“Can’t Isn’t A Word”.

Throughout my life, I have been given many obstacles to overcome, some of which I am still fighting. The word “Can’t” doesn’t reside in my dictionary, nor my head. I believe that anything is possible as long as you put your mind to it. I’ve gone through many things, such as losing family and friends, moving on in life, being mistreated, having a disability, and even graduating from college. None of which shall stop me. I get through these things with positive affirmations. Taking a look around me and noticing that there is someone out there depending on my life story to keep themselves pushing as I always say.

Living with Epilepsy is hard, especially when people don’t understand the effects it takes on your mind, body, and life, yet I still pushed through it. I graduated college, and I’ll be soon to graduate again. I have taught pre-k students for years, even taught them how to handle my seizures and what to do. I have defeated many odds thrown my way, and still continuing to do so. I managed to not have a care in the world about what people say to me, yes sometimes it may dwell upon my head, but I’m still learning, we all are. Nobody’s perfect in anything they do, yet that doesn’t give you a reason to say you can’t do something. Even financially, you’d be surprised at the things that I have experienced and gone through just to prove to myself that I can. I went from sleeping in a homeless shelter, to having my own apartment, working two jobs (one night shift, and one day shift), with my medication, and I still manage to get things done. I created my own name for myself, something that was well known and meant a lot to people, and even LLC’ed it. There was no mission impossible for me, and there still isn’t.

As I reflect upon my life thus far, I realized everything happened for a reason. Even when people were thrown in my way to block the blessings I was given. I had to realize that those were nothing but weapons that were attempting to form, but did not prosper. I now live a fairly happy life with someone I see a future with, someone I see a “forever” with, and I don’t question why the things that happened to lead us to each other did. I don’t question why the things that are happening during the relationship do, because in many ways it made us both stronger, it changed our perspective on things. So when people ask “What legacy would you like to leave behind?”, I leave them with this, “Can’t isn’t a word,”. You think you are going through something, until you look around and notice that you may have a house of wood (hypothetically speaking), but you have a house, you have food, you have people who care, you have money, and then that house will eventually turn into stone, something that cannot be broken. Whereas other people don’t have a home, they don’t have someone to lean on, or even have a clue of where their life is going from here, they’re just hopeless. So when you look in the mirror and begin to question “Why me?”, try “Why Not Me?”.

• Literaturebyjessc ( Jessica Hunter )