Marcelle . . . ‘mon amie’ featuring Lille, France

After requesting that my friend in Lille, France help me with my presentation, featuring her city, Lille France she provided me with a lot of useful information to base my presentation based from!
Sorry for the poor image.

“Ok so for fun activities in Lille;

“There is a market every Sunday in the Vieux Lille and Wazemmes, people of all walks of life come there are you can buy a nice roasted chicken. The products are all regional and artisanal and people are proud to support local farmers.”

“There is the zoo, which is free, a big difference compared to other cities. As soon as we have a little bit of sun, we go out to the Citadelle which is a gem of biodiversity and architecture in the middle of the city.”

“We have the Gare Saint Sauveur that has free expositions of art and culture, you can also attend concerts there.”

“We have a really good concert hall, called Grand Mix in Tourcoing. It is special because even though it is really small, cool bands come through there! That’s because Lille is on the road between London, Paris and Brussels.”

“For eating, there are many, many restaurants and there is an old street in Vieux Lille called Rue de Gand. This is an entire street of restaurants and bars, most of which are quite good!”

“Every year we have the Braderie de Lille, the biggest flea market in Europe. 2 million converge on the city, which is entirely closed to cars for the weekend. A smaller festival is Festival de la Louche d’or, which is a big soup competition. It is free for the public to taste all the soups!”

 

Marcelle also provided her personal favorite aspects of Lille:

“I love that festival because everybody comes and has fun and unwinds.”

“What I love about Lille, is that even if it is a small city, there is always something to do, somewhere to go, somebody to meet. People are warm and welcoming, a typical trait of the Nord Pas de Calais region. Everybody I know who has come to live here has made many friends and we love to help each other out, there is a lot of solidarity in the city.”

“Life is also quite affordable in Lille compared to other cities. There are also few big buildings, the city center is mostly old houses with some interesting architecture. We build our homes and shops and offices into these old buildings.”

After mentioning my desire to one day move to Lille, the city that captured my heart, Marcelle said “They are always looking for English speakers here!”, encouraging my hope of one day moving to France.

 

As the world goes ’round . . .

Hello, my lovely readers,

My love comes to you from the same computer, but an entirely different place today.

I am in Lille, France, about two hours from Brussels, Belgium and eight hours from Berlin, Germany. I am making friends with locals and I’m trying to set myself up for a possible career here in the future. I would absolutely ADORE it if I could find someone who is willing to move with me to Lille France. Like, for good. I love this small city so much and I’ve only been here for a little more than a week!! The locals are so incredibly nice, I can’t imagine being in a very dangerous situation (publicly harmed) in Lille, because I’m more than sure that someone would help me if I made noise. It’s incredibly safe (for example, as I was checking out at a Monoprix [small grocery store] the woman in front of me realized that she forgot something on the other side of the store when we were about six people back from the front of the line, and she dropped her purse and items to go get it without making sure anyone would watch over her things) and I absolutely ADORE how easily accessible everything is!!

I could get comfortable here really fast. All I would need is a job and a decent place to stay. From a recent search online, it appears that I can find a 2 bedroom apartment for less than € 600 a month in the city!! 😀 I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!! ❤

I am definitely moving here at some point in the future. . Definitely. I miss my family, and I will miss them even more once I move over here, but I absolutely love this city!

I came here very cautious of the fact that I would not be used to it for about a week or so, then I’d love it, then I’d hate it. But, I honestly feel that there is nothing that could possibly make me not like this incredible city! I belong here. absoluement. This place is where I should be for my adult life. Yes, I will miss my family more than words could possibly say, but I am certain that this city is where my heart and soul belongs.

Plus, me living here will be great for my family . . . in way. It will give them a great excuse to travel MUCH more often, even to France [pour moi! 🙂 ]. 🙂 I am so curious as to what kind of jobs I could get around here.

