My hopes, dreams, future...

This past year has been so full of change and growth for me and my children and Vocal has been one of my biggest inspirations. You see, in September of 2022 I broke up with my narcissistic alcoholic now ex-husband, and since I had been with him for 8 years my brain had forgotten who I was anymore. I thought I knew but honestly, I had no clue. However, at some point in my healing journey I found Vocal...again. I discovered something that I had long since forgotten because according to Vocal I had joined in 2017. I discovered a world of writers much like myself here and more importantly, a place to express myself and not be judged. Here on this platform are my people. The forgotten in society, the swept under the rug, the creators, the artists, those of us who fight for the light but know sometimes you must know the dark well to appreciate the light... we're all here. I've worked for almost a year now on Vocal honing the writing skills that I once used so often and was so proud of but had all but forgotten thanks to my ex-husband and life. The challenges that Vocal provides have provided me with both a new and exciting challenge to both grow and expand my talent and excitement at trying something new. I haven't won a challenge yet but I plan to keep trying as that is one of my goals for this year. I did recently have my first Top Story which I was extraordinarily excited about...https://vocal.media/families/fort-mother. Finally creating a story that achieved Top Story on Vocal seriously made my week and I can only imagine what winning a challenge would do for my excitement levels. I am simply a struggling single mother of two like many others who is just trying to achieve my dreams for both myself and my children. This year I have already enrolled in college and am taking an English Comp class to start with so I can better hone my writing skills, I've joined a domestic violence survivors group which I am so thrilled about and I have several plans for here on Vocal as well. This year I have a couple of stories still lingering in my Drafts folder that I plan to finish. One is about a girl who is just trying to broaden her horizons by moving from California to Arizona and in doing so she finds herself on a journey that she did not expect nor did she invite, she almost dies and the other is about a woman in a domestic violence situation who fled and in doing so killed her husband or so she thinks and now she has to start over in a brand new town that she knows nothing about and everyone is suspicious of her. I also hope within this year to keep writing on this platform as much as possible as my schedule is very full and to take what I can from the writings of others. If I were to win this challenge or any other challenge I enter I would use that money to go towards a better future for myself and my children. I would use the money to pay off some debts, put food in my children's bellies, and save some if I could. I hope to one day be able to use my writing as a side job/passion to be able to make money from my writings and save that money so my children can go to college or wherever they want to go in life and live a brighter life than I have at times. I have made mistakes as we all have but I am trying and learning every day. I hope to one day live a life of comfort and travel. No, I do not want to live lavishly only comfortably and I believe that I can achieve some of these dreams through Vocal. Vocal has been such an inspiration to me as you can tell and I'm not just saying this, it truly has...so thank you for reading this and any other of my work that you've read.