Yatta's Back In School...Again

Well, once again, I'm going back to school.  Can a sista finish this time?  Love can be so overrated, especially when you put your dreams on hold in the name of love.  Do I sound jaded?  Maybe so.  I mean, I'm not hatin' on love or anything.  I guess it's my fault for choosing to love the wrong people.

But this is totally NOT where I intended to go with this post. This post is about how I am back in college, tomorrow, bright and early.  Woo hoo!  This is one of those blessings that came out of my husband jumping ship. I had to put my thinking cap on and figure out how to survive!

I am a Desert Storm veteran with service connected disabilities.  This qualifies me for the vocational rehab program for veterans.  We have up until 12 years after an honorable discharge from active duty or the diagnosis of a disability to use this benefit.

At first I was going to go to school for nails, but then I did some research and found out that it is not a very lucrative career in my community.  So then I decided I would go for medical transcribing because it looks to be a stable career and you can make decent money with it.

I went to orientation for the vocational rehab program and started pondering if I should tell my counselor that I already own a business.  However, I was scared they wouldn't want to help me if I had my own business, even though it's still up and coming.  But God kept whispering in my ear that I should just tell my counselor about my business and see what happened.

Thanks God!  She was so excited to know that I was a female veteran with my own business, and went on to explain all of the ways the vocational rehab program could grow and support my business. Yes!  I'm glad I was obedient to the Lord.  It pays my friends. :)

So we came up with a plan for me to go back to school and get my degree in business management. I mean duh, that's a no brainer right?  And it went from there.  I had to jump through a few hoops to get some past stuff straightened out.  I had to drop classes when I was activated for Desert Storm and they were trying to penalize a sista for the drop.  But a few military documents cleared that up quick.

When I came back from the war I enrolled in school again, but I really wasn't ready and I dropped again.  So I had to explain about all of that, but it's all good now.  This past Friday my counselor met me at Best Buy and she purchased and iPad, lap top, touch screen, wireless, printer, paper, ink, iPad smart cover, lap top bag, you name it, all for me. :)

My tuition, books, and supplies are all paid for through this program. I will also receive a financial stipend for each month that I am in school.  Ain't God good friends?  All the time!

Yatta
(Yah-tah)

My How Things Have Changed...

I know, I know I haven't posted in forever.  But ya'll wouldn't believe what a sista has been through over the coarse of the last five months.  Saying it has been serious is a serious understatement.  Where do I begin?  I will start with the death of my aunt in June.




Aunt Jenny, the last living sibling on my maternal grandmother's side.  Aunt Jenny had breast cancer and didn't tell anyone until it was way too late.  Well, she discovered a lump and never said a word until it began to eat through her skin and, she couldn't hide it anymore.

Why aunt Jenny did this, we will never know.  We can only speculate that she was lonely and ready to go home, be with my grandmother (her sister and best friend), their parents, her husband, the rest of her siblings, and most important of all, Jesus.

August...one of my family members is on the verge of dialysis, another ones cancer returns, AND to add insult to injury, my cousin Kiki, Aunt Jenny's granddaughter, who is only in her late thirties, is dying from breast cancer.  Kiki was misdiagnosed.  She DID go to the doctor about the lump she discovered and was told it was a cyst and didn't need to worry.  Three years later, the cancer was eating away at the entire inside of her body.

August...my husband abandons our family.  He quits his job and seizes an opportunity to move across the country in pursuit of "happiness." KMA=Kiss My Ass.  Just keepin' it real.  He abandoned our family on the last weekend before our youngest son started Kindergarten.  Can you say cruel?

September...R.I.P. Kiki.  She fought the good fight.  She was a trooper and then some.  I was blessed to spend some time with her in her final hours.  We buried her in September.  As if that wasn't enough, the inevitable happened.  My children and I were evicted out of our home due to my husband's disappearing act. The one questions that plagues me is...who leaves their own flesh and blood to be put out on the street?  Answer...MY husband!


