1's Pursuit of Happiness

How many times can a person fall before they finally understand what they have been running from?

In One's Pursuit of Happiness, Miranda Rights tells the unpredictable and personal story of a life spent searching for belonging, purpose, love and peace. From a childhood shaped by affection, violence, fear, sports, music and survival in Brooklyn to military service, addiction, emergency medical work, family struggles and recovery, Miranda's journey refuses to follow a simple path.

Growing up in the Albany housing projects, Miranda learned early that life could be both wonderful and frightening. There were family traditions, neighborhood adventures, baseball games, football fields, music, and laughter but there were also dangers outside the home and painful realities within it. Beneath everything was an internal struggle Miranda could not explain, a feeling of incompleteness that remained hidden while life moved forward.

That search for relief led to alcohol, drugs, reckless decisions and years of running from difficult emotions. Yet even through self-destruction, Miranda continued to serve, work, compete, protect others and rise after every fall. Her experiences carried her from the streets of New York to service in the United States Air Force, where she worked on military aircraft and supported missions connected to Operation Just Cause.

Then came September 11, 2001.

After both towers had fallen, Miranda made her way toward Lower Manhattan to help. What followed was a harrowing journey through barricades, overwhelmed hospitals, emergency staging areas and the immense rubble of Ground Zero. Working alongside medical personnel, firefighters, volunteers and rescue crews, she witnessed devastation beyond anything she had imagined and became part of the desperate effort to help those still trapped beneath the ruins.

But the greatest battle in this memoir is not fought on a football field, beside an aircraft or across the rubble of a fallen tower. It is fought within.

One's Pursuit of Happiness is not a story of instant redemption. It is a lifetime of memories, contradictions, mistakes, courage, addiction, service, regret, survival and the difficult process of accepting the person reflected in the mirror.

This is the story of an imperfect individual who has fallen more times than she can count but continues to rise. It is a reminder that happiness is not always a destination waiting at the end of the road. Sometimes it is found in understanding the roads that brought us here.

Fasten your seatbelt. The ride is about to begin.