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