Dhaneyea Hoosier

Delilah's Winning Love Story

Everywhere she turned Delilah kept seeing ads for the little black book. She could hardly believe that if she wrote a book about a little black book she could win the grand prize of $20,000. But what would she write about, how could she possibly write anything that would impress the judges over the many other contestants. There had to be thousands, maybe even millions of stories containing little black books and coming into $20,000. How could it not be, Delilah had seen the ad hundreds of times herself. Every time she logged on to Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and every website. Delilah wasn't sure if it was good marketing or it was a sign that she should enter the contest. At first she thought the contest was cool and how awesome it would be to win $20,000 for writing a book. But it was just a thought. She continued on with her day-to-day life. Seeing the ad for the contest more and more, Delilah started to daydream about all the many things she could do with the prize money. She could buy a car. She could give her mother some money. She could give her siblings some money. She could pay off some old debts. She could donate some to her local church. She could buy her daughter a bed set. She could help her family with funeral cost from the losses they faced due to the pandemic. She can invest in some property to help other homeless veterans as she had been helped when she returned home. As she thought of many ways the prize money could help in her life, she began to get discouraged as she thought of all the many contestants that could have far better reasons for the prize money. What if there was a single mother with four kids sleeping on a family members couch and in far more need than her. What if there's a family with a sick child who needs the money for medical bills. What if there are hundreds of contestants with far better stories than she could ever write. So she set the idea of winning to the side once more and tried to continue on with her life. No book, no prize. But no matter how hard she tried there was a part of her that felt she was destined to win. Why else would she keep seeing the ads for the contest? Why else would the contest winner be announced on her birthday? Why else would she have such a crazy yearning to win the prize? With the due date nearing and a panic in her heart, she decided to at least try. But what to write about? Should she write about her life or a fictional story? Where to start? Her rollercoaster childhood? Her mother's struggles as a single teen mom who raised four kids? Her time in the military? Her struggle with depression and suicide and how she overcame it? Her time after the service? The loss of her aunts, grandma, and great-grandmother? Becoming a first time mother and raising her daughter ? or even life through a pandemic? As thoughts raced through her mind, time continued to tick by in the blink of an eye . Just as she was about to give up the thought occurred to her "you'll never know, if you never do" and " you have to walk by faith not by your senses". So she decided to meditate and envisioned submitting her finished little black notebook. Seeing the judges loving her story. Seeing the judges choose her story and announcing her as the winner on her birthday. She began to imagine how she would react to the news and how it would feel to win the $20,000. Seeing the money in her account. Feelings of excitement, joy, happiness, and accomplishment began to overwhelm her. She truly felt grateful for the opportunity for it had pushed her past her fears and limiting beliefs and showed her she was capable of so much more. She had so much life and so many stories in her that she wanted to share to help so many others to realize how fear shows up in our lives time and time again, and not allowing it to overtake you and becoming more than a conqueror over your fears and limiting beliefs. Anything is truly possible, good or bad, what's important is whatever you choose to focus on is what you get more of in your life. And with that epiphany Delilah rose from her mediation, wrote and submitted her story, and continued on to write 3 best-sellers, and 5 short stories that she entered into other contest and won first prize on the vocal platform.