In the midst of all of this, I'm operating on a torn meniscus that can only be repaired by surgery.  I'm on a constant dose of almost eight milligrams of codeine. So, I'm having to drive four kids back and forth to three different schools every day and function on narcotics.  The pain is so bad, it's draining me of all of my energy and the narcotics make me even more tired.  Falling asleep at a stop light has become a common thing.

STILL I RISE! By the grace of God, I'm happy, I'm sane and His love abounds in my life!  God has rained down miracles in the midst of chaos!  I have been blessed beyond measure and my God, the God of Abraham has poured his favor over my children and I. 

My upcoming blog posts will be testaments of God's greatness during this journey.  They will be an account of God's word never returning void, his love for his children, his love for me.  Oh how I love Jesus, because he first loved me.  Stay tuned my friends because, it only gets better from here.

Yatta
(Yah-ta)

Does Change Mean Radical?

I didn't think I was making a radical statement when, I decided to stop relaxing/perming my hair and go all natural.  You can read about my first post on this subject here.  I was just tired of relaxing my very short hair cut.  So, I shaved the sides and the back down to the natural, and did twist outs in the top while the relaxer continued to grow out.

Yesterday I grew mad tired of the twist outs in the top.  Today I cut the rest of the relaxer out of the top and, now my entire crown of glory is AU-NATURAL.  I love it ya'll!!!!!!!  I feel so free.  It has really been a bit of a spiritual experience.  Stay with me and as my pastor always says, we'll unpack that last statement. ;)

Remember this statement from my first post about transitioning my hair? "I posted this on my facebook page and the general consensus was to go for it. But I had one black, male friend who adamantly suggested I, "don't do it!"  He also said..."Yatta you know that mess aint cute!" 

Now here is where the subject can get controversial.  You know like how the black race has been conditioned to believe what is beautiful, how our perception of beauty stems from slavery and all of that. 

But I'm not going there today.  That's a later post. :)"

Well this is THAT post.  After I cut my hair today, I realized that, I AM making a radical statement.  I love who I am!  Black women have, for a long time, been brainwashed into believing what is "beautiful."  It started back in slavery when the master divided the light skinned slaves from the dark skinned slaves, and pit them against one another.  And we are still suffering from that systematic separation.


I can remember being in kindergarten, wishing I had long blond hair and blue eyes like my class mates.  I can also remember as I got older, wishing I was light skinned with "good" hair.  After all, "those" black people were treated better and the light skinned gals got all of the attention.

Now don't get me wrong I don't say any of this with bitterness, although there was a time when I was bitter.  However, it's just how it was and I'm not mad or bitter any more.  With that said, basically you had to be white, or look white to be considered attractive.  And I know black men have been through the same.  But the chocolate brothas are in now.  Dark sistas still can't get no love.

My husband is Latino.  He comes from a race whose women have long, gorgeous, flowing hair.  I was worried about what he would think of this hair cut.  But you know what?  My Latino husband married a BLACK woman!  You get what you married.  And besides my hair was short when I met him, AND he loves this new style I'm rockin'. Hee hee. 

Anywho, I am now free of ALL of that with this "radical" hair cut of mine. :)  It was like a 50lb weight was lifted off of my shoulders.  My head is big ya'll, but it does not way 50lbs! :)  The reason I said it was spiritual is because, it was like FINALLY I am happy with how God created me!  I have embraced my negro friends!

I am no lounger bound to relaxer and the pursuit of long, straight hair.  My God-given natural curls are beautiful and I AM ROCKING THEM! Okay?!  My chocolate skin is beautiful and God did not make any mistakes with my hair texture, eye color, height, or anything else when he formed me in my mother's womb.

Can I get an Amen?  Amen!

Now this is my experience and my truth.  I'm not knocking sistas who are still relaxing their hair.  I am 40 years old and JUST discovered who I am.  I don't know if I might even go back to a relaxer one day.  Right now I'm pretty sure I won't.  But who knows what I'll do when I turn 80. ;)

Yatta
(Yah-ta)

The natural me: