The brands that I tend to associate myself with are nothing short of the typical everyday selection that the average person would utilize as well and it’s actually quite a long comprehensive list. Please allow me to explain why.
As someone of diverse interests and hobbies such as sports, hiking, reading and writing, these are no easy feat when you lead a busy lifestyle and try to determine a healthy balance between all of them. By having copious amounts of hobbies and interests, I’ve discovered that they also come with enjoying various brands. The most common brands that I always enjoy using whether it’s for comfort, durability, aesthetics and or just simple wear are listed below and broken down into different categories.
For hiking:
REI Co-op
The North Face
Oboz
EMS ( eastern mountain sports)
For Sports such as volleyball and softball:
UnderArmour
Nike
Mizuno
DeMarini
Wilson
Molten
For working out:
UnderArmour
Nike
Titan
NOBULL
(Looking into GymShark)
For reading and writing:
Barnes and Noble
Audible from Amazon
Red Tower Books (publisher)
Penguin Random House (publisher)
KDP ( Amazon)
Scrivener
NaNoWriMo
And of course WordPress
These brands have supported my everyday hobbies for many years and will continue to support them as long as they are still selling product. In return, I will continue to support their business as a display of my appreciation and gratitude for their reputable products and brand, as well as being a satisfied customer.
I have undergone two surgeries in the entire 31 years that I have walked this earth.
Allow me to explain.
The first surgery had occurred after I was diagnosed with endometriosis. For those of you who do not know what that is, it is a condition in which women have additional tissue grow around and sometimes inside their reproductive organs. If this condition goes untreated, it could progress to other organs in the body. When this condition occurs, it can cause irregular periods, break through bleeding, excruciating pain during a period or even during sexual inter course.
I had experienced the pain and irregular periods for about two years before I was officially diagnosed by my obgyn in January of 2022. My obgyn had me start off with an anti-inflammatory inclusion diet. This diet consisted of me taking away many of our favorite foods. These foods included red meat, processed sugar, dairy, caffeine and gluten. This information was given to me upon my doctor asking me if I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather emotionally lately. Initially I hadn’t until she prescribed me with my new “depressive diet”.
I jumped into this diet cold turkey and the first two weeks were extremely brutal without having at least a drop of caffeine coursing through my blood stream. I experienced headaches, nausea, fatigue and an insatiable appetite (once my nausea had been curbed). This diet remained in place for 90 days and within those 90 days, I had dropped 15 pounds without even regarding that as a singular goal. My overall goal was to try and determine which food group triggered my endometriosis pain the most.
During those 90 days, I had been working out 3-4 days a week while playing volleyball. What I can attest to is that by following this diet within a exceptionally strict regimen, I was able to move through the workouts without much difficulty. In fact, I even felt lighter and and more agile.
As time went on ( 3 months later) I had multiple internal ultrasounds performed to determine the rapid growth of a cyst on my left ovary. Once this cyst had exceeded the 3cm allowable threshold, my obgyn had scheduled surgery in fear that the cyst could potentially rupture my ovary.
My surgery was performed a few weeks later and it had marked the milestone of my very first surgery. All I can say is that it had been a very painful surgery upon waking up in the recovery room. Regardless of the medications the doctors and hospital staff had given me, I could still feel the pulsating pain from where they performed the laparoscopic procedure in my lower abdomen. After a couple of hours of being in post op recovery, they decided to finally discharge me and pulled the curtain over so I could change.
I must say that the most challenging part of this entire excursion was having to redress myself when I had multiple medications coursing through me. A few curse words and attempts at putting on (what I thought was the correct leg) through my pant legs, the nurse slid the curtain over with a large smile spread across her face. It was clear that she had heard my demonstration of colorful displeasure as I struggled to reclothe myself.
Once I was finally discharged from the hospital, the doctor had informed me that they were able to save my left ovary and removed all of the additional endometrial tissue around my reproductive organs.
A year and a half later..
My second surgery had occurred due to having a gall bladder that refused to function at more than 14 percent. These tests to determine chronic cholescitis involved an ultrasound, a HIDA scan and overall follow up with the general surgery department. The surgery itself only had taken a total of 45 minutes, however, trying to find my veins to be able to inject the intravenous fluids into my system took much longer ( thanks to my incredibly stubborn veins). This process had taken a total of four nurses and the ultrasound vein finder.
The first nurse had taken one look at me and said that she will cut her losses and have a more experienced nurse come in. Well the more experienced nurse arrived and tried and did not render successful. Each nurse that had tried all said the same thing “ well you’re just a challenge today.” They were not wrong but I also did warn them that they might struggle to find a vein. My sister had been sitting in a chair by my hospital bed and began to chuckle.
When the last nurse finally was able to locate a sturdy enough vein, the surgical team wheeled me into the operating room and placed a clear mask over my nose and mouth and instructed me to take a couple of deep breaths; within moments the entire room went black. Later, I woke up in recovery with the mention of a successful surgery and one less organ in my body.
