My name is Sheann Stokes Gilmore, better known as BMC. I was born in Houston, Texas, in a Pentecostal church where my mother led the choir with a voice that filled the whole sanctuary. She gave me music, stage presence, and self-confidence. Losing her when I was young broke me in ways I can’t fully describe.
Life didn’t make it easy for me after that. I spent years in foster care. I came to Tulsa on a Greyhound bus, broken and searching for hope. I battled addiction. I was homeless, nights spent sleeping under the Meadow Gold Pavilion on 11th and Peoria. I lived a life where you had to be strong just to survive. In 2019, everything changed again. I was shot. The bullet tore through my body—piercing my lung, lacerating the main artery of my heart, destroying a kidney, and lodging itself in my pancreas, where it still sits today. I was in a coma for two months, paralyzed from the neck down, with a trach in my throat. The doctors didn’t know if I would live and when I did come back; I had to relearn to walk, to
talk, and to even breathe on my own.
Then, came the hardest part: I lost my sight. When the doctors told me I’d never see again, I felt like my spirit had been ripped out. I felt useless. I felt alone. But somewhere inside of me, a voice said: This is not the end. This is the beginning of something new.
So, I chose not to quit. I reinvented myself. And out of my pain, I found purpose. At first, it was simple. I asked myself, what can a blind man do? A blind man can wash dishes, a blind man can cook, and a blind man can keep moving forward. What started as a question became a declaration: Blind Man Can. Eventually, I realized it wasn’t enough just to survive—I needed to build a future. That’s when I found Tulsa Community College. TCC didn’t just give me an education — it gave me community. A place where I wasn’t defined by my blindness, but by my vision. Advisors, professors, and mentors — all poured into me and reminded me that my story still mattered. I became a NSO Leader, welcoming others to college and showing them: If I can succeed, you can, too.
Today, I’m a Communications major, but my dream is bigger than a degree. My dream is to inspire — to help others believe that no matter what life takes from you, it can never take away your purpose.
Life didn’t make it easy for me after that. I spent years in foster care. I came to Tulsa on a Greyhound bus, broken and searching for hope. I battled addiction. I was homeless, nights spent sleeping under the Meadow Gold Pavilion on 11th and Peoria. I lived a life where you had to be strong just to survive. In 2019, everything changed again. I was shot. The bullet tore through my body—piercing my lung, lacerating the main artery of my heart, destroying a kidney, and lodging itself in my pancreas, where it still sits today. I was in a coma for two months, paralyzed from the neck down, with a trach in my throat. The doctors didn’t know if I would live and when I did come back; I had to relearn to walk, to
talk, and to even breathe on my own.
Then, came the hardest part: I lost my sight. When the doctors told me I’d never see again, I felt like my spirit had been ripped out. I felt useless. I felt alone. But somewhere inside of me, a voice said: This is not the end. This is the beginning of something new.
So, I chose not to quit. I reinvented myself. And out of my pain, I found purpose. At first, it was simple. I asked myself, what can a blind man do? A blind man can wash dishes, a blind man can cook, and a blind man can keep moving forward. What started as a question became a declaration: Blind Man Can. Eventually, I realized it wasn’t enough just to survive—I needed to build a future. That’s when I found Tulsa Community College. TCC didn’t just give me an education — it gave me community. A place where I wasn’t defined by my blindness, but by my vision. Advisors, professors, and mentors — all poured into me and reminded me that my story still mattered. I became a NSO Leader, welcoming others to college and showing them: If I can succeed, you can, too.
Today, I’m a Communications major, but my dream is bigger than a degree. My dream is to inspire — to help others believe that no matter what life takes from you, it can never take away your purpose.
