Students Are Starving!

Ramen noodles are a staple for most American college students. One may say, it’s even a cultural norm, but what about the students who live off of ramen noodles alone–or worse, nothing at all! A while back I read an article here on LinkedIn how Temple University students and faculty established a food bank on campus to combat the epidemic of food insecurity. Food is a basic human need and it should be considered a crime to pretend like hunger doesn’t exist on college campuses. Moreover, to know about it and do nothing. Students young and old struggle with rising costs of tuition, costs of textbooks, and personal obligations, just to name a few. They shouldn’t have to add to their load of where their next meal will come from.

Knowing this exist on college campuses has motivated me to not only write about it to raise awareness, but to actually do something. Small beginnings. Baby steps. I’m no expert on this topic, I’m only a student and person wanting to make a difference. When we think of hunger we often associate it with people who live on the streets, but the issue goes far beyond that. Hunger doesn’t discriminate. One day hunger isn’t an issue for you and your family and the next you’re scrambling to figure out what and how you’ll eat. Hunger touches everyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old. Black or white. Male or female. Affluent or unknown. Hunger has long been a serious epidemic in our society and within urban colleges and universities, it is now affecting those who are seeking a better education, a better life for themselves.

Students come to college from all walks of life with the desire to develop personally, professionally and academically. It becomes a collective effort on the part of their community to ensure they are successful in their endeavors. Supporting them from a holistic approach–nourishing their minds as well as their bodies is critical if we expect them to excel and be productive members and leaders within our society.

Words on My Terms

Writing is a passion. It’s an art developed over a lifetime. Some days the words come to me slowly and others days… all at once. For me, it’s been a long, winding road of self-discovery and introspection. If you listen closely enough you will hear melodious tones throughout. The ebb and flow of each letter gracefully chasing after the one before. I pour my story onto a blank sheet praying the pen catches up with my thoughts. I could never write within lines. I never want to have my words put into a box to fit someone else’s skewed reality. My writing is a manifestation of all the moving parts of my life–the good, the bad and indifferent. Being able to express and release what’s on my mind into written form is a sense of immense freedom I think only writers can truly understand.

Linguistically, writing is defined as “the activity or skill of marking coherent words on paper and composing text.” To me, writing is so much more than that. It’s a delicate dance between the words in my head and what I allow the world to taste of them. E.L. Doctow said, “Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.” That’s what writing is–an exploration of self, of life, of one’s own existence. As I grow older, I notice I am becoming more cognizant of my writing. Not so much of what I write, but how and why I write. There’s this profound reason behind it all. I don’t write for me. For my own self-delusions. I write because I believe as humans we all have a common thread running through us. That we all yearn to be loved and valued. We want to be accepted not just by others, but by our own selves. Through my writing, you’re able to peek into my world and perhaps, through that, you find your own light as I finally have.

~Gabriel Grove

We Are Not Who We Were

We are not who we were but who we are becoming. Our past is just that…history. They were moments in our lives of lessons learned and a chance to become better versions of ourselves. Every day we wake up is a new opportunity to try again, breathe again, and live in gratitude. We are not our mistakes. We are an infinite swarm of peaks and valleys with one foot grounded and the other delicately swaying back and forth…to and fro. Our emotions ebb and flow like an ocean with low and high tides. Our imagination takes us to distant places where we find solitude and peace within. Peace within is the true destination. A place where sometimes the road is linear and other times the path is a whirlwind. Yet, in the end we come full circle to who we truly are–mortal creatures yearning for love and acceptance…from others, but more so from our own selves.

Believe in the Possibilities of You!

I had the pleasure of watching the new movie A Wrinkle in Time… twice. There were many subliminal messages intertwined within the movie intentionally and for a great reason. The key takeaway I received was to believe in yourself–your whole self even your faults. As humans, we all struggle with our inner voice telling us we’re not good enough, we aren’t worthy, we aren’t pretty enough and the slew of other negative voices trying to keep us down and out. This movie taps into those voices and dares us to challenge our own negative self-talk. It dares us to see all the good within us and to channel that goodness towards saving the world, but ultimately saving our own selves!

The Displaced Lives Matter, Too!

Enter a caption

At any given time here in America and even closer to home, in Philadelphia a woman and her child or a teen mom is faced with homelessness. It has been an epidemic in our society for far too long. On a grand scale social awareness, legislation, education, housing and resources are all critical matters needed to end homelessness, but what are some small, impactful actions that can be taken right now for displaced women living in shelters? Being able to alleviate a burden that we sometimes take for granted is providing toiletries for them so they can focus on reclaiming their independence and self sufficiency. As the founder of For Her Sake Foundation, Inc we are on a mission to support women and teen moms living in Philadelphia homeless shelters and safe havens by donating toiletries directly to them. Imagine not having enough money to buy something simple; yet critical as a toothbrush or pampers for your child? These are some of the challenges these women deal with on a daily basis in addition to all the other physical, emotional, mental and financial struggles going on simultaneously in their lives.

