Secrets
Women on the throne.. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the Iron Lady of Africa
The title of Iron Lady may have been given to a number of powerful women who have ascended to the throne or practiced politics, but Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the former President of the Republic of Liberia and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is considered the most deserving of this title on the African continent, given the challenges she has faced and the difficult path she has taken. She is the first elected female president on the continent, and with her she has led the country into an era of democracy.Birth and upbringing
By Kisama Riyo about a year ago in Confessions
Word of the Day: 会議
Since I died I added a new challenge that isn't as lucrative and the old one finished so I had to delete those tasks. I don't want a moody cat fight. I need my weed to enter the ether but I don't feel like it is appropriate right now, it is kind of like life gave me a stack of paperwork to do so even though I wasn't finished with what I was doing, I got to deal with this current blockage. I guess it is just that this house has no intuitive hits. It is like a dead zone. That's what she said.
By Kayla McIntoshabout a year ago in Confessions
I'm Still the One
When I think of a good person, I think of my grandma. She was probably one of the best people that I knew and she was the type of person that was not only willing to talk to anyone that she met, but she was willing to listen to them too. My grandma grew up with four sisters, and her mom was the head of the household. Now, realize that her mom was paying all of the bills and taking care of all of the groceries during a time where there weren’t very many women that worked outside of the home. The concept is not only inspiring but motivating. Anyhow, my grandma grew up poor, and the food that was put on her table would come from the tip money that her mom, who worked as a waitress, received from her daily shift. Her mom would go to the store and pick up the groceries for the night and come home. There wasn’t too much of a fuss over what they ate, because they had to eat what was put in front of them. That was just how it was. When my grandma eventually started going to school, she didn’t like it at all. She got bullied, and if I remember right, I think that the only reason that she actually sought out to accomplish the task was for her mother. She met my grandfather at the tail end of her school days. He was in the military at the time, and since they didn’t have a car, he would walk across town to see her every day. The two of them married, and since they didn’t have a lot of money, they lived with my great grandma until they could get on their feet. They got a car, but it caught on fire, so they had to get another one. They eventually got a house, but my grandpa had to work two jobs at one point to afford their bills. This was difficult for him, and since they had almost immediately started to have children, my grandma was left home tending to the house and their kids, not able to help him by working outside of the house. At some point, this changed, probably when the kids got into school and my grandma got a job so she could help with the bills. This helped her, because she was able to make it so my grandpap didn’t have to work so many hours to take care of their necessities. She worked this job for several years, and then, one day, the place that she worked for was robbed. She was there during the robbery. She was there to hear the criminals walking by her and she wasn’t sure if she was going to make it. She was blessed. She did make it through,but she suffered a heart attack right after the incident, and it was at that point that she decided to retire. Now, this woman had been through all kinds of things. She grew up poor. She had her car catch on fire. She had to live with her mom so she could get on her feet. She had to watch her husband exhaust himself working two jobs just to keep their house afloat, and she got robbed. Ironically, she was the reason that a lot of people in my family didn’t have to go through these types of situations. She made sure that the people around her were taken care of, and despite all of her experiences, she never wished them on others. In fact, I grew up not even knowing all of the things that my grandma had to experience. I just thought about her as my grandma. She was the person that brought me to the movie theatre and hid snacks in her purse. She was the one that would take me for the weekend and let me pick out a movie at the local video store. She took me to the zoo, and she even went with me and my mom when we went to see Sesame Street live and the Ninja Turtles. When I was young, I hardly heard my grandma complain about anything. I didn’t even really hear her cuss. She taught me how important it was to be nice to other people regardless of their lifestyle. She also showed me how to give back to the community. In fact, my grandparents took me to one of the first charity events that I ever went to. Her entire life revolved around her faith, her family and taking care of others. When she went to the grocery store, she would greet the people that she ran into. She learned the names of the people that worked at those stores and she listened to stories about their lives and gave them advice. During the holidays, she would even give the associates that helped her out in these places gift cards so they had a little something for themselves or for their families. She was also big on giving things away to the homeless shelters in the community. She would make blankets with my grandpa that she gave to the men’s shelter in the winter. She would buy small crafts for children that she gave to shelters that housed women and their kids. She would buy baby clothes for the drive that her church had to help new mothers that might not have the resources to pay for those items, and she would volunteer at her local church to help with the business affairs that they had to tend to. Though my grandmother helped a lot in her community, she didn’t forget about her family. She always bought presents for everyone’s birthday. She would do her best to search throughout the year for the things that each person liked and personalize their presents. When someone in her family needed a job, she hired them to do gutters or mow the lawn, and if there was someone that needed something simple like their car fixed or shoes, she would give them the money to get the items required. My grandma never had anything easy, but she was thankful for everything that she had. Sometimes, people were mean to her, and there were plenty of times where she experienced pain or hardship, but she never let that affect who she was. Up to the day that she died, she was thinking of those around her. She did her best to be a good person, and she lived her life in faith, bound and determined to be kind to the people around her and give what she could to make everyone else’s life a little bit easier. She really cared about others, sometimes more than herself. So, in retrospect, it is possible to maintain your morals and the person that you are even when going through a difficult period of your life. It might be difficult to do this, and the experiences that you have might take a little time to recover from. However, maintaining your personality, beliefs, and goals might suit you better in the long run, and it might even touch the life of someone close to you.
