Don’t Quit, Your Dreams Need You!

I usually start my blog post with a quote from an article I’ve read, or person that inspires me. This time I pulled out one of my favorite t-shirts by Eloquii, Don’t Quit Your Day Dream and paired it with this dreamy blue suit from Asos Curve.  The puffed sleeves even remind me of dreamy clouds.

Don’t quit, your dreams need you! We need you, and someone that is watching you or reading this blog post needs you.  I realize my path belongs to me and yours to you, but I don’t think our journey belong solely to us alone.   I believe the journey is meant to be shared, to inspire, to motivate, to help heal people you have no idea are even watching you.

I’ve dreamed for years of being a model and gracing the pages of magazines, shoot I would have been happy with the pages of the local retail store’s ad in the Sunday Paper. All this came about because my favorite fabulous auntie told me “You’re so tall baby, you should be a model”.  But all I heard was … too tall, too big, too muscular (yes there was a time I was that muscular), too fat, and the “too” list went on and on.

My path to the pages of magazines was different but the journey wasn’t solely my own. There was the cover of the New York Times, and a centerfold in Sports Illustrated (not swimsuit), there was a photo feature in Women’s Sports and Fitness photographed by Annie Leibovitz and a photo in the book Athlete by Howard Shatz, the cover of Track and Field News, and you guessed it I made it to the local paper, Skirt Magazine in my second hometown, Columbia SC.

While I didn’t grace the pages of fashion or beauty magazines, I was still gracing pages honey, and little did I know I was still a model, it’s just my runway was different.  Instead of hours in hair and makeup, I spent hours at the track and in the weight room and every weekend my stage, my runway was a 7-foot wide hammer circle.  And believe me, I thoroughly enjoyed the show.
I’ve grown through life’s wins and losses, and after an especially hard hit I often wonder “Why me?” more like “WHYYYYYY MMEEEE?” as a scream into my pillow and have a snotty nose ugly cry. But after I pull myself together, I  remind myself of all the good I’ve experienced and shared along the way.  Like the amazing people I’ve met who love and motive me, or an email from  a little girl I’ve spent just a few minutes talking to, who at 6ft tall in the eighth grade like I was, has gone from not being too sure of herself to rocking everything around her, or a friend who needs advice for his daughter when she’s a size bigger and a head taller than everyone in her class, or the times I had to remind the freshman men on my team that is was a good thing to throw like a girl, because my hammers, shot puts and discuses were usually landing way farther than theirs. Maybe it was a time a friend reached out for advice and I was really able to help them because I’ve lived through it, or provide resources to help them through their struggle. I am not saying that your journey actually belongs to anyone else or the purpose is to appease or be validated by anyone.  I am saying your journey can be a testimony to others, an example of greatness, a sample of let’s get it right. It can be a season of help or healing to those you don’t even realize are watching. Don’t quit when you get weary or things happen you just don’t understand.  Your journey’s path is your own, but we’re all in this together.  You never know who is watching and the time you decide to stick to your dreams is the exact example someone may need to see!

And just know if by chance you see ever me on a runway, or gracing the pages of a magazine, the path I chose has been my own, but my journey has been shared with many people who never let me quit on my dreams!

#asseenonme #XOQ #plussizefashion #Olympian #psblogger