I will have to ask my local friend about that tomorrow at brunch/ while touring the beautiful locale of this incredible city! . . . It never gets old to me how lovely this place is!! While it may seem like an incredibly long way away, I should only take a year or two to finish my degree and pay off a little debt. Just a few months to go. 🙂

Ideally, I will be able to communicate about a million times better by the end of this trip, but that’s very unlikely. So, I’ll just have to make some friends and improve my communication abilities once I get home, while working on my degree and paying off debt. Then I can move over here and set my life up. 🙂

I’m getting tired, it IS almost 22;00 (10 pm) here in Lille, France.

So, with that babble about how much I love Lille, I leave you . . .

Jusqu’à la prochaine temps! :*

~Alexandra Mae

XoXoXo

 

 

Une lettre pour mon âme sœur 😘

Dear soul mate,

I might not know your name yet, but I promise, I love you deeply. My entire being craves to have you with me. Not because I’m lonely or bored, but because I crave being with you in the deepest and most sincere way.

My heart leaps years ahead of reality and it portrays the most beautiful image of us simply loving eachother and the family we create out of friends and new family members.

My skin aches to touch you, be touched by you and hold you and feel you at my side. My lungs feel suffocated without you and my brain doesn’t understand why I don’t know you yet because I feel such a gravely deep love for you already.

Dear soul mate,

I am patiently waiting for us to be together. As the time passes, I feel less and less sure of us ever being together, but I have loved you always and that will never change.

With my body, mind and soul, I wish all a fortunate present and future. 😘

~Alexandra Mae

XoXo

It REALLY, TRULY is almost over!

Hello, lovely readers.

I’m just trying to wrap my mind around being almost done with college. It seems too good to be true. I’ve been working tirelessly for my education to be complete for my whole life (only 23 years, but to me, that’s forever) and having almost accomplished that lifelong goal is just mind-blowing to me. I cannot fathom what it will feel like to honestly be done. After I get my degree, I literally have no stinking clue what I’m going to do. All that I can really tell you is what I wasn’t out of life;

I want to use my degree, I want to travel.  I want to learn more languages. I want to walk where Jesus walked, to speak the language that He spoke. I want to feed people. I want to make others feel loved and wanted. I want my parents to be proud of me. I want my siblings to be proud of how far I’ve come. I want the world around me to flourish. I want to grow my own fruits and vegetables. I want to live off of the money that my first, autobiographical book makes. I want to keep writing. I want to be an author who lives everywhere, one who travels and writes about my experiences for a living. I want to ‘work’ for a traveling medical group, telling my stories in the form of words until I settle down into ‘real life’ somewhere.

What many people don’t realize is exactly how big the world is, how much different stuff is out there, and how marvelous that is!! I mean, honestly. Most people in America (I’m going out on a limb here) never travel to our neighboring continent, South America, or even Canada or Mexico!! I mean, I admire people that stay put and enjoy the benefits of their locale, but the world is SO much bigger than your tiny little hometown, whether or not you’re from a city. The world is almost unfathomably huge! I just wish that every one could understand how much of the world they are missing out on seeing by being stationary to his/her hometown.

Education is the most important belonging that anyone could ever have. Money is evil, people often suck, but a decent education is a window to the great big huge world that so many people don’t get the chance to experience.

At the very least, I feel that it is essential that every human being should be given the ability to read and write. Literacy is probably more important than an education. Without literacy, a person can’t read books or write countless essays that college requires. Literacy is the best gift that I have ever been given by my elementary school teachers. I could not be any more thankful. (Thanks especially to Mrs. Steffen, my 1st grade teacher)

After literacy and education, I believe that the most important thing that a person should be permitted to experience is travel. The ability to see and experience how others live is so . . . . . . important to understanding the world, important to understanding others, important to maturing as a human being. The ability to travel is probably the second most precious gift that I’ve ever been given. I am so thankful that my mother traveled to Spain and the tip of Morocco in her college days, and that my father has traveled to Canada and Ireland with his family. Those two people have made a far greater impression on my understanding of the world than any book or location ever could. Their travels prior to my own made it possible for me to experience another culture and become addicted to travel.

That’s probably what I should do with my life, travel and continually learn about other cultures and people. I just don’t know how I could possibly make any money with that lifestyle, so I’m not sure how realistic that is. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Plus, I want kids. I’m just not ready for them yet. I think that I’ll try and make a few extra large sums of money (I’ll live off of my parents for a few years) and then I’ll travel for a while before I  settle in and start ‘adulting’.  . . .

