I have a long history of wanting to make a change, based on the things I have seen and experienced in my own life. Also, I have heard many stories of heartache, strife, sacrifice…and I was very confused myself, looking to find my way and stumbling and failing here and there. Failure is one of the greatest things one can gain on the path to success in whatever one is trying to do, whether it is personal growth, business growth, so on and so forth! I used to have a blog and on said blog, I created motivational affirmations, but my thinking at the time is that I wanted them to be somewhat quirky, because I’ve always been a wee bit quirky, so Words Dipped In Awesomesauce! was born.
While the title of the blog was WDIA, not every affirmation I made had WDIA on it, but the idea was the same. The images made were different attempts at wanting to create and express myself, while also helping and/or uplifting others in the process. They started to gain a bit of momentum, right around the time Google+ was ending, back in 2019. Because of that, I was rather upset for a time, because I had just started getting some comments of appreciation since people either laughed or genuinely got a motivational boost from being reminded (in humorous and wholesome ways), that they matter, and that people have what it takes to achieve the things they want to achieve. I remember actually getting my first payment from my Blogger page. However, I had another project that also did not last.
Failure is often the beginning, not the end!
VBPHP, or Virginia Beach People Helping People, was an older version of my current 757 Uplifters group. The big difference with VBPHP that I worked to change with 757 Uplifters was that VBPHP primarily focused on partnering with other organizations that posted events on things like Eventbrite or VolunteerMatch. Both of those services are nice for finding a wide variety of different events, including charity events. The problem was with me — I often had to schedule time off to make an event on, say, a Tuesday morning. The desire to do things was there but taking off of work (especially with time-off messing with whatever overtime pay I was getting at that time) to do the things, especially since I needed all the money I could to pay off student loans, was not attractive to me. Still, I knew that I enjoyed being out in the world and doing what I could. After a handful of meetups with VBPHP, plus growing personal hardships and work/life balance issues, I did not keep up with VBPHP and shut it down.
With 757 Uplifters, I wanted to still partner with other groups/organizations, when I could, but I also then looked for things that I could do with others that would depend entirely on me, regardless of what was happening with other websites that had events posted. I also am able to create events at places that I’m actually familiar with, with is hugely helpful for me, since I am not always comfortable doing something (especially big) in venues or spaces that I am completely unfamiliar with. Part of the reason is because as an organizer and leader, I make it my business to know if parking is difficult or if a place is wheelchair accessible, or if it is a certain noise level (too loud, relatively quiet, etc.) or…you get the idea! We can’t know everything, but if I’ve at least visited a place beforehand, I can tell if it is good for different types of people and communicate my findings. If I am not familiar with a place, like a restaurant, I will then just mention that it seems highly rated or what have you.
To end things, I think that WDIA and VBPHP were wonderful parts of my life. While they did not endure the tests of time, they taught me a lot, and finding out some of my WDIA stuff is still around, even after the computer that had my project files stopped working, made me a little emotional! They are projects that remind me that I’ve been wanting to do something like 757 Uplifters repeatedly, but at the time, I wasn’t quite ready. Nevertheless, in attempting new things and new ways to make an impact while working to expand my comfort zones, I got a greater grasp on who I am, who I want to be, and now, my current projects and efforts! I’ll be talking about the stuff I’ve written in the blog and then some with my work on RJ’s World Lens!