My Story - Black In Business

Just a regular girl from the streets of Oakland California I come into the world in 1980. Times were hard from there being raised by a single mother. Working sometimes two and three jobs to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. She struggled, but she always made sure I was taken care of. My father left when I was three so memories of him as a child in my life are foggy. Growing up I always thought I understood why or knew how it would be to have a father even though he wasn’t around, but as I got older I didn’t. The strength and will of having a powerful mother picked up the slack in that area. So, I would say I turned out pretty good anyway.

The next phases of my life consisted of some tough growing pains and life lessons to only become the person that I am today. An overachiever I was told. A go-getter. I set goals for myself after elementary school because I felt I wasn’t good enough those years. Yeah, of course, a fun-loving kid who loved music and would sing and play songs to herself. Deep down I was a shy girl with low confidence. A girl who didn’t even know her talents could take her somewhere one day. Heck, that little girl didn’t know what talents were she was just doing things for fun. As a teenager in junior high school, my confidence level got worse. So, I challenged myself. I said, “self, you will be outgoing and participate in activities and you will make sure that your grade point average is above a 3.0 until you graduate from high school”. I told myself that every day until I finished and sure enough I made it through. I graduated with honors, I was a cheerleader, and I was Vice President of the student body. I called my self-check challenge. And every time I felt I was losing myself I would check it and bring it back down a notch. Oh boy, there were a lot of times when I lost myself, but as a teenager, we all did that right. LOL! I guess that explains why I need to have control of so many other things in life now. Trusting people has always been hard for me. Cause there have been so many that have come into my life that is untrustworthy. Even now and in today’s society trust will take you far with a person like me. Once you show me who you are I believe you.

After high school came college. I honestly wasn’t sure about college at first, but then I thought yeah with very high expectations. I was initially accepted into a four-year university, but I vouched not to attend. Instead, I went and started at a local junior college. Where the tuition was free at that time and the convenience was close to home. I could drive every day to school and still get home in time to be with family at a reasonable time. But even then, a part of me still felt like I was missing out on the bigger experience of it all, and deep down I knew that. College was tough for me. It was the big leagues. I still managed to keep my self-checks in tack. I worked hard in school with no play-action hardly at all. I mean some guys liked me here and there, but it was nothing serious. I may have fallen in love a few times, but only to get heartbroken in the end. It wasn’t okay then but surely, I am over all those heartbreaks now because I lived it and I learned from every mistake.

Once college ended, I sort of found myself at a crossroads of not knowing what to do next. I had a degree, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to pursue what I went to school for. So, I continued to work at my full-time job in banking until I made my decision. Wiped out from the thought of having to go back to school exhausted me even more. I had just completed 6 years of college and right before that, I was in high school. So, I didn’t get a chance to have fun the way I wanted to. I was ready to breathe and take a break for a while. However, I did try too many times to get into a Master’s program but my heart wasn’t in it anymore. After being denied time after time I came into reality and just said I need to work. And at that time the cost of living was getting to be outrageous. Eventually, I was promoted to a personal banker and became one of the top sales representatives in the district. Burned out from all the sales I decided it was time for me to move on. I decided to pursue something in the house or behind scenes with the same company. Unfortunately, that didn’t work so well. I either didn’t have the experience they wanted or to make a lateral move most of the departments would only pay me at my same rate or I would have to take a pay cut. And definitely couldn’t let that happen. Continuing to burn out every day from the hustle and bustle of aggressive sales I realized I would have to start over and acquire new skills and the skills that pertain to either being an office assistant/receptionist or an accountant. I had the opportunity to test the waters in both areas to see which one I like the most. Needless to say, I had to take a pay cut here and there going through local temp agencies, but I was okay.