Well, that’s the idea. But all that I’m really doing is leaving my options wide open for God to fill them with His will. ❤

With all of my love,

Alexandra Mae

XoXo ❤

In This Life

In this life that I am living, right now, I would like to accomplish the following things:

I would like to graduate and be absolved of loan-debt relatively fast.
That will probably involve something like a LOT of ‘work’ and little-no ‘play’.

I would like to travel to see the Northern Lights, Egypt, Nazareth, Bethlehem, Capernaum, Galilee, the Caribbean islands, France (again), South American countries (ALL, please?) and Australia.
^In that order.^

I would like to attain a fully bilingual status with French, then work on a few other languages.

I would like to get a really great job, working with people, but still enough quiet time for me to think straight.

I would like to be near my siblings when we’ve all ‘grown up’ and started our own lives. Family is more important to me than words could ever describe. I don’t know how I will ever live without them around all the time. 😥

I want to save the world, but not get any credit. . . . . No, honestly, I want to help MANY people and solve some seemingly impossible riddle, and not receive recognition for it.
Being recognized for that would be far too embarrassing. :p

I want to study other people/cultures/religions/foods/lifestyles in great detail. It all interests me to no end. I absolutely love studying people.

I want to do something crazy and stupid (like skydiving) at some point in the year each year for the rest of my life. I want to be the fun person that everyone wishes they were. This year, I gave up chocolate/cocoa forever. That’s a HUGE step for me, as I used to eat chocolate EVERYDAY. I ‘quit cold turkey’. It’s rough. I have a headache already, it’s only been two days. :p

Well, I tried to give up chocolate. As a human, though,  am weak and often give in to the desire to grab some  chocolate  from the candy dish on my advisor’s desk. :p

Next year, I was hoping to travel to France for a semester (plus), so I would have been gone for about 4 months. I would have missed my family like crazy, so I decided not to go. 🙂

I want to be a goofball, while knowing when to be serious and not make jokes (like at a funeral)  or crack a wise-ass joke (like when I am being disciplined) .

I want to be the family ‘health nut’ and be able to help any of my family with illnesses or conditions that they have. So far, I’m just going with honey-lemon water/tea being the cure of all health problems.

I would like to get married to the man of my dreams and live in a quaint home near LARGE amounts of wildlife, but still a small town/city.

I want to have two babies, the gender does not matter, though I would prefer boys, but healthy will do just fine for me.

I want to have an online career, that I can do from anywhere in the world, given that I have Wi-Fi.

While I have children, I would like to continue to take care of my body, the way that the Lord intends for me to. I want my body to go on until He calls me Home.

I want to live to see my grandbabies.  ❤

Now, I have to ask, aren’t these the dreams of a large majority of the population? All of us have similar goals in life, why do we feel the need to bomb eachother, oppress certain ‘types’ of people and attack people? We’re all after the same thing, happiness.

With thought, I am going to bed now. ❤

Jusqu’à prochaine temps. ❤

God Bless

~Alexandra

The Librarian Chapter begins . . .

Hi everyone!

I’m blessed to come to WordPress today with some incredible news!

I GOT A FULL-TIME JOB!!

And it’s not just any job, it’s with AmeriCorps! This incredible opportunity will open my professional opportunities wide-open! After this. 12 month term, I will have the opportunity to work for AmeriCorps for a second term in this location, or I will be offered an educational grant, which I will use for a librarian certification. Also, through this position, the county that I’m working in will also sponsor my certification process.

Honestly, the past year (and some) has been the greatest time of blessings in my life. I have fallen in love with the most incredible man I have ever known (sorry Dad) and now I’m beginning a career in something that I am very passionate about. I have worked in a library before during college and while being a librarian might seem easy, first of all . . . it’s not. Second, it’s even harder when you’re a student with a learning disability. This time I’m going into it with actual ‘real person’ (adult) pay, job security and assistance from the previous AmeriCorps worker.

