This Wasn’t Supposed To Be My Story: Defying Expectations, Living My Truth

This Wasn’t Supposed to Be My Story is a powerful memoir of resilience, reinvention, and truth-telling by Dr. Vanda Seward. Becoming a mother at sixteen, dropping out of high school, and growing up in public housing were supposed to define—and limit—her future. Instead, they became the foundation of a life lived on her own terms.

With raw honesty, Seward traces her journey from the Bronx to a groundbreaking career inside New York State’s criminal justice system, offering a rare insider perspective shaped by lived experience. She writes candidly about teen motherhood, street life, love and loss, working behind prison walls, and marrying a man who was incarcerated—while ultimately earning a GED, multiple degrees, and a PhD.

Threaded throughout is her mantra, “I don’t give a damn,” not as defiance, but as clarity and self-preservation. This memoir challenges stereotypes, exposes the human cost of mass incarceration, and affirms that destiny is not dictated by circumstance—but reclaimed through courage, education, and truth.