At the tender age of 6, all that I can remember is how much I wanted to be “grown.” I got SO tired of my mom and dad telling me what to do. “Clean your room…take the trash out…wash the dishes…go outside and play,” they used to say. My thoughts would always be, “I am so sick of this…I cannot wait until I am grown and can do what I want…being a kid sucks.”...

Beauty is simply being the best possible version of yourself on the inside and out. Or at least this is what I believe. However, society has seemed to have strayed away from the concept of what beauty actually is. So many little girls are dealing and coping with the inability of seeing themselves as beautiful. Regardless of their complexion or whether they be fat, skinny, tall or short, a lot of our little girls are struggling to find themselves and what characteristics define who they are...

Growing up in a poverty stricken environment, I always knew that basketball was my “ticket” to success. Although my siblings and I wanted for things, our needs were always met because both of my parents worked their hardest to assure that we always had the best that they could provide...

Dinner and a movie. A walk in a park after a lunch for two. Floating the river with a nice picnic to follow. They might not be the most original, but these are classic date ideas. Living in an era where the dating culture has increasingly evolved into a cycle of text messages, each one requiring the code-breaking skills of a cold war spy to interpret the “lingo”[language], it seems as though the word “dating” has been completely stricken from the dictionary...

Waking up one morning, you notice by the sound of the rain and thunder that your day is already off the a “slow” start. After all, who likes to get up and get out of their comfy bed for work when it is raining? Nobody. Nevertheless, you proceed on with your morning but then you notice that you’re running late because you failed to set your alarm the following night. Typical human error, right?...

How many of us can say that we have allowed technology to “entertain” our children at some point during the day? Playing “Call of Duty” on their PlayStation or “Roblox” on their tablet or even an occasional “YouTube” video here or there seems to be the norm. There is nothing wrong with that though, right? It HAS to be perfectly okay to allow our children to be influenced by social media and all that it entails, right? ABSOLUTELY NOT...

Living in a day and age where life is experienced at such a fast rate, it is easy to forget the small things that can go a long way. Being kind to someone is one of the easiest yet most difficult gestures to maintain in our society. Contrary to popular belief, it is not always easy to be kind to others. ...

Do you ever find yourself looking back over your life and thinking about all of the important things that have happened to you? Whether they are good and bad…one has to think that the purpose for going through it yields a greater outcome for their future. I’m sure that most will argue one of the two…it was either fate or all in God’s timing...

Is the equation that simple? The more money that you have, the happier you will be or does the amount of money that one may possess even matter when it comes to happiness? I, for one, truly believe that lack of money creates an insurmountable amount of real stress in real life; however, I also feel that there is not an exact amount that is required for one to say, “I am happy.”...

Let’s just face it, parenting can be hard…although it is the most rewarding privilege in the world, it can also create a sense of doubt and hopelessness. Am I doing things the right way? Am I being the best parent that I can be? We’ve all had that moment where we weren’t sure that we were doing enough to provide the best life for our children, but I’m here to assure you that it IS enough...