I’m probably in way over my head and I’m afraid to say this, but “I’m really excited about this job! I really can’t see how I can fail.” *knock on wood* Like I said, I’m probably in over my head, but that’s how I’m seeing it right now.

Well, that’s kind of a lot all in one paragraph. Let me unpack it for you. I kept getting advertisements on Facebook about Facebook Dating, so I clicked the ‘X’ button every time I saw it for it to make it go away. After probably two weeks of clicking the ‘X’, I was like “What the hell? Why not see what kinda fish are out there?” and I created a profile. It took me about a month to find anyone fitting my standards. But, I finally found Stephen. We matched on May 31st in 2022 and despite the rocky road, full of pot-holes and puddles, we’ve made it!

This incredible, God loving man is intimidatingly intelligent – but very humble, handsome as a devil (why do people say this?) and more kind than anyone I’ve ever known. Since I’ve known him, he has graduated from Binghamton University (SUNY) with his second master’s degree, this one in (medical) systems engineering. His first master’s was in mechanical engineering also from SUNY Bing. (see? SO SMART!!)

He’s a few years younger than me and while I could get all ‘extra’ and talk about how little it matters, I’m going to let it go at that. It doesn’t matter.

He is old fashioned and while it drives me absolutely bonkers that he won’t come meet my family until he has a job, I admire him for sticking firm to his convictions and I think my parents do too. They’ve met via FaceTime and they all have eachother’s phone numbers etc. but he won’t come to Pennsylvania to actually meet my family – in person – until he has a job. He also hasn’t told his family about me for that same reason. That might seem like EXTREMELY irregular behavior to my fellow American readers, but I’ve done considerable research and have come to the conclusion that it’s the normal thing to do in Indian dating culture.

I just got this job earlier this month, after him pushing me to get a ‘real person’ job since we met, and now he’s just had a really great interview with an engineering company on Friday morning. The person who interviewed him actually reached out to him yesterday and mentioned how he was eager to see Stephen start there! For future reference, it is now Sunday evening. This month has been a great month for both of us! Hopefully the months just keep getting better and better until we are living together. Then a plateau will be fine for a while.

Having said that, I need to backtrack again just a little bit. I have made the trek to Binghamton a handful of times from central Pennsylvania since we started dating, so we have met and we’ve spent about one weekend a month together (except for a week in December just before he went to India for Christmas and the week of my 30th birthday). He has been a student, just working part time jobs since we met and he still makes it po$$ible for us to spend time together. He was also studying until May of this year! And he still made it possible for us to be together.

That’s only ‘so far’ in the chapter called US. I cant wait to see what’s next in our book!

Back to me . . .my career is FINALLY starting. I’ve had a really hard time finding and keeping a job since college and words honestly cannot express how grateful I am to be working for AmeriCorps AT A LIBRARY!! This is it, people. My ‘real person’ life starts now. This ‘librarian chapter’ is the opening chapter to my book of happiness. Here we go,

All of my love,

~Alexandra Mae

xo xo xo

Something just ‘clicked’

Hey peeps!

In the last 2 weeks, I started learning with Legendary Marketing and I have never been so optimistic about anything since I started the (outrageously) expensive UX training with Kenzie Academy. The biggest (only relevant) difference between Kenzie and Legendary Marketing is that Kenzie literally charged me close to $14,000 for 3 months of training and Legendary Marketing cost me (literally) $1 to start. Plus!! Marketing is a mix of UX and problem solving (people pleasing . . . which is kind of a thing for me) so I LOVE IT!!

My experience with Legendary Marketing so far just kinda ‘clicked’ for me, so now I’m feeling all confident and motivated about my future in affiliate marketing! I see myself even starting a solar panel farm and earning money from that eventually. Ideally, the US government would give me a substantial grant to assist me in starting my business. I simply need to begin my own marketing business (or complete my training with Legendary Marketing and get a job) before I even attempt to build a business plan for my solar panel farm. Though! I do have my close friend who might help me create my solar panel farm! Maybe, but she’s really busy… so I can’t ask her for at least this first quarter of her company’s schedule.

Regardless, this Legendary Marketing program ‘just clicked’ for me! I have honestly never been so optimistic about my future! I truly believe that this is what is going to set me up for success and a truly bright future in remote work! This is the thing that is going to be ‘my’ thing for the rest of my life! When I can get this truly set up, I’m going to have so much support and so many examples to follow for making my work meaningful and impactful!

Plus!! I have a few other ‘gig’s to help get mer through until Legendary Marketing starts to really pay off for me. I’m starting a new job with Advocacy Alliance in the little city across the river from my town! I’m also still Dashing quite often and that really does help me get by. But the new job with Advocacy Alliance is going to really ensure that my bills are paid and I won’t have to stress nearly as much as I currently am!

This Legendary Marketing thing really ‘clicked’ for me and it’s setting me up for my life! So many people in the company tell stories of how successful they’ve become from the program that is set up with Legendary Marketing and I truly see myself becoming that successful with the trainings from Legendary Marketing! MAYYYYBE they’ll even allow me to do some training for them! Being able to help teach people how to be successful! That will allow me to start making me money from Legendary Marketing before I even start my own company! Oooooh, I’m so excited about this program and how it’s going to change my life in not too long! Wish me luck in the next few months! I’m so motivated and determined to make myself as successful as the people in the videos and webinars that I’m learning from!

With all of my motivation and determination, I leave you!

Until next rtime,

Aly Mae

xoxoxo

Binghamton NY!

Hey folks!
Per usual, it feels like YEARS since I’ve posted in here, but remember the guy I talked about when I last posted?

Well, I’m in Binghamton NY right now because I’m staying with him for as long as he wants me, which I’m hoping is until the day he leaves for his home (Monday, Dec 19th). But, he also has finals this week, and I am really trying to make sure that I don’t get in the way of his academics. Of course, my mere presence here in his apartment/room is a distraction for him, but I really need to find a way to make myself as quiet as possible while he’s studying or trying to focus on something. I do NOT want to be the reason that he doesn’t properly learn or test well on something. He’s a (health) systems engineer and him knowing ‘all of the things’ within that industry is super important for his career.
So . . . here I sit in his apartment (hopefully for the week) while he studies and works his ‘part time’ . I’ll probably be ‘out cold’ when he gets back, but I’ll still get to sleep next to my man. AAND I get HOURS everyday when all I have on my plate is to study marketing stuff! NO HAVING TO DRIVE EVERYDAY while I’m here! You put that along with being with my person? I couldn’t possibly ever be happier. I’m in a state of absolute bliss! I am kinda sad that he’s going to India for a month, the month including Christmas sand New Year’s Eve/Day, but it’s important that he gets to see his family and friends . . . it’s been over 3 years! I can’t imagine being in a foreign country, and not being with my family for that long. I’m happy for him, I really am. I’m just so afraid. I’m sure that the universe (God) has put me through enough hardship though, right? I mean . . my faithful readers know about the stuff I’ve been through from my past posts, so you knowhow important my family is to me. I can’t even put myself in his place. I am absolutely beside myself, though. This beautiful human has decided that he wants to be with ME . . . ME of all people. He wants me, it just dumbfounds me.

I’m still working (admittedly not as hard as I should be) at growing my knowledge in marketing. That is pretty easy for me to ignore because I literally have NO formal education in marketing. But, as my best friend insisted/suggested I would . . . repeatedly, I honestly love it!! I just need to REALLY focus my attention to studying this week in order to improve my life. This desire literally has nothing to do with Stephen or anyone else. I will feel SOOO much better about myself when I have my own income that is enough to pay all of my bills along with covering all of my rent and maybe even save a bit!

That, ….. me having a job and contributing to the wellbeing of my household, is one of the most important things in the world to me.

Yes, I really like the idea of being a stay at home Mom and housewife (which is upsetting to him), but I have spent WAYYYYY too much money on education to just be at home all day, not contributing. I’m still seeking trainings in Marketing and I’ve recently picked up a program on Consultancy. That might be something that I could do on a ‘part time’ basis and then I still get to be at home! No more required driving! ooooh! I can’t even tell you how much the idea of that pleases me. I will probably still Dash, on weekends and maybe some holidays. But it will not be my ONLY income anymore! I know we absolutely drive each other crazy most of the time, but I am really loving the idea of living with him more and more everyday that I spend here. So, while Yes, we drive eachother crazy, I thoroughly believe that God put him in my life to be my forever. I just love him so much!

