Don’t Take Nothing For granted

Tomorrow July 19th will mark 34 years of me existing here on earth. Some may have different perspectives about it. For older people to them 34 years old you’re still young and new to certain things in life. To my generation it’s an accomplishment to even make to even make it past the age of 18 years old. I have seen a lot and experienced a lot in my 34 years of life. One thing I am certain of if nothing else is life waits on no one. Enjoy every moment from the biggest accomplishments to the smallest stolen moments with your loved ones. Most would be planning a party, but not me at least not this year. This year I just want to relax and enjoy my day with my Mother who Blessed me with life and my kids and Day 1’s. Before the pandemic we had a big road trip planned 30 of us cousins mixed 3 generations to visit other relatives and just enjoy the experience riding state to state. There’s a reason for everything we are certainly postponing it not canceling. For me it would’ve been my first vacation ever with my kids. In my 17 years of being in the working world I have never taken off work let alone taken a vacation with my 3 kids. Sad I know but it’s a reality for a lot of people. I’ve never made enough money from working to be able to miss work, because if I didn’t work I didn’t get paid. Not every job offers paid time off. I seen this quote on social media “ They want women to work like they don’t have kids and raise kids like they don’t have to work.” If you’ve been able to do it God Bless you and don’t ever take it for granted because not everybody can do it, but I’m not setting limits like it’s impossible. It’s all about the given opportunities and resources. For me as a single parent of 3 kids ages 13,7 and 4 years old. The hours you work are critical either you have to leave for work and not be able to take them to school or take them to school and not be able to pick them up. Not all schools offer decent after school care or they want to Charde an arm and a leg for it. Some schools offer scholarships and some don’t. Then you have the jobs that has mandatory OT or you have to work weekends and holidays. As you can see the struggle is real as a single parent because you have so many things you have to consider. You’re blessed if you have help. For the ones that don’t have a support system I really admire your strength to persevere. Currently since the pandemic I’ve been off from work, because I am a shuttle driver in San Francisco and the city and most corporate business are closed or working from home. In these 5 months I’ve been home I’ve helped my kids get through there last couple of months of school via social distance learning. It surely was not easy getting them to adapt to the change. My son debated with me everyday on why he couldn’t play Fortnite on his ps4,because he figured he was on early vacation since he wasn’t at school physically. My daughter struggled a bit to finish she’s certainly and in the classroom learner. Not being able to have the on- demand resources and student to teacher dialogue when having trouble was a problem for her. My baby had just started Pre-school so she went from the whole experience of making new friends and leaving the nest for a couple hours to having zoom meetings to still have that social connection. Fortunately she’s back in school with a smaller class down from 24 students to have but only 8 actually attend. Anyways I said all of that to say this don’t take nothing for granted. Don’t take life for granted, dont take your kids/ family/ friends, don’t take people for granted, don’t take time with your family for granted, don’t take your job for granted, don’t take opportunities for granted, nothing at all no matter how big or small you may think it is. If this pandemic hasn’t done anything else, I can say for sure it made me appreciate people and other things that much more. You never realize how much something means until it’s gone. You never really realized how much going somewhere or having this or having that or being able to do this or that meant until you are restricted to not being able to have or do something. Enjoy the small things in life for once.