By Nicole Higginbotham-Hogueabout a year ago in Confessions
Forward Advance
When I was younger, I had nothing to do but read, write, and learn new things. Like I said before, my parents worked a lot so we were home for several hours by ourselves each day, and after doing all of the chores on our chore list, we would pretty much have to come up with something to occupy our minds. We didn’t have cable, and I don’t even know if the Internet existed at that point. If it did, it didn’t in our house, so when we weren’t sledding down the stairs on our flying discs, we were each doing our own thing. One of the things that I liked to do was learn. I figured that if I could learn as much as I could, I would be able to create a more adventurous life and explore different opportunities that I didn’t have available to me at that time. So, I did my best to participate in as many reading competitions as I could. I read the encyclopedia often, and I even stayed up as late as I could get by with to finish my school work early. The only problem was that I was bored. Eventually, I had studied so much that the things that I was learning weren’t occupying my attention. This led me to searching for a way to gain new knowledge, and I found out about a class given by the local community college. I did the paperwork and testing necessary to get into this class, and I passed with flying colors, but there was only one class. This left me wondering what I was going to do with the rest of my high school career. I couldn’t just sit around and listen to the same stuff over and over again. I needed something to engage my mind, so one day, I began to read the state code. I don’t know exactly what drew me to this book or where I got the idea to read it, but after looking up different laws and regulations in my state, I found out that the school had the responsibility to pay for my college education while I attended high school as long as I had passed the college entrance exam. This discovery opened new doors for me, and I felt blessed that I had found it. I was able to take this information to the talented and gifted teacher, and she was able to set up a meeting with the school board so we could get the school to offer more college classes to those that were in high school. After the approval, a consortium of colleges were available to students that wanted to further their education while they were working on their diploma. I loved having this new opportunity, and I knew that down the road, it would save me money. I worked on both my high school and college classes at the same time, and by the time that I graduated high school, I only had two semesters of college left until I was able to get my associate’s degree in general studies. Having this education under my belt helped me take the next step into my education. It also allowed me to enlist in the military with a higher rank. Though both of these things were great, the coolest thing about my school offering these new classes was that future generations would have them available to them when they needed them. There would no longer be a learning deficit, leaving those at the top of the class with nothing else to do, and for students that would not normally be able to afford college, there was now an opportunity for them to go without paying a dime.
By Nicole Higginbotham-Hogueabout a year ago in Confessions
Dear Virgil,. Top Story - November 2024. Content Warning.
The night ebbs on as sleep wanes. What sordid acts led to such restless ease? A past life? The former Selves. Or past lives? The previous renderings of my animating force. Perhaps generational sins, those passed through DNA. I feel the burden of my lineage. The accountability of restoration. The work of repairing what my ancestors wrought.
By kpabout a year ago in Confessions
Keep Your Mind Happy: The Key to a Fulfilling Life
Keep Your Mind Happy: The Key to a Fulfilling Life In the rush and chaos of modern life, happiness often feels like an elusive treasure hidden behind the pressures of work, social obligations, and personal challenges. Yet, the key to a fulfilling life may be simpler than we think: keeping our minds happy. A happy mind doesn’t mean a life without problems, but rather an ability to maintain a positive outlook and resilience, even when facing difficulties. Cultivating happiness within ourselves can transform how we experience the world, make us more compassionate towards others, and allow us to navigate life’s challenges with strength and optimism.
By Dipak Pawarabout a year ago in Confessions
Women on the throne.. 123 years on the throne of the Netherlands.. the grandmother, the daughter and the granddaughter
When the current King of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, took the throne, he was the first man to be crowned King of the Netherlands in 123 years. Three women had ruled the country in succession from 1890 until Willem-Alexander took over in 2013. Queen Wilhelmina remained in power for about 58 years, and lived through two world wars. Then came her daughter Juliana, and then her granddaughter Beatrix, who abdicated in favor of her son Willem-Alexander after 33 years on the throne of the Netherlands.In this article, we learn about the three queens of the Netherlands: the grandmother, the daughter, and the granddaughter, and the most important stages that each of them went through in the following lines.Queen Wilhelmina
By Kisama Riyo about a year ago in Confessions
Confessions of a Teenager
Confessions of a Teenager Every stage of life has its unique power and influence over the human soul. Adolescence, that fascinating and tumultuous time, is the grand explosion that heralds the arrival of manhood, a shift toward physical strength and boldness. It’s a phase brimming with energy, a sense of invincibility, and the belief that no one can rival the journey one’s beginning.
By Ali Sadeek Ahmedabout a year ago in Confessions
Why I Started Saying Yes to Strangers?
I was always the cautious type, the kind of person who politely declines small talk with strangers and keeps earbuds in on the subway. It wasn’t that I didn’t like people—I just felt safer sticking to my circle, my routine, and my familiar places. But recently, something changed, pushing me to step out of my comfort zone and start saying "yes" to the strangers I would have normally brushed off.
By Tipu Dasabout a year ago in Confessions
Roller Coaster Writing On Vocal. Content Warning.
Introduction This was inspired by my friend Michelle Liew's introspective poem which you can read here: I may be repeating things that I have said in the past, but due to the nature of the modern world and the requirement for Zeitgeist and The "Now" most people will never see those stories again.
By Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred about a year ago in Confessions
Dark water
I went walking around at night to look at the trick or treaters but found there weren't many. I think I got possessed by a demon while I was walking around. I was glad the children laughed though.. I kept walking away from them. I scared myself walking around. I knew I was going to find darkness tonight.
By Kayla McIntoshabout a year ago in Confessions