Well, with that, I think I’ll call this a ‘wrap’ and hit publish. I’m off to get sit with Stephen while he does whatever he’s doing for school right now.

Ciao!!

~Aly Mae

😘😘

Best Construction Jobs of 2022

Hi!

I’m coming to WordPress today to write a blog for an application to a UX/UI job (literally my DREAM job!) for a company called SkillCat, a company that trains individuals for one of the most promising manual labor jobs on the market today! HVAC!!! HVAC offers its workers options and a better than decent salary, from what I understand. A few of the people I graduated High School with got into the industry, and let me just say . . . I’m jealous of how successful they’ve become. These jobs are in great demand right now, being the reason the position pays so well, and I get the feeling that it will always be a great need in civilized (and I suppose even uncivilized) cultures. HVAC stands for ‘heating, ventilation and air cooling’ so it will always be important, no matter the season! I know that the well being of people in my household depends on the air conditioning and/or heating system working, and we all get pretty grumpy when it doesn’t work.

This industry, this. position is just really important, and the pay and benefits reflect that!

If you’re looking for a new job, or your kid just graduated high school and needs some career guidance, I suggest looking into HVAC! Good luck! Thanks for reading my blog post! 🙂

Here is the video requested by SkillCat too! (I couldn’t figure out how to attach separately)

https://us05web.zoom.us/j/84633453675?pwd=c1NKOUt0V2hCVktYZWVndnVlQ0p3QT09

Have a great day, everyone!

2022 is my year!

Hey folks! So far in this year, (I’m writing this post in the end of September) I have found the love of my life (see image below) and found my dream career in marketing! I’m currently just doing an unpaid internship and working as a waitress to cover my bills.

my Bava ❤️

Since Santosh and I got together, my best friend Aja has finally convinced me to train myself (for free, thanks to HubSpot, LinkedIn Learning and RadicalX) in marketing and since I started doing that, I’ve found that I absolutely love it!! I started an internship just last week with the female CEO of a daycare and daycare consulting agency based in North Dakota. I’ve only really worked on a little bit of it so far, but I’m really having fun ideating on what other childcare business owners would find most useful in improving their business structures and policies! I’m pitching ideas for her weekly podcasts and for her Sunday morning coffee time podcast by this Thursday. That’s tomorrow, so I should probably work on it now . . .

Despite the fact that I haven’t worked on it yet, I’m so excited to get going on it and help design some web pages for her podcasts! The internship is just supposed to be for this fall semester, but I’m really hoping that she will hire me as her marketing professional after this fall college semester ends! I’m so hopeful that this is going to lead me to the career of my dreams, and my love, my Santosh, my Bava, makes me so happy with his undying support and love! He drives me crazy half the time, but I do love the Hell out of him! He’s 25 (4 years, 3 months and ten days younger than me), Indian, 6’4″, emotionally intelligent, sweet, funny, kind, is studying for his second engineering Master’s degree (medical systems engineering, the first was in mechanical engineering), and he loves me just as much as I love him.

Santosh (Stephen to his American friends *EXCEPT MEEE!* , I guess) is wonderful and I love him, but my main focus right now is on my budding career, as his focus is on his academics as it should be. He has his priorities straight and so do I. I’m not exactly the most coordinated human on the planet, so he’s worried about me spilling drinks or food all over my customers, but I’m confident that I’ll figure things out pretty quickly. I’m hoping that I get to make decent tips to pay my credit card and at least some of my car off by the time my Bava and I live together. We’ve talked about it several times and he’s hoping for us to mover in together by the time he goes home to visit his family. Of course, I hope for that too, but I’m not sure how I’ll ‘swing it’ financially. It’ll all work out when it’s supposed to work out, I’m sure.