As a community, it’s our responsibility to help as much as we can the displaced who are often times forgotten. If it’s through volunteering at a local shelter, organizing a food or toiletry drive, writing to legislation, or by donating money, your support is highly appreciated and needed now more than ever. One of our greatest contributions to the world is our acts of kindness towards others.

http://www.forhersake.org

 

To New Beginnings…

Today, I woke up and I’m both grateful and elated for what lies ahead. Today, marks a new chapter among many in my book of life. My previous employer for the past twenty years offered me the chance to begin a new journey. Now, I’m a graduate student, on a mission to continue building meaningful relationships, and establish my professional brand. I’ve learned along the way that when certain opportunities present themselves, its best to embrace them with an open heart and mind. When I sat down to write this piece it felt almost surreal. To be moving on from a place and time that began when I was still so young and immature–not knowing much about the world and even less about myself or the possibilities for my life. Over the years of laughter, growth, and self-reflection what I know for sure is that I’m not the person I once was. I now stand unyielding in who I am and what I will become…

Day 12: Girl Develop It, Rocks!

I had the pleasure of learning from and connecting with some awesome ladies from Girl Develop IT this past weekend. They are a non profit organization that empowers, teaches and connects women from all walks of life through tech. We learned HTML and CSS–two powerful languages needed to create and design beautiful websites. It felt good to sit among women from all backgrounds, but on similar journeys–learning, creating and fostering relationships for the greater good.

Not everyone’s mission is to become Web Developers or Designers, but I believe we all are determined to become better versions of ourselves. I personally took the course to learn the fundamentals of web development; while connecting with like-minded women. My goal is continue building up my confidence and skill set in order to empower other women to do the very same. Along the journey, who knows maybe one day I’ll facilitate a class and share my knowledge and experiences as an empowered woman in tech!

https://www.girldevelopit.com/about

 

 

Not Just Yet…

Don’t give up on the world just yet. There’s still people who give without expecting anything in return. Those who will give their last to see someone else content. Whether it be a meal, a few coins, or a listening ear. There’s still kindness in the world. Let’s not give up just yet! Despite what’s wrong with the world as we see it, there’s people that do good without others knowing it. That meal they could have easily thrown away, they gave it to the homeless man everyone passes by on the street. Those few dollars they planned to spend on a cup of coffee, they spent it instead on a meal to feed someone in need. Those shoes and coats they could have thrown away, they donated to those less fortunate. There’s still good people in the world who give without their name in the spotlight or awards hanging on their walls. Let’s not give up on the world just yet. There’s still so much more good for us all to do.

For Her Sake: Giving Homeless Women Hope

My story began back in 2006 when I found myself and three of my children at the doorstep of Peoples Emergency Center- a temporary housing shelter for women and their children in Philadelphia. During that point in my life, I needed a helping hand and was grateful they were there to extend the basic needs often times many of us take for granite. We only resided at PEC for six months, but during that time I was able to save money for a new home, get back on my feet, and try to regain a sense of normalcy for myself and children. Hardly anyone knew we were there. I got up every morning, took them to daycare and went off to work as usual, but during that time with urgency to move somewhere permanent we could call home. They were too small to be aware of their surroundings and until this day don’t remember we were there, but I try to instill in them the importance of gratitude and giving in charity. I always kept in the back of my mind the need to return there not as a resident, but as someone who understands that women who face homelessness deserve hope and a chance to take back their independence and self-sufficiency. Women aren’t homeless because they choose to be, but because they find themselves in situations beyond their control. Some are running from abusive relationships, some lost their jobs and the bills became too much of a burden to bare; while others are there because unfortunately homelessness has become an epidemic and vicious cycle in our society and the only way to break it is to institute resources like job training, education, social and economic counseling, and affordable housing for the under represented and often times the forgotten.

My non profit organization For Her Sake Foundation, Inc. was birthed from my experiences as a mother and woman who faced homelessness. The short term mission of For Her Sake is to gather monetary donations in order to purchase toiletries for women and children at shelters in Philadelphia. My long term mission is to actually have a shelter of my own that temporarily houses women until they are able to get back on their feet. This weekend with the generous donations from others, I was able to purchase toiletries for women and their kids at PEC. I am humbly grateful to all those who selfishly gave. What I know for sure, is that we all have a story inside us and more often than not, our stories can help change the trajectory of someone else’s life if we are willing to live authentically with purpose and passion!

Day 11: This is only the beginning…

This week I was blessed with the Udacity/Google Web Developer Scholarship. It’s the foundation for building my skills and knowledge towards a possible Nanodegree in Front End WebDev. Currently, I’m in the first lesson committing an hour or two a day learning the fundamentals of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.  I appreciate the community of teachers and students always willing to lend their advice and help. The end goal for me is to build my own website from scratch and teach women the art of coding. This is only the beginning of a beautiful relationship with programming.