June 26, 2022; Sunday
I was doing some cleaning and found a box filled with old files and one of the folders had my 'journals'. When I was reading them I couldn't believe how far I have come? It was 2001 and I was burning CD's from my friend's dual cassette/CD player to create my own playlist, on top of that I was bouncing from one place to another. I didn't have a place of my own, I was about 2 months clean from narcotics. My life was so unstable that I was trying to get my life together to get my son back, he was less than 2 yrs old at the time. My social media life rarely existed, our music was either Napster or LimeWire; online chats were Yahoo or AOL and GeoCities to create your own page, that was my social media platform at the time. Top Charts at the time were Independent Women by Destiny's Child, Jennifer Lopez 'Love don't cost a thing.' Angel by Shaggy and All for you by Janet Jackson. As I'm reading these old journals, some got me emotional, especially during the struggle and others made me laugh, about some guy I use to date that I wasn't sure what would be the end result. I was trying to get my life together, finding a job while having a few sugar daddies helping me along the way lol. I remember this much I didn't think I'd make it this far (meaning today), I had bets that I would fail and die. I assumed I would relapse and go back into the life of prostitution. If someone told me I'd be an advocate to save lives, i would laugh so hard and maybe pee in my pants, literally! I had no desire to help anyone, much less trying to get out of the slums myself. I was living in the East coast bouncing from state to state. Going from Mpls, MN; Detroit, MI; Chicago, IL and Bronx/Brooklyn, NY and back again. I was a traveling via greyhound bus, hustling like I always did. Today, I have been clean for 21 years, my son is now in college, I have my own place, I own 2 businesses, I'm now an accomplished author and film producer. Who would've thought??? I'm still going! I know it's not throwback Thursday, but in the midst of all the heightened emotion, this gave me the inspiration to share. No matter what happens today, we still have the power to create positive change, I am a firm believer of that!
Love You!
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