Who the heck am I?

A question I'm still asking myself sometimes ngl.

So I'm going to start this post off with a quote I received from a friend this morning:

"What is most personal is most universal." 

- C.R. Rogers

Quote is super relevant because thats what I'm about to do.. get personal. So I think it's safe to say that if you guys are reading this you probably have an idea of who I am being that I linked this to all my social media accounts. But allow me to re-introduce myself without the likable insta posts and quotable twitter lines.

I am Jasmine. Or as most of my friends call me Jaz. I was born at Health Park Medical Center in Fort Myers, Florida to teenage parents. My mom had me at seventeen and my parents had to become parents while they were young and not really ready. They struggled and for a long time we lived in a little trailer down A road in a little town called Labelle. Right before I turned two they blessed me with a sister who has been my rock through my entire life. But having two children at young age was hard for my parents and that accompanied with other juvenile marital problems led my parents to divorce when I was about 7. At the time I didn't exactly realize what that would mean for my sister and I, but now know that meant moving between the two A LOT! My mom, like most females at her age, still wanted to experience life outside of motherhood and spent most of her time doing just that which led my sister and I to be a point of contention between two people who tried to reach a custody agreement suitable for two young girls. Eventually, my sister and I were dropped off at my grandparents place back in Labelle who raised us to be pretty decent human beings. Started living with them full time when I was about 11 and in the midst of that both parents formed new families. Growing up with my grandparents was easy and gave my sister and I a fairly stable environment compared to the chaos of before but there were always issues we dealt with between families. Through middle and high school, I maintained good relationships with friends enough to mask what was really going on inside. I kept myself busy with sports and extra curricular activities to bury myself in things outside of family and issues of self. I had a rebellious stage where I would do things I knew I shouldn't have to feel SOMETHING. You know normal teenage girl things. And at the age of 18 I left the small town that became part of who I was in search of something better and to attend the University of Florida which I felt was out of my league. I left Labelle with a big dream and no money in hope that I would find a deeper meaning to life. Something that would bring me happiness, passion and experience that I never really felt in the place I called "home." But coming to college was hard. Though growing up I always felt pretty self-reliant, I didn't realize how dependent I was on my grandparents not only financially but emotionally. It wasn't until I felt overwhelmed with so much hurt that I took myself to therapy to find out how to fix myself or at the very least mask these feelings of despair and worthlessness. And for a while, I found something to do that. Eventually though it wasn't enough for me and I abandoned the scientific approach to curing myself in search for other ways to feel better about myself. Now at 21 here I am telling you my story and what I found to be "The Secret," to happiness and enlightenment.

I now practice self-love and live in positive energy and it has changed my perspective on the world completely. So much so that I've decided to do things like put myself out there and write blogs to try and get other people to find what I found. I know I'm still so friggin young but I'm in a place in my life now where I see so much negativity and chaos in the people around me that I want to be the light in someone's life and show you all that not everything is bad. My goal is to share my secret to a better life in hopes that someone will read and gain a new perspective and spread this love and light.

Now I know this post is really just a general overview of who the heck I am but with each post I will share a deeper story of myself and tell you how I made the best of this life I was given. Some posts will not be about me at all but will address you guys and common beliefs that people like me have and how to turn negative concepts into positive experiences. The general notion here will be to inspire a few good souls to reach out and spread their light in effort to make this shitty thing we call life something worth celebrating.

Hope you guys keep reading
peace and love,
Jaz