Marissa McGee is a 17-year-old student who has been in Boulder for two years now, and she’s lived a lot of lives and in a lot of places for being just 17.
Marissa was separated from her family at a very young age, passed back and forth, fought over like some kind of trophy, she said—in and out of foster homes and group homes, all of which she disliked. Experiencing addiction and abuse for most of life, both within herself and in those around her, gave her a very resilient outlook on life from a young age.
“I am a survivor, not a victim,” she said, “and I hate when people are nice out of pity because they found something out about what happened.”
Marissa was born in Duluth, Minnesota, before moving to Great Falls, Montana. From there, she lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Missouri; and, for a short time, Texas. All this before finally landing in Boulder, Montana—her favorite place so far, she said, because of the people and their acceptance of her.
Being forced to grow up and raise herself through a turbulent childhood was not an easy task, but in the end these experiences made her who she is today. Hate and violence aren’t something anyone should go through, she said, and Marissa works to make sure people feel loved and have a safe person around. She knows what it’s like not to.
She also follows what she calls “the rule of fives”: If something she’s thinking about won’t matter in five minutes, five weeks or five months from now, then it’s not worth getting worked up over. Anger isn’t an emotion Marissa enjoys because, “being angry is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”
We then asked her about her future plans, and who inspires her, she said “I’ve always looked up to Robert Downey Jr. because he has never let his past define him, and I really like the messages that the Marvel movies portray.”
She plans on going into acting herself because “it’s free rein” to be who you want. She also has a lot of people to prove wrong, she said, and making it big in the film industry would be a big “screw you” to everyone who doubted her. “Success is the best revenge.” Plus, she said, like Downey Jr., you can find success in acting regardless of your past.
“Every decision you make is a conscious decision,” she said. “Your past really doesn’t define you.”
After graduation, the aspiring actress plans to attend acting school in Los Angeles within the next year or so. Despite having gone through such traumatic experiences, she never lets her past define her. Instead, she defies it.
