Road To Legacy

 Dear Younger Me,  Honestly, I don't know where to start. There are so many things that come to mind, but I guess I should start out simply and truthfully. Life isn't everything that the movies make it out to be. It isn't the fairytales that you read. Life is hard, real hard. You're going to go through so much- things you wouldn't even have thought of. You're going to cry, you're going to feel pain and there will be days where you feel like you can't make it any longer. This will go on for a few years. Your life will feel miserable. There's a but in there, no worries. Within all these hard things, there are rainbows. There are days with snow flurries where you'll realize that everything will be alright. Life isn't all horrible, in it all, there will be beauty. You are strong, you are a one of a kind person- even if you feel like you are the most basic blonde headed girl in the room- you are someone special. You just don't realize it just ...

Good morning on this beautiful June morning. I've been up since 4 am because I have started a new summer job at my local gym, taking the morning shifts that begin at 5:15 am. That being said, tired is understatement. Starting out, I was fine, and then my life turned upside down- more than it has been since I won the Miss Southeastern Crown.      Miss Louisiana is in in 13 days, so that means extra prep time, practices, buying things for so many people- including myself. And it doesn't stop there. My life is hectic, working two jobs, and then moving out of my old apartment into a new one within two days (it's still not done by the way, boxes are EVERYWHERE). I have several appearances in the next week and a half, appointments to get myself looking my best and last minute touches on talent. Waking up before the sun even comes up. It gets a little overwhelming sometimes. I look back on the school year and I ask myself: " how in the world did I manage everything that I did...

 Life. It's sometimes sucky. It's sometimes the greatest thing since sliced bread and Betty White. Other times, it's just plan awful and you want a restart button. Life changes constantly, and sometimes that's what makes it so horrible.  Change can be anything. Change can be as small as changing what coffee cup you drink out of, or as big as your boyfriend graduating without you when you were supposed to graduate with him. Change is hard.  That's where I'm at right now. My whole life feels like it's spiraling into something that I can't control- and usually I'm okay with that, but being a titleholder and becoming accustomed to having everything planned out literal months in advance and having everything done and prepared for has spoiled me. I know what's about to hit me. I know what's coming, and that's why nothing can catch me off guard and blindside me. But this... I was never prepared for this. I mean I thought I was. But I'm not. ...

 Happy Mental Health Awareness Month everyone! As many of you (my readers) know, I am a survivor of Depression, Anxiety, and Anorexia. To pay tribute to this month and what I stand for, I have reached out to other titleholders across the nation and asked them to share their story with me so I can bring it to you. Last post, we had Miss Mile High, Shannon. This week, we have Miss Lancaster County, Kayla Myers! Her social impact Initiative is #choosehealth. She is vying for the job title of Miss Pennsylvania that will be held on June 17-19, 2021!  1: What made you choose your SII? I chose my social impact initiative #ChooseHealth as health and fitness has dramatically changed my life for the better and has allowed me to flourish as an individual. I believe a healthy lifestyle is important for everyone as there are innumerable benefits of living a healthy lifestyle, such as preventing disease, improving mental health, relieving stress, and creating a space for socialization. It i...

 As time moves on, I realize that I am not the only one who has suffered through the lonely road of mental and eating disorders, Shannon Hannaway, a fellow titleholder based out of Colorado, was generous enough to share her story with all of us! 1: how has mental and eating disorders affected you?   Besides seeing it from the outside watching loved ones struggle and die by suicide, I have been impacted by mental illness for as long as I can remember. Growing up I had anxiety with panic attacks, but due to a lack of education and awareness I didn’t know that was what I was experiencing. It took a head injury and Children’s Hospital Colorado for me to get the help and diagnosis I needed from their concussion team. With their help, medication, and therapy I was able to get my anxiety managed and actually came off all of it completely by the time I graduated high school. Unfortunately, my freshman year of college I experienced severe emotional trauma that led to PTSD, and unipolar...

 Good evening ladies and gents, this week has been so busy with all the sports getting underway, but now my attention lies on this next week: NEDA week, National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, and no better to kick this week off with a compelling and inspiring interview with a former colleague of mine who I hold in very high esteem, allow me to introduce Ms. Gabby Cox and her journey with Self Image, Body Positivity and EDs.  1: Which eating disorder(s) did you have? All of this basically started when I was 12 in 5th grade. I had stopped playing sports and had acquired some unhealthy habits. My parents eventually started making me play a sport of my choice so I could be active again. I chose to play soccer because I had played as a child, and my dad played professionally and was a well known coach for over 20 years. Well I quickly realized that I was not very good because I was not in good “soccer shape.” One summer, my dad and I trained everyday and from that training, I wa...

I was born and raised a non-denominational Christian with more of a traditional Pentecostal twist. I was raised on the mission field, I was raised with the thought that mental health was demon possession/ oppression. The bible does talk about people who were possessed by demons that did have similar symptoms to mental health disorders, but obviously, they are not the same thing.  As I have mentioned before, my depression didn't hit me until I was 13-14 years old, but I was mostly silent about it because of my upbringing. I remember when I told my mother that I had attempted to kill myself and she grabbed me and screamed a prayer over me. Now that I am older, I can understand the panic but as a thirteen year old child, I was scared out of my mind. Not only was I brought up in a Christian household that had conservative, traditionalist views on the matter, I was saved when I was six years old and have been a Christian my whole life. As a Christian, it's hard to understand why the...