I promised myself that I would get to a good place in my life, and once I got there, I would help others.
I grew up poor. My mother worked three jobs around raising four children. The five of us lived together in a two bedroom apartment. I'm sure you can do the math on that one.
We were latchkey kids. For those of you not familiar with the term it's probably due to the fact that this practice is frowned upon these days. It could lead to legal trouble or child services knocking on your door. Yep, we were sent off to school with the house key strung around our necks. On the days we were foolish enough to forget our key it was EXTREMELY easy to break into our small two bedroom apartment with a simple butter knife that one of our neighbors were always happy to lend. No need to worry about any of the neighbors using the butter knife themselves to get in... there was nothing to steal.
We had a tiny little black and white TV we all gathered around, and we were happy to have that. You know the scene in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy gets to Oz and the movie switches to color? I never knew that happened! I was a young adult when I saw that for the first time and it was magical. All those years of watching it in black and white made me feel like somehow I was robbed of beauty.
My mother made $9000 a year which, at that time, was the cut-off for any state aid. We wore hand me downs of hand me downs of hand me downs. McDonalds was a RARE treat. We didn't have enough money for that kind of luxury.
Funny, even though times were tough, we were happy, really really happy. We didn't see ourselves as poor. We were rich with love. Our family was very close and caring.
One time we had our clothes stolen at a laundromat. My siblings and I were SHOCKED. My mother’s response was, "well apparently they needed the clothes even more than us." That was a very memorable reaction for me. She didn't get sad, or angry, or curse or cry. At least not in front of us. She just spoke with kindness, teaching us to give and forgive in the process.
I always vowed that I would get out of poverty and never ever let it darken my door again. I believe my sisters had the same train of thought. My sisters and I all took jobs when we were around 14 and we have worked incredibly hard ever since. There was no money for college, as I'm sure you can imagine. My older sister and I worked hard and got into a community college, but we paid for all our fees, books and tuition ourselves. I'm still proud of us for that achievement.
Today we are what most consider successful. One of my sisters is VP of a large company in New York and makes over $200,000 a year. My other sister lives in her gorgeous home with her gorgeous family and achieved her dream of having a beautiful inground swimming pool in her back yard.
And me, well I've come full circle. By the time I was 30 I was making $136,000 and drove a Mercedes SUV. I ran a computer software company and had the BIG corner office. Not bad for a girl who came from meager beginnings.
Over the years I've experienced my fair share of successes and failures. Even after going through a time in my life that I fondly like to refer to as a series of unfortunate events I still continue to succeed. I run a multi-million dollar company and I love what I do. Today you'll find me living on the east coast right near da' beach mon with a grand view of the water. I have a beautiful son and a great life.
I also made a promise that I would get to a good place in my life where I would, in turn, help others with their plight. A way of giving back. I wanted to reach people in need directly. I wanted to know I would make an immediate impact in someones life.
This proved to be a bit more difficult than I imagined. I gave to the big charity corporations (and still do) but it wasn't clear to my how MY donation was making an impact. I started giving through my church but I wasn't sure if I was buying food for a single mom or new stained glass windows for the church. I wanted something more personal.
Not finding the fulfillment I was looking for, I decided to just build it myself and the Power of Giving was born:a place where people come to find hope and get help like this beautiful girl here
Having no web building experience I thought, "well, this will be a fun little challenge." Thank goodness I found Site Build It to bring my life dream to fruition. No web experience needed to create your passion and bring it to life in the best way possible.
Now, I run my corporate job during the day and respond to the pleas of those in need at night. Like I said... I have a great life.