Well tomorrow is going to be my 41st year on this earth and I am very happy about it. For the last 10 years on my birthday I have been very depressed about turning another year older. I believe I have turned a corner. I am not depressed about it this year. I think I am just so happy to be where I am today that I finally understand that there isn't anything to be depressed about. I am fairly healthy, I have a wonderful husband, a healthy grown son who is independent and loves me and for the first time in my adult life I have a clear direction of what I want to accomplish.
I have had aspirations before, most of them fleeting. The program I am building is something that I have a passion about and that is the difference today. I have always wanted to help people to an extent but I never really knew how. I love makeup but I didn't know how I was going to make it into a career. I have read blogs, watched videos and collected products for over 3 years. Finally it all came together one day, I'm not even sure when it happened. I can finally help people and use my love of makeup to do it. The real beauty of it all is I have been in the same place as the people I want to help. I have sat on that prison bunk and wondered how I would put my life back together. Of all the things you worry about when you are locked up (and believe me there is plenty to worry about) I can remember worrying about my little bag of makeup and was it in my bedroom on my bed, the place I sat and put it on before leaving the house that day to score drugs? It was not.
The day I was released from Lee Arrendale State Prison my family picked me up at the front gate. I remember jumping in the van, reaching to hug my son, grandmother, step-father, aunt and uncle then being handed a little cosmetic bag. I sat back dug into the bag and grinned from ear to ear as I applied foundation for the first time in almost 2 years. Oh my goodness, it felt so good to cover up all of my uneven skin tone, my hyperpigmintation that had developed while I was locked up and to just feel like a women again.
Incarceration of any kind is not good for your skin, of course whatever you have been doing that landed you in that situation to begin with probably isn't good for your skin either. I have been very blessed. I don't have any facial scares or permanent damage to my face from my years of drug use. My arms are a different story however. You will not see pictures of swatches in my blog taken on my hands and arms. I caused permanent damage to my hands and arms injecting morphine. The worst spidery, purple veins cover my hands, they stay dehydrated and i'm unsure of the long term effects this might have on my circulation in my hands.
This birthday is different, I am alive and I am able to help those that need my help the most. I'm not saying that there isn't people who need help more than these women, these women just need my help because I come with the added bonus of giving them hope. Hope that they can stand next to me someday alive, sober, smiling, giving back and thanking God that he saved me.
Happy Birthday to me!!!
Much Love and God Bless,
KelleyJo
Twitter @kelleyjo3334
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Happy birthday Kelleyjo! Wishing your 41st year to be full of blessings, lots of peace and joy, all sprinkled with a bit of fabulous. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much. You have been great support for my aspirations and I look forward to a bright future.
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