the mornings as well as when they left for school and returned home.
As single parents, we will do what we have to for the sake of our children and sometimes we won’ t always make the best decisions. In the mist of my thrive while working and parenting happily, I decided that my life was such a story from childhood to the present that I could write a book. Eventually I began taking pieces of my life with the creativity of my writing and published a poetry book titled Experienced Expressions. I can honestly say that the support in getting my book off the ground was phenomenal. Volunteers came out and assisted me with a used shoe sale as well as getting out in the highways and byways holding up homemade donation signs to help sponsor my book. The profit was remarkable. I had the best book release Cabaret one could ever expect“ A black tie affair” catered dinner, ice sculpture, guess speakers, spiritual dancers the whole nine! Even judges were in attendance. Unbeknownst to everyone I had a secret that threaten to snatch my THRIVE and destroy my entire foundation.
On the same day that my book dropped I walked into work with two new things. A copy of my book to show anyone and an ankle bracelet on my left leg to keep from everyone. In the middle of writing my book I made some wrong choices in my life that lead to me being arrested and facing criminal charges at that time for shoplifting. Although I was out on bail I proceeded to write my book until I finished it, then went on to publish it because I refused to allow my mistake to set-back my goal. I ended up with a home confinement sentence, but my desire to show my children more success than failure I invested heavily in Experienced Expressions and it took off, once again giving me back my THRIVE. I started doing book signings in various places such as; Barnes & Nobel, Borders, Coatesville
Library etc. also promoting and selling my book however, whenever and to whoever. Making the best of a bad situation is the first step in getting your THRIVE back especially when being a single mother. There will come plenty of times in life when circumstances won’ t always be in your favor and sometimes they are even designed to pull us down but when you are a mother you will always have someone watching you, therefore it is very necessary to have a cape nearby to quickly put that“ S” on your chest so both you and your children can see just how powerful your THRIVE truly is.
The past two years have been hard for me. after living life on an up and down basis, I finally took a tumble after losing my mother in 2014. I took her loss so hard that it literally made me sick. At the time, I was attending West Chester University for my bachelor’ s degree, doing well as a single mom paying all my own bills and taking care of all my children independently. Apart of me got buried when my mother did. I ended up getting so depressed my body began to experience physical pain. By the time, I was done being hospitalized on numerous occasions, seeing several specialists at the University of Penn and going through a vast amount of blood test, I ended up being diagnosed with fibromyalgia, which is( a chronic widespread pain disease) that attacks your nerve system causing pain and inflammation in your muscles, bones and joints. Rheumatoid arthritis set in my hands so bad that I could no longer pick up my baby daughter. I was medically withdrawn from school and bed bound for two years with a weekly dated medication case that reminded me of the ones my elder patients would have to remind them of what pills to take on what days. Visits from friend and family began to get less and less until they became almost nonexistent. If ever I felt alone in life, it was during the peak of my illness. By this time, the father of my children
18 THRIVE MAGAZINE