Dear Yereance ave,

What a time we had.

There were memories that took place within those four walls that marked a monumental point of my path.

I remember stepping into the second floor of my first own apartment with my 4-year-old daughter thinking “this is life.” 

I was finally free! 

Free from dealing with critical attitudes and colliding of heads 

I was free from the roaches climbing on my bed,

I was free!

Little did I know that freedom was coming, but not in the way I imagined. 

I was free from others, but I wasn’t free from ME.  

I was free from yelling and complaints, but I wasn’t free from the sorrow and the pain that looked me in the mirror day after day.

And in those moments where I couldn’t brace my daughters crying and my pain simultaneously

I ran back to mother to drop my child off so I can live my life on Yereance ave.

Drinking with my friends and somehow me, the person who was the life of the party, was slowly flatlining. 

With every shot of Bacardi and inhale of the freshly rolled up weed 

Joy was backwashed in the shot glass 

The wind blew my purpose through the trees.

Until one day I lied to my boss and said I wasn’t feeling well and made a decision to work from home. 

My sister and I were in this 800 sq ft box smoking in our zone 

until I got up to take a shower.

As the water flowed from the shower head 

I heard a voice whisper 

“You have a destiny for greater things.”

I thought to myself, “surely I am high” me? Created and destined for more? So the voice I ignored. 

and suddenly I hear the voice speak again 

The voice repeated, “You are destined and intricately made for more,” shaking me to my core. My slowly failing heart felt revived because this time, I listened. 

It was as if the divine silenced all the noise around me so that I could hear and receive the truth of my value

It was as if my higher self stepped out from the future timeline to tell me it’s okay. It will get better if you decide today to change your ways.

 Wisdom was speaking in my very eardrum, releasing the sound of true freedom. 

It was then that I no longer tried to escape myself. Instead, I decided to face myself! 

It was because of you, Yereance ave that I began the journey to discovering my value, my identity, my purpose. 

So Yereance ave, I thank you for the doors you opened and the home you created for that short period. Because it was then when the initiation of my power began. The journey of me coming home to this exact place and time where I am truly home, the home within me.