Maya Holton
Bio
A real person living real life. I want to share the lessons I learn with all who will listen.
Stories (4/0)
7 Tips For Completely Renovating Your Home FOR LESS!
Let me start by saying that it is absolutely AMAZING that I have the chance to share these tips with you because not too long ago, completely renovating a home seemed like something I could only tackle if I hit the Florida Jackpot. Well, I have some good news for you, you don’t have to win the lottery in order to make some dreamy upgrades to your home!
By Maya Holton4 years ago in Lifehack
For The Graduates...There is More
What is graduation? When we graduate we move to the next level. It’s a time of celebration because we have the opportunity to declare that we have mastered where we were previously and now we have enough knowledge to move forward. It’s natural to feel like a conqueror after graduating to the next level, standing on top of a mountain of pride, driving a flag into the ground with your chin held high. What a glorious feeling! We should take time to enjoy the view on the top of that mountain and even invite some of our loved ones up to share the view with us. Being at the top of that mountain feels good, and though you worked hard through blood, sweat and tears to get there, I am here to tell you that you cannot stay there. You see after you have climbed a mountain and reached the summit you must come down because there are an infinite amount of other mountains for you to climb. It’s time to make a transition and begin preparation for a new climb. Transition is the point in your journey where you are no longer in the familiar past, but now you are tiptoeing into an unfamiliar future. Transitioning into the future can be exciting and motivating, but who wouldn't admit that sometimes it can be intimidating and scary? What happens when you are in the middle of a transition and things start to get a little shaky? It’s funny how we can sometimes have incredible drive to reach something new, but once we reach the new, that drive turns in fear or doubt just because the new it not familiar. You see, our emotions have a sneaky way of trying to throw us off during transitions when we were initially excited about our future. Our emotions can pull us back to the past because there is where we felt safe, there is where we were sure of ourselves, and there is where we were answering questions instead of asking them. You see, life has taught me that though you should definitely take things you have learned the past into your future for tools, but after a while, you must try not to reference back to the past as a whole. It is time for a new thing. I recently witnessed a person who had worked in their profession for a number of years with one organization start the same type of work with a new organization. This person had a wealth of knowledge and could probably write a bestselling book about how to perform every task perfectly…at their OLD job….I observed this person getting frustrated as they struggled with opening up to learning new things. This person started to reference things from their old job trying to make it fit at their present place of employment. This person was still picturing themselves standing at the top of the previous mountain they conquered while trying to climb a new one. “Well this is how I used to do it”, “When I was at my old job we used to it this way”, “Where I was before it didn’t take that long to get it done”, "I am not used to this pace"….Listen, you can either fight through transition or you can grow through it. I want to encourage you to push past those emotions that may come during this in -between time; the time between knowing something back there so well and not knowing what's ahead very much or at all. Transition is preparation, and whatever we do, we must fight not to turn back because it stops our growth. We must fight not to mentally keep ourselves bound to that mountain that we already concurred because that cuts us off from all the other amazing mountains there are for us to climb. When I was younger I used to have a Nintendo 64 and every day after school, I would always play this game with this little character (I believe he was a turtle) called, Yoshi Story. Yoshi Story had a number of levels and after you concurred one level, naturally, you moved on to the next. After countless afternoons of playing this game, my skills began to get better. I knew how to dodge danger, I studied the characters in the game, so I knew how to deal with them to avoid being devoured, and I could easily sniff out hidden treasures. On one glorious afternoon I gave my all to Yoshi Story and realized that I had finally reached the last level and concurred it! It was so exciting. There was even a little parade at the end of the game and Yoshi and all of his character friends would come out and sing this little celebration song. So after basking in the glory of my victory and waving my flag high at my own Yoshi parade I took the game out of the console and searched in my box of games for something new to play. The next game that caught my attention was called Zelda and it was about a prince whose job was to rescue a princess in this enchanted world. So I loaded Zelda into the game console and I waited for my character to pop into this little world for me to explore. I loved how this game looked, it was beautiful. There were huge green trees and flowing streams of sparkling blue water with cute little huts sitting nearby. The scenery was just so amazing to me, so I was excited to explore the rest of the game! I picked up my game controller, cracked my game playing thumbs and set out on a virtual adventure. First I made my character, Zelda, run around a huge rock because I wanted to see what was on the other side, and then suddenly the game paused and some words popped up on the screen, some instructions of some sort. So I read the instructions and said, “Ok, got it! Let’s play...I got a princess to save and hopefully another victory parade to attend so there is no time to waste!" I continued playing and about a minute later, I came upon a little troll looking character and the game stopped me again and more words came up on the screen. “More reading??? I wanna play”, I said to myself. So I took a deep breath and read whatever this character had to say, I’m sure it was some good advice to help me win that level, but I don’t remember because I was trying to play not read! So I keep going