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Being homeless
In life I always heard the saying “disaster can strike at any moment”. I never really knew what it meant until the one day disaster took my whole life and turned it upside down. My parents took us out to eat dinner and when we got home we were shocked by a scene that looked like it had come straight out of a horror movie. Police cars covered the entire street and it wasn’t until we got out of the car that we realized what had happened. Broken glass filled our driveway, our door was wide open, and we could see our possessions scattered throughout the driveway. We had been the unfortunate victims of a home invasion. Weeks went by and though we knew it was a big deal, my siblings and I were not concerned that this would escalate. For the next three months, even though my parents tried to hide it, we could tell something was wrong. They were struggling to make ends meet and our lives were different but we still had hope that the situation would turn around and we would be back to living our old life in no time. Finally, month four came and my parents were late on rent for the fourth time. The landlord hadn’t been so lenient because she said it was becoming a habit. The next day we were served with a three-day notice. We spent the next few days moving all of our stuff behind our next-door neighbor’s house. He was a pastor and told my parents that he had no problem helping us because we could not afford to rent a storage unit. He even gave us money to stay in a motel room for two nights. Little did we know, this was just the beginning. We were homeless and we had to accept it no matter how much we didn’t want to. For two months we were completely on our own with no family, nowhere to sleep except the car and just enough money to provide us with meals every day. One day my mom got sick of seeing us like that and she asked for help. We didn’t know it, but we were about to meet a bunch of people that didn’t want to judge but wanted to help. Organizations like homeless coalitions and the amazing people that worked for them helped us with shelter each night. One day we met an amazing group of Christians who opened up their church house to us and allowed us to stay there for a month. We decided to drive to our old house and bring what was left of our belongings back with us because we needed more clothes and personals. When we got there we were met with a very disturbing sight. Our bags of clothes and shoes were ruined due to frequent thunderstorms and were then full of flies, maggots, and other bugs as well as mold and an extremely bad smell. We were able to salvage about 5 bags of clothing and the rest was hauled off to the dump. We reached out to more programs and they were able to give us clothes, shoes, money for food and gas, and hope that things would turn around. Seeing how hard everyone worked to make sure we were okay and that they had a genuine love for us is what kept us going every day. There were times where we would feel like giving up and a member of the church would pray over the phone with us and let us know that we would make it through. Over the course of the year 2019, we had somewhere around twenty-five to thirty programs helping to get us off of the street and we were able to meet so many people that were in the same situation as us and had been for way longer than us. Even though we didn’t have much, we gave what we could to somebody that was lower than us and had nothing at all. A few people would question how we could give away and we barely had enough ourselves and it was because over the course of those six months we had come into contact with some marvelous people and they showed us that if you are able to help someone you should because you never know how much your blessing means to someone. There were so many moments where it looked like no progress was being made at all. Numerous folks would help us find houses or apartment complexes and we would eventually end up getting denied. Even if we felt like the efforts were hopeless, we had an amazing team standing behind us and telling us to keep going. They were so motivational and understanding of our situation. After four more months of searching the day, we were all so hopeful would come, finally came. An apartment complex called my mom on a Saturday morning and we couldn’t hear the conversation but we saw tears streaming down her face. “Just another disappointment,” we all thought but when she hung the phone up she said four words that sent chills down my spine and tears to my eyes. “We found a place” was all she had told us before we were up and running around the motel room packing our belongings in bags and throwing them in the car. The entire way over I was too emotional to actually know what was going on. When we pulled into the complex a representative from the homeless coalition had been sitting in the parking lot crying. When she saw us she ran to hug my mom and said “I told you, I told you. Give it to God and he will work it out.” It amazed me to know that her, along with many other amazing individuals, had never given up hope and cared about us so much. Never once did we think that this world was filled with such amazing people. Once we were in the apartment, programs like food pantries, goodwills, thrift shops and even members from a few churches gave what they could. Within a week of us being in our new apartment, we had new furniture, clothes, shoes, food, and extra money in our pockets. I remember the first day we stepped into our house. We all stood around talking about how unreal everything felt. At one point all of us sat together and cried because it felt that unbelievable. Not only were we grateful for a place to call our own, but we were grateful that even when we felt like it was the only option, we never gave up. Day after day for a year, my family and I were faced with troubling situations. Some we never thought we would make it out of. Through it all, we realized one thing, that the world is filled with great people and all it takes is motivation to join those great people. Whether you pray with someone who’s struggling or provide a person with enough money to get a room and a meal, it only takes a small deed to give someone enough hope to keep going. I picked up on habits like donating my clothes instead of throwing them away, speaking up about something I can help with if someone is asking, and making it my business to help anyone in need even if it’s just sitting and listening to what they have to say. My heart goes out to the many people who took time out of their workdays and even came and helped us on their days off. Growing up I took life for granted and looking back I realize how bad that was. Being homeless taught me that you don’t need expensive shoes and clothes to be a respectable person in society, you just need to have a good heart and a desire to help. For so long I was afraid to tell anyone what I went through, but now I embrace it. I was homeless, I saw what it was like to live in a car and not know where my next meal was going to come from some nights, and I experienced scary situations that kids shouldn’t have to go through but if you ask me I’ll tell you it was all worth it. I say this because I learned a lesson from it. I learned that nothing in life, besides life and death, are promised to us. So I’ve learned to live life and never take anything I have, even though it isn’t much, for granted because it can be gone in the blink of an eye.