I had some hardship in between this time as well. For starters, I was laid off during the recession in 2009. Then a few years later in 2013, I had a fire in my apartment. I ended up homeless for about a month until I was able to find a permanent temporary residence until the repairs were fixed in my apartment. I had to move out, get a storage unit and live somewhere totally out of my comfort zone. The simple fact that I was even homeless for a while had its leaps and bounds. I thought I was losing my mind. I didn’t know whether I was coming or going. I can honestly say those were some of the toughest years of my life. It made me see what was important and what was not so important. I did a lot of growing & soul searching within myself and I became wiser. I started to pray a lot and read the bible and even visited some local churches. It made me stronger and it didn’t kill me. I realized that sometimes you have to walk through fire or be in darkness to come out stronger in the light. It’s almost as if you have to find your shine again through the rough growing pains society has to offer, and believe me society is not nice at times.

Once the storm ended up above, I was able to move back home to my current address. This time everything was brand new. Fresh and clean walls, new carpet, and even granite countertops. I was so happy because I was finally back home in my comfortable place. About a year later after moving back home I finally was able to land a permanent full-time job in a local government agency in the Finance department. I was so pleased with myself because one of my biggest dreams that had prayed for came true. I thought to myself I finally got a good job with good benefits and a huge opportunity to learn and grow in the accounting industry. As soon as I started, I excelled prosperously. How excited I was to be there every day with people who are on the same page as me. Having a job of importance and being able to help people in the community was most important. Again, I worked hard and I challenged myself to learn everything. I wanted to know all about accounting and how it works and how it flows. I dug deep into the details of it all in each area of Finance and soon realized all the connections between. Going back to school to get a Master’s in Accountancy crossed my mind more than a few times, but for some reason, I didn’t pursue it. Deep down there was some other force or something else telling me not to go forward in that direction. Looking at different schools and the curriculum of the programs didn’t excite me for some reason. So, I thought at that point maybe I’m stuck. Maybe I’m living out someone else’s dream and I am not fulfilling my true passion. Living in the era of COVID-19 has made me realize that accounting is not for me. And that my true passion is writing and freely being able to express myself on paper. It excites me and gives me the rush to be creative in my way. Telling stories based on real-life experiences excites me. Writing poems that turn into lyrics, and being able to put a rhythm to a rhyme makes me smile. It puts my critical thinking cap into gear and steamrolls me forward. I know now that the future is not in accounting it is definitely in storytelling.

With all that being said I recently started a freelance website blog with a collection of poetry pieces I created as a visionary. I came up with a cool concept to create poems based on song titles and albums. As a child through to adulthood, I would take words from conversations that I would have with people and be reminded of a song title or a part of a song lyric and just start belting out the song as a joke or tease to the person that I talking to. I know it’s weird, but it was my way of either taking a liking to that person or just me acting silly. So, in the reverse order of that my poems represent me having a conversation or script, one of my real-life experiences, or me just telling a story because my creative mind is flowing, or a mixture of all. For me, that is what will keep my audience curious as to what I will come up with next. It keeps the reader interested and coming back for more.

Eugenia80.com was created as a dedication to my late grandmother Eugenia Ogletree. She was always the life of the party and loved playing her music. A very outspoken woman with a heart of gold. Her personality exudes within me because I have so many memories of her and personality traits that will make you laugh and cry. She held nothing back living her life. She stood in her truth and she was never ashamed of that. She was who she was and if you didn’t like it, you could keep it moving. In the essence of that, I came up with three blog website categories. I created “My Playlist Hunt” which is a section for DJs & radio personalities to go and find music for their sets and playlist. The second category “Love, Trust, Mystery & Intimacy” is a section for my short storytelling based on some personal experiences. The last category will be the “Top 3 Throwbacks” section which will allow my viewers the opportunity to sit back relax and listen to music from back in the day. Eventually, I may expand this section but for right now I will start with 3 songs. Overall, this is a fun website with fun and interesting reads for my readers to engage and go on a journey.

I believe that most of my success has come from me learning and excelling in every phase of my life. I am a firm believer in starting from the bottom and working your way up. That is the only way success can drive you to move forward. The point of it all is that if you jump ahead of the game how will you ever learn or know how to approach an obstacle in the future. This has been my model for years. It is the honest way.