running through the forest, hoping over the sparkling blue streams until I got to the entrance of a cave. "Oh this is going to be good", I said. Yoshi story didn't have caves, Zelda has caves this is about to be EPIC...Then suddenly the game paused AGAIN and more words popped up on the screen. I threw that Nintendo controller and said, “You know what, I’ve had about enough of this. I can't even play the game because it wants me to read! I just came from school where I was reading ALL DAY. I think not." Frustrated and in need of a pick-me-up, I pulled that Zelda game out of that Nintendo and quickly found Yoshi Story so that I could beat the entire game in 10 minutes and have a song and parade without having to read ANYTHING becasue I knew that game like the back of my hand. I lost count on how many times I beat Yoshi Story after my attempt at Zelda. Had my parents known that I was only going to play that one game they could have saved a lot of money. But I wonder though… what I might have encountered if I would have stuck it out through Zelda…How great might my game playing skills might have been if I pushed past that uncomfortable feeling of not knowing and understood that Zelda was a more advanced game than Yoshi Story, so it required more reading, and more patience. I don’t know if there was a parade at the end of Zelda because I gave up before I got there. I was uncomfortable with the transition from one game to the next so I ran back to the one that was familiar. I wanted a victory at a new place using the same skills from my past but I needed new skills and that was going to require more work. I had to leave my old mountain behind to climb a new one. Sometimes we don’t get the promise that is in our future because we refuse to go through that uncomfortable phase of transition. Graduates, while you prepare to climb this new mountain, make sure you put pride aside, push past fear and discomfort, and allow yourselves to be divinely molded during this transition.
By Maya Holton4 years ago in Education
Stepping Outside of Privilege
Imagine growing up in a world where you have power and privilege just because you were born a certain race. You are comfortable, the world is generally accommodating to your wants and needs, and most of the obstacles you encounter usually have nothing to do with the color of your skin. Now imagine stepping out of your comfortable position to speak up for people who don't look like you, live where you live, experience life how you experience it, or share your history. Why bother putting your neck on the line when life is generally comfortable for you? Why risk being ridiculed by people of your own race for standing up for another race? What motivates you to put your energy into something that is so outside of yourself, and seemingly has nothing to do with you continuing to live your privileged life?
By Maya Holton4 years ago in Humans
The American Truth
History has been seriously watered down when it comes to the truth behind the Black experience in the United States of America. Some individuals (usually non-black) wholeheartedly believe that if Black people would just simply “obey the authorities” we would be fine, and everyone would get to walk away alive. Yes, do what you can to be a law abiding and respectful citizen, but It needs to be understood that after Slavery was abolished, most of white America was FURIOUS. For those who opposed the abolishment of slavery, simply being black and “free” was a crime in their eyes, and it was a crime that white authorities had to keep in order. White America’s economy and money making through slavery were disrupted, and now their purchased human beings who they whipped, bred, sold, hung, burned, maimed and raped were supposed to be their EQUAL??? It was unfathomable to them. Laws were established back then to help keep white Americans in power “for their losses”, and today many of those laws are STILL in place. This is where the systemic hate was conceived ... “hate that I am being forced to see you and treat you as an equal, and for that I will show you that you are not”. This mentality is embedded in American history and is STILL embedded in the minds of so many today, and it is called White Supremacy. People are still teaching their children that they are better than, or more worthy than Blacks simply because that ideology has been passed down through their families since slavery. Even if the teachings don’t go as far to say “you are better than them”, some are being taught that white people brought Africans to America to teach them how to be civilized, are were given free meals and living accommodations. That sounds like the propaganda that was spread about the “cafes” that Jewish people had access to for their “enjoyment” in concentration camps (look it up). All lies and cover ups for white corruption. I recently had the opportunity to explain to a white coworker, who is in their 50’s, that segregations was not meant to protect Black people. This coworker was under the impression that Black people went to and lived in black neighborhoods only because they were “safer there” …Can we talk about Tulsa??? I had to explain that we were FORCED to stay in our own neighborhoods because we were not allowed to be in white neighborhoods, sections of a bus, sections of a restaurant, section or a library, or any other facility that white people did not want to encounter a black face. This was a clear indication of distorted teachings! In America, there is obvious fear on bother sides of this white picket fence. On one side there is a fear of losing a way of life, and on the other side there is a fear of losing life all together. The fact is, a system and way of life should have NEVER been built on the backs of people who were stolen from their rich land to be forced into making someone else’s land rich FOR FREE. So, you see, it’s not about “obeying the authorities”, it’s about changing laws that were established to keep a specific group of people in power and protected. Should any white person who decide to hunt down and murder a former slave because they could no longer make money off them, THEY would be PROTECTED “in the name of the law”. This diluted version of American history has strategically hidden the truth behind people’s emotions, actions, and reactions, specifically Black people. America was never built to protect Black Lives; it was built to keep Black Lives in order.
By Maya Holton4 years ago in The Swamp