Qu3pid's Notes...

 Living on a rough side of Chicago and having to deal with all the temptations of the world. Throughout her life, she knew she wanted to be more than a pregnant teenager, dropout, 9-5 worker, or dead. Living where she lived and being raised in the predicaments that she had been raised in was pretty challenging but it was durable because God said he would not put more on her than she can bare. She had a sister who was 13 years older than her and two brothers who were 15 years older and the oldest was 17 years older. Her sister decided to drop everything in her life and come to take care of her younger sister. Can you imagine a 19 year old taking care of a 7 year old. What was going through your mind, when you were 19 years old. Her oldest brother was sprung out on drugs but had the biggest heart. Her middle brother was the healthiest person in life but had no heart. Her grandmother who didn’t want to give custody to her sister put up a terrible fight all the way until it was time for her to go to high school because she felt that she was last tangible thing she had close to her dead daughter. She moved from the Westside of Chicago to the West Suburbs with her sister and her life started to change for the better. 

As the years went on she accomplished many amazing things. She was determined to become better than the rest. Whatever that meant. BUT when it rains it pours and her senior year of high school her oldest brother died. Everyone wanted to hide the fact that he was on drugs because he had been clean for the last 3 months. We all joked around with him when he was high and he use to do the craziest things. Nod while he was standing there talking to you, beat on the table just because, start to joke around with you but you didn’t understand what he was saying, we all laughed because we thought it was funny until he was dead and couldn’t say anything but try to blame the hospital because they decided to give him a couple of pills for his chest pains. WAS IT THERE FAULT OR OURS? The young lady now knew that life was life and death came sooner than later. She went away to college and again accomplished a lot of great things. As of now she was looking pretty good. Smart, pretty, athlete, no kids, no debt, goals, and very long drive. She would say she beat all odds. All the obstacles she has overcome in her life. No parents, from the hood, not a private school, had to work extra hard to make everyone believe that she was just as good. She would say she beat all the odds, so she decided to write a book because a book about her life will relate to a lot of people out there who went through similar situations and worst situations. She wanted everyone to be encouraged and know that no matter what GOD WILL NEVER PUT MORE ON YOU THAN YOU CAN BARE. 

If there was one thing she knew, was to never let anyone shake her faith in GOD. He was the only reason she has made it thus far. In the hope that the book would reach out to millions, she would have achieved her biggest goal. Before she leaves this earth, make an impact on someone’s life. Except there was one thing she left out the entire book. She left out her biggest flaw. LYING!!! Lying is a dangerous trait to have and she knew this. She would lie about what time she would be at certain places, just really small white lies until she got into college, when certain things would happen and she was embarrassed about it. For example, if she got a bad grade on an exam and someone were to ask, she would lie about it. If her sister would ask her how were things going and she knew hell was breaking loose, she would lie about it. If she was having sex, she would lie. Came off as an open book, didn’t care what people thought about her but she thought too much of herself that she was to ashamed to let anyone know about her mistakes. Some of the things weren’t even mistakes, it was called being human.. 

This is a message to the world, you can’t grow as a person if you aren’t honest with yourself. You can’t help anyone else if you aren’t growing, you have to be honest,. Truthful, have integrity, in order to prosper in life. It was not until recently that she realized this and the only reason she actually came to grips with it was because someone very important to her was fed up and hurt by the fact that she felt like she couldn’t tell the truth. The reason I would say that this is dangerous because if you can’t admit that you aren’t perfect, you will be  at a standstill. No matter how many achievements you have accomplished and no matter how many odds you have beat, it won’t matter if you still are carrying a burden that doesn’t need to be carried. Just lay it down and let God deal with it. 

God Bless!

Brenda Stanton.