Let's Get Real

Hey y’all! Welcome to my world of blogging about real life. All of you must be new here, because this is my first ever blog post! First, I am so thankful you are here. Did you read my About Me page? If not, head on over and read it before reading this first post. I want you to know a little about me before proceeding.

Why Let’s Get Real for the title of my first post? Simply because I’m living my best life currently in semi-isolation from the world due to the horrible outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. WOW! I never thought that I would be living a time like this in history. One day maybe I will be teaching my students about this outbreak. In the meantime, I am going to do my best to remain an inspiration to those around me during this historic time.

So, let’s get real for a moment. Every, single time I login to Facebook I see something new about people homeschooling their children during the school closures due to COVID-19. Now I love that parents still want their child’s brain to be activated with learning, but come on….let’s get real for a moment. Give your child a book with their current reading level, set them up on Whooo’s Reading, and let technology do the rest. It doesn’t take a lot to keep your child in the game of learning. For real y’all, isn’t there anyone out there that requires their children to learn during summer too? In all reality, keep your child’s brain activated with reading. Ask higher order questions. Teach them some new vocabulary. Allow them to get into the kitchen and learn to bake or cook breakfast. Learning to use a measuring cup is a form of math. Okay y’all rant over.

Alright, time for me to get serious here. That is something hard for me to do. I enjoy having fun, but back to the reality of what this post is supposed to be about. This blog is going to be a work in progress. I will blog about all things that my heart leads me to. For this post, my heart leads me to inspire others to know that you CAN and DO have a future after disaster. I am that person that doesn’t fail at anything, or so I thought. I will persevere through anything in life. Let me tell you though, I could not wrap my mind around the fact that I felt I failed my marriage. Was I the perfect wife? Absolutely not. There is not a perfect wife. There is no perfect husband. But I did give my all to my marriage, as Christ commanded me to submit to my husband. Well, ex-husband. I met him when I was just 14 years old. I had a mind that was ready to take over the world. I still do. I will take a project on, and I will conquer it, and that is exactly what I did with my marriage.

When my ex and I married, we were just babies raising babies. If you read my about me, you know that we had 2 kids within 18 months of one another all prior to getting married. In fact, when we married on December 13, 2003 I was pregnant with our third child; however, the world did not know that at the time. We grew up together. We both came from very little, and we created an amazing family. Our focus was so much on our children, that we grew completely apart as husband and wife. I would never expose my ex for any of his wrongdoings, but the last two years of our marriage were really tough. I fought for our marriage believing that it was the best for our children. I kept fighting for something that had ended years before he and I finally called it off. I wanted to write failure on my marriage license, but I realized that I didn’t fail. It was a marriage that should have been done years before it finally happened. We created a great life for our children, and I gained two amazing friends from it. So, where am I going with this?

Let’s get real. There are so many men and women out there that think divorce is the end of the world. They slump down into a depression, find excuses not to live their best life, and spiral out of control. Don’t be that person. Y’all there is hope after disaster. I am perfect proof of that. I lived behind a smile for years that hid a multitude of pain. My scars only made me into the person that I am today. They do not define me. They inspired me to become a person that sees life as the greatest blessing. Sure, it took me a bit to get here. Just as it would anyone. Guys, I want y’all to know that I have no pain behind my smile anymore. My smile is who I am. I am a woman who fears the Lord. I am a woman that is thankful for my children and the blessings that they give me each day. Whether those blessings are a learning curve, or a simple “I love you, momma.” I am that woman that loves her girlfriends. I am that woman that can say divorce isn’t a hell. Divorce can be a blessing. I am that woman that is strong-willed, inspired, and ready to take on the world.

I will leave you with this. I started yoga shortly after my separation and filing for divorce. In the first yoga class the instructor read a quote for the series of Heated Yoga that we were starting. The quote is this, “No matter how fast you flap your wings, you must let go in order to fly.” At that point I knew that I had to let go of my old normal and begin a new normal for myself and my children. That quote has been my inspiration since that first yoga class. Let go of the weight of your past, and fly sweet friends. Take on the world with a whole new perspective.

All my love,

Jessica