To be Manon Blackbeak from Sarah J. Maas’s renowned best selling series, Throne of Glass would be quite the personal growth journey. Manon had endured and faced many challenges throughout her entire existence (well over 100 years old). These challenges had put her into situations in which she had to make sacrifices and carry a team of other witches through countless battles.
Photo Credit: adamar.art on tumblr
While learning how to use her magic and train for battle, she had surpressed an overwhleming amount of angst towards her family members when secrets about her heritage had been exposed. These secrets had ripped through her current being and led her through a torrent of emotions. Manon had to accept her newly discovered heritage (for her) and had to experience an extremely destructive ego death, in order to understand who she truly was.
She later became a woman who now cultivated friendships with others who had been outside of her Ironteeth clan and demonstrated ruthless loyalty towards them. The paradoxical lifestyle of her family had led her to openly see the immoral practices and traditions that they were incorporating themselves into. Manon is one of Sarah J Maas’s female main characters that many fans and readers could resonate with, as her story has been told in such a realistically compelling way. I would love to live a fantasy life through Manon Crochan-Blackbeak’s lens and endure every hardship, heartbreak, celebration, forged alliance and journey encountered.
“But perhaps the monsters needed to look out for each other every now and then.” – Manon Blackbeak – Sarah J. Mass, Queen of Shadows
This question has been asked since my youth within the public school systems. At one point I wanted to be a marine biologist and explore the ocean and aquatic life because I loved being out in the open water. As time went on and I started to watch more television and became addicted to the crime drama shows, I wanted to be a CSI or police detective.
Now? Well, I would tell you that I want something that most would consider simple, however, if you’ve ever attempted to write anything outside of an essay for a history class, would understand that it is anything far from the coined term “simple”. It is countless hours of outlines and planning. Moments of inspiration, only to be met with moments of imposter syndrome or the infamous term “writer’s block”.
I want to be a full time writer. I no longer want to work 10 hours everyday, only to be burnt out and not enjoying the career that I am in. Having a fulfilling career that I can be proud of and reflect upon at the end of everyday is the ultimate dream job. I began my writing career when I was fourteen years old, writing short stories for classes and creating a script for a show that I felt inspired by at the time (CSI:Miami).
As I ventured through high school, I had been introduced to more arts related topics. These topics included theater, creative writing, chorus and band. It wasn’t until I had started my creative writing class that I had realized how intricate and taxing the art really was. Looking past the exhaustion and tedious amounts of drafts that I had to compose, I still felt a burning passion to write.
Years later, I have and still currently am working towards a novel that I had generated the ideas for when I was 16. The outlines have experienced many revisions and torn and crumpled up pieces of paper that had successfully made its way to a waste bin. As I navigate through this journey, I have learned a couple of key factors.
On the hard days, take a break but don’t quit.
If you come across writer’s block: do not stop writing- continue on to the next scene and return to that one later.
DO NOT edit as you write! I have discovered that I have wasted so much time doing this. Instead, write it all out first and go back and edit it later.
My dream job isn’t something that can be easily described but felt and understood- to be a writer. It would make me feel whole to be a published author and share my creativity with those around the world. An added bonus to this dream would be to open a local bookshop where readers and writers could bring their furry companions along and enjoy some quiet time amongst the satisfying aromas of dark roasted coffee with a warm flaky pastry to pair.
What’s something you would attempt if you were guaranteed not to fail.
Entrepreneurship has been an idea that has long lingered through my every waking thought, ever since I had taken business classes in college. These classes were a result of flexing my creativity and developing my very own business ideas, pitching those ideas in class and even creating a mock campaign that had directly aligned with those ideas.
If I was guaranteed not to fail at the idea of being an entrepreneur, I would have already began my business journey- without hesitation. Unfortunately, this fear of failure also comes with a lack of confidence in even starting this career pursuit. My creativity knows no bounds and I have juggled a couple business ideas in my mind. These ideas are not in the same industry by any means but are all relative to my very own personal interests.
The fear of failure is the place where goals are laid to rest. Goal setting is a process that I participate in because I enjoy brainstorming and creating new ideas. I thrive in an environment where change is encouraged and feared. The irony behind that concept is that fear is also the one thing that is preventing me from lunging forward towards those goals.
If I could have the fear without the failure, my goals would be fulfilled. These fulfillments and successes would result in; enjoying a warm latte as I am browsing my very own locally owned bookshop with my seven year old golden retriever by my side.
I would select a comforting book with copious amounts of character development and world building, all while settling into a leathered arm chair surrounded by a couple of snake and spider plants. The old rustic cherry hardwood floors would be decorated with a few colorful rugs made of sheep’s wool. These are just some minor details that paint one of my creative visions for entrepreneurship. If fear could exist without the lingering possibility of failure, my professional career would be vastly different.
What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?
The hardest personal goal that I’ve set for myself was to continue my writing career, when I’ve felt like the creative process has faltered from my mind.
As many times as I have had what we’d all like to call “ writers block”, I still persevered and found a way to keep moving forward in my journey.
The Prolific Pen 