we had our first child, Quentin Maurice Hollis II.  We call him Scooter, because the child never crawled.  He did that military slide on his stomach.  Most babies wear out the knees of their clothes, but Scooter, wore out the stomachs of all of his shirts.

On January 17, 1998, we had our daughter, Diamond Nicole Hollis.  We call her Boogie, because she likes to dance.  The child couldn't even walk, but when she heard some music, she would get her groove on.  Diamond is a very unique individual.  At only 2 years old, she is very strong willed (to put it mildly).  She thinks that she runs the household.  If she had been born first, I strongly believe that she would have been the last.