Contest Entry Top 10: How seeing the world helped me see myself
To anyone who may need a little bit of hope today:
Hey there. I’m Jerrica and throughout my entire life, as probably most people, I’ve been overcoming challenges on a day-to-day basis. I was born into a family of heroin addicts and this alone inevitably led to me being adopted into a family I never belonged in. I’ve been stumbling into bits and p…
Contest Entry Top 10: What almost losing my mom taught me
To the world,
I’m lucky enough to have been able to rely on my parents immensely. They continue to be my support system and my strength. It seems like they are superheroes at times through the ways they can solve difficult situations I sometimes face. They are a continuous source of hope for me, but I could never prepare myself for almost losing m…
Contest Entry Top 10: Dear Pearl, it was so hard to let you go
Dear Pearl,
I can’t express how inexorably saddened I am by having to let you go. I had to and I will never forgive myself for it. You must believe me when I say this, and, I won’t go into all of the reasons but the main one was that I was not ready to be a mother of a third baby, you.
My life so far almost feels like a film; transcending thr…
Contest Entry Top 10: From hallow to hallowed – my journey with body image
Dear Spirit and meditators,
Je veux être heureux— “I want to be happy.”
As an inside joke referencing a Beyoncé video, I spoke this soul desire for the very first time while on a study abroad program in college. I spoke it as an answer to my college professor while being hosted by L’Université de Lyon. I spoke it as a deep desire to be free of th…
Contest Entry Top 10: I witnessed an incredible comeback
Getting up and going to work can be so repetitive. For some people there’s comfort in knowing what their day is going to be like. The great John Wooden once said, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail”. I am one who likes to be prepared for as much as possible to start one’s day, especially a work day.
Contest Entry Top 10: How do you deal with a diagnosis and a label?
To my daughter,
You may have already heard the words “bipolar” or “manic” spoken about me. I have no way of knowing. You’re going to be five years old in August, and I never imagined that this would be a conversation I would have with you before you started Kindergarten. But life does not always go the way we want, and now I need to have a “big gi…
Contest Entry Top 10: I learned perseverance from my dad
To the world,
This is my story about perseverance, a perseverance I didn’t know I had in me. But as with many things in life, sometimes you find things out the hard way.
As I got older, and my parents got older, I knew that there would be a day when the roles would be reversed, and I’d be the one taking care of them. When my mom passed in 2004, I…