By Eliza Crawford6 years ago in Motivation
President Buhari applauds Nigerian man who found a wallet loaded with cash in Japan and returned it.
Ikenna, who is a Ph.D. student at the University of Tsukuba, Japan, and a teaching assistant in the same university, said he was on his way home when he found the wallet.
By Purity Ezenwa6 years ago in Motivation
Live a productive life!
Productivity and Efficiency are the two most crucial parameters in achieving your goals. Having goals provide you with a sense of direction and inner desire to make something massive. When you are crystal clear about the goals you want to achieve and have inscribed a detailed plan achieving it, you are more likely to succeed. But setting goals doesn't deserve a successful outcome; you must also be action-oriented. Without action, nothing will work.
By Himanshu Patil6 years ago in Motivation
In Love With You
Work, work, work, school, kids, more work, house, more work. At the beginning of the day and the end of each day. A good cup of coffee keeps you going. As you see, I am a coffee lover to me. It is essential to have it around. It is like having a love of your life with you 24/7, but with the difference, you do not get tired of your coffee company. I started drinking coffee, and I would say when I was twenty-two years old. I was starting working as a receptionist. I did not have kids; my relationship with my husband at the time was terrible. So, I got used to drinking coffee, and it was a company, a way to kill anxiety, forget my problems for a while. Now I only knew American coffee, but with time I started trying different types of coffee. The more I work, the more I got into American with cream and sugar, Cortaditos (small cup of coffee with froth milk), macchiato, and so many more. It was so good that I could not stop, and I was getting carried away. But of course, like anything in this life, your body gets to a point where it says stop. And I did, I was getting sick because of the coffee with heartburn, losing appetite, losing weight, I did not need eating. Since I was drinking coffee all the time and always busy at work, it was the perfect combination. In 2015, after divorce, marry again, having kids. I started college online, and I will do classes at night when everyone is at sleep, I thought. Since I know how weak I am when it comes to coffee, I switch it to green tea. I was lying to myself; I miss coffee too much; green tea did nothing to me. So, I went and bought my espresso machine, oh boy, I was happy! I can study all night now and go to work in the morning and come home. Who is going to stop me now? And again, there it was heartburn, no eating, losing weight. I did not realize that the stress of everything I was doing got to me even worse than before. I was using coffee to cover up the pressure, the loneliness, the fear of failing, the anxiety, insecurities. So, after a year of drinking excessive amounts of coffee, I slow down. I drink coffee because of the taste, share with a good company, during breakfast, or after dinner. But I limit myself to a maximum of three cups a day, if any. I am three months away to graduate, and my kids are old enough to take care of themselves, work it is getting exciting but enjoyable.
By Norma Crenna6 years ago in Motivation
The Life-Changing Magic Of Sleeping On The Floor
So this is an update on my minimalist life. I have been sleeping on my floor for about a week now and it is the most blissful sleep I have ever gotten. The reason I started doing this was that I was talking to Chris and I said, “My bed hurts me when I sleep, maybe I should sleep on the floor?”(Don’t know what I said but it’s close to that.)
By Clarice Quinn Taylor6 years ago in Motivation
What I Learned in Quarantine - Lies I've Told Myself
One thing that has been pretty consistent through my life is that I’ve always felt like I never had enough time to get to do the things I wanted to. Thanks to 2020 being the weirdest year in my living memory I have had a lot more free time than I’d ever thought possible. With that comes lots of time for self-reflection, and I’ve been able to call myself out on some of the many lies I had told myself over the years.
By Doug Hall6 years ago in Motivation
Expectations vs Reality
" Expectation is the root of all heartache" , William Shakespeare The setting that I grew up in, didn't allow much room for expectations, rather; from an early age I learnt to be very careful of everyone. For me the only people, I ever expected anything from was my immediate family. So when it came to things such as Love; loyalty; faithfulness; support and trust, I only ever expected it from my family. Any other person that fell short in these areas, I would be okay to easily let them go as I didn't expect much from them anyway.
By Gracia Benita Kafunda6 years ago in Motivation
Having Haters is a good Thing - Use Haters As Fuel for Success
Haters love bringing others down. When you have reached a certain level of success or Happiness, You will certainly meet some people who aren’t happy with your success or your mental happiness. I guess it’s not a new thing to meet these kinds of people in your life. I've been facing this since college time. Sometimes it seems like they enjoy disturbing someone's mental peace.
By Priya Sharma 6 years ago in Motivation
