I hate doing these so close together but I want to continue the story for those of you who care.

The Santander Universities Crowdfunding Challenge is an initiative which allows businesses to market and raise funds for their services. The programme began at the beginning of August with a series of webinars which gave attendees the opportunity to be put through their paces with online training, one-to-one coaching on how crowdfunding can benefit their business, and how to create an engaging, successful crowdfunding project. The webinars covered areas such as:

Gigger with holes in her shoes.

My brain said it over and over, " but it's so beautiful."

In late February of 2020, I quit the full-time marketing job that was slowly sucking the life out of me. Saying this sentence now makes me shudder, but I was twenty-three years old and I had this perpetual optimism about me that said "it's okay if you don't have a plan--you'll figure it out, you always do." On the drive home after I informed my boss that I couldn't work there any more, I mused about what it was that I wanted to do. I always wanted to be a singer/songwriter as a kid, but I didn't have any resources to further that pipe dream, so I started to scale back.

I got laid off from the best job I had had to date in May of this year. To say it was a crushing blow is an understatement. I had never had a job like that, where everyone in the office got along for the most part and helped each other. The team I worked on became close like family, and we all still keep in touch even though most of us also got laid off. I never thought that I would find another job where I would make connections like that. And while I actively looked for jobs for the duration of my unemployment the future of almost every company that I applied for was unsteady. As a result of that, I was being asked to do a monumental amount of work for minimum wage. They wanted 10 years of experience for minimum wage. They wanted the earth and the moon and probably Mars too, for minimum wage. I turned down more jobs in those few months than I ever have in my whole life.

A campaign has been launched to help raise funds for the production of a couple of story books which aim to preserve the memories of NHS workers who have lost their lives during the Covid 19 pandemic. The money raised will go to help support NHS charities and the good work they do.

I'm here because Blogger has made it impossible for me to create posts with any of the ease that made everything so approachable in the beginning. On a grander scale, I'm here because I have a voice, and I fight for people to be successful in a life of sobriety by sharing my long story of my battle with addiction. I'm here because there is a small chance I might actually make $6 every now and then if enough people find my material interesting. We shall see...

When I started my corporate career experience, I never could have foreseen the many difficult life lessons I would learn that would shape me into who I am today. Most of my time in that world spanned my 20s and early 30s, and while I was definitely mature for my age, I had no idea what I was in for. I unfortunately had to learn the very hard way that not only was I not allowed to make mistakes as a Black woman, any mistakes I did make would live with me in ways it wouldn't for others. I learned at all times, I was being held to a different standard than my counterparts, as most Black people are in their given professions. 

I met a young man the other day the moment before he died. With my job I come across a lot of dead people. As an EMT, it is our job to call a time of death for people we get called to with obvious signs of death. Obviously, when we get called to a cardiac arrest and the patient is workable we do what we need to, to try and bring the person back to life. But, the other day was just strange. I’ve never met someone the moment before they passed away. He was having shortness of breath – gave him some oxygen and he said it made him feel better while we transported him to the nearest hospital. I have to add that this person had a terminal illness, but wasn’t given a time and wasn’t considered a hospice patient. We were talking and his family was with us, holding his hand for the ride. Upon arriving at the hospital, I transferred care to them, made him comfortable in his hospital bed and told him and his family that I hoped he feels better.

No word that can explain the turmoil I feel inside me. Since March 2020, I am jobless, and having a deadly pandemic is not helping at all.

My fiance and I have worked 3 different jobs over the last few years. And everytime, it was always JUST ENOUGH to pay the bills and buy groceries. Even the times we though we'd have extra money, something always managed to come up. It just wasn't enough. We couldn't save money, which has been our main goal the last 4 years. We wanted to save money to buy a house, we wanted to get a second car, we wanted to have extra money for emergencies, we have procedures we have to pay for. But we never have the money for any of those things because our regular jobs just weren't enough. Not to mention NO FLEXIBILITY, and NO JOB SECURITY. can you say "STRESSED" because that's where we were. Then one day, a very sweet lady offered me some free MaryKay samples, and of course as any girl who cares about skincare would, I jumped at it! She sent me to a facebook group where another beautiful woman did a live video showing how to use the products and spoke about her journey with MaryKay. She said some things that surprised me. First and foremost, MaryKay, unlike sephora or ulta, offers payment plans. That blew my mind and was really a make or break moment for me. Also, MaryKay consultants make 50% of commissions, THATS INSANELY HIGH! and lastly, Marykay is not a pyramid scheme, Everyone at every level makes a 50% profit. No one makes any less to pay the higher levels. So how do the higher levels make more money based on the lower levels? Simple. Commissions given to them by Mary Kay Corporate. It is coming out of the company’s pocket and not the lower level’s pockets. Again proving MaryKay is not a pyramid scheme. MaryKay pays you out of their 50% rather than taking out of the lower levels 50% which means money will never be taken from you, me or anyone who works for MaryKay to pay someone at a higher level. It'll be directly from MaryKays pocket. Just to break it down a little more, you start off making 50% and MaryKay makes 50% as you sell more product you move up, and as you move up you will start seeing your percentage go up from 50% while MaryKays percentage drops from 50%. So what you make has nothing to do with anyone else in the company. That(along with so many 9ther amazing things) is what sets this MLM company away from others. This company offers women a real chance with amazing well known products that sell themselves because there's already millions of women that use these products and love these products.