All I Do Is Win

Last week, my Facebook status read something along the lines of this: Grad school: check!

As the "congratulations" and the "way to go's" poured in, all I could think was, my freakin' goodness, I actually finished!


Single mom status and all. Foster care survivor and all. Young mom status and all. Domestic violence survivor and all. I actually did it!

Which got me thinking about how powerful the ability to push forward in spite of your situations can be. Life changing, to say the least.

I have pushed and pressed and worked so hard for this very moment.

Sometimes when people asked me how did I do it all, I didn't even know what to say. I guess sometimes I made it look effortless. But it wasn't. Feigning grace is no easy task.

So many times the stress was just waving over my head, but I somehow managed to shake it off long enough to respond to Aiden's needs and requests with patience and "in my nice voice." All the while, I'd be thinking to myself, how the heck am I going to make this work?

It wasn't easy. It wasn't supposed to be easy.

It still isn't easy. But it's doable.

That's the thing about setting goals and accomplishing them -- no matter where you come from or what your circumstances are, no matter what your beginnings are, YOU can change your life. You have the power to do it. Period.

It might be rough at times. You might feel as though you're sinking instead of swimming, or like you're crawling to the finish line, but you can do it.

Hey, I had to bring my 3-year-old -- my very rambunctious 3-year-old -- to class with me this year. Three different times! But you know what? When my papers and presentations and exams rolled around, I was in good shape because I never missed a class session. You. Do. What. You. Gotta. Do.

You can reach your goals and change your life. Trust me.

I've maintained and I've hung in there, save for the times I came thisclose to reaching my breaking point. In fact, I remember a few weeks ago when Aiden was having one of his terrific three's moments (sense the sarcasm!), an overextended, overtired, and overstressed Mommy said to him, "Aiden, mommy just needs to graduate, okay?"

Needless to say, the kid had a puzzled look on his face because he has no idea what a graduation is or what it means.

He has no idea what this accomplishment means for us. We defied the odds, yet again. These here degrees, baby Aiden, they are for us. We're taking the world by storm and leaving our mark.

Totally #winning.

Get ready for our next move, folks. It's gonna be a big one because all I do is win!