OOH! Also, I’ve lost 30 pounds in the past 2 months!! I’m on track (and hoping) to lose 30-40 more, but I need to continue to feed myself decently and I don’t think I can live off salads once I leave the OptaVia regimen. I LOVEEEE bread, that will, undoubtedly, be my biggest problem. But aside from that, there is really nothing that I can’t live without.

Well, anyway . . .

I need to go work on my internship now! Too-da-loo!!

~Aly Mae

Hey! It’s been a while,

Hello, friends and readers, I’m just hanging out in my room, waiting for my partner to be off work, call me and tell me about his day. My life is pretty good right now, it just **really** sucks that I’m only earning money from DoorDashing. I need more reliable income and less driving in my my life.

My boyfriend loves to drive, I’d like to never drive and just ride shotgun on long road trips and any other time we’re on the toad. . . If only we lived closer/together! Man. that would be great. Well, hopefully soon! I just need a remote job that I can depend on to pay my bills and to convince him that living with me will be better than only spending a night or two together once or twice a month. It would give me a lot of mental peace and comfort. I would know that he’s always going to come home to me and I wouldn’t have to worry about not seeing him for a month!

Our relationship is still kind new, so we don’t exactly know everything about eachother yet. But it feels good, genuinely good, to see his face and hear his voice. He gives my heart and soul peace, I am definitely in over my head here. It’s scary, but it feels right. It feels good. He’s determined to make me happy, but he doesn’t need to do all that much in the big picture. The man that he is is enough for me. He’s *so* smart and undeniably handsome and so sweet and caring and funny and wise and compassionate and understanding. Ooh, jeeze. I just think he’s perfect.

He’s a true Christian and not only do we talk about God often , we are actually studying the Bible together! We’re in Leviticus right now! Chapter 9. He’s Indian (dot, not feather 😂 ) and very old fashioned because of how he was raised. He **adores** his family and just wants to provide for everyone around him.

He’s a little over 4 years younger than me (dating a younger man is new to me), so I’m kind of helping him figure out how to navigate post-college life as I figure it out for myself. He’s so supportive of my goals and wow . . .

The biggest problem I have is that he’s kind of keeping my presence in his life hidden from some of the people closest to him in life. He’s told a few of his best friends, but not his family, which I **kind of** understand. In traditional Indian culture, a man is expected to be set in life before he chooses/finds his spouse.

He’s young, so he still cares a lot (too much in my opinion) about what others think of him, but that’s pretty much the biggest issue I have with him. Yes, he keeps himself busy (he IS still in school until mid-December), so he doesn’t have a whole bunch of time for me. But he still makes me a priority in his daily life, and while I throw a fit every it once in a while, I do recognize that.

Despite the issues we have, he clearly wants to make things work with me and is a dedicated and determined lover.

He’s a bit possessive, but I kind of like feeling like I’m gold and too precious to be shared. So far, he hasn’t been unhealthy about it, so I’m not concerned. He’s only that way because he’s young and a little unsure of himself, despite my constant praise of him and attempts to comfort him and tell him that I’m just as dedicated as he is and I’m definitely not going anywhere on him.

Things with my man are really great and I legitimately couldn’t be happier about it, but I’m genuinely getting worried about my professional life. Mostly because as of yet, I don’t have one. 😂 But I have a few people keeping me in mind for various opportunities and I have hopes of at least one of those things working out sooner or later.

I mean, that’s a bigger deal than this amazing, perfect man my life, but that’s the only thing missing. Life will come full-circle for me, I push myself hard for that to happen everyday.

Well, I’m exhaused right now, but that’s where I’ll leave it! Prayers/good vibes definitely appreciated.

Love y’all !

😘😘

💋💋

~Alexandra Maeeee ❤️

Billion Strong

Hello readers!

When I started this post, I had just gotten off the phone with a new friend, Debra Ruh, the founder of Billion Strong, a nonprofit that advocates for people with disabilities!!

I’ve been added to the team as a social media representative, Vlogger and blogger volunteer advocate for this incredible organization!

Those of you that know me at all, know that this topic is a very important topic for me because of the learning disability brought onto me by a terrible car accident over a dozen years ago. The accident has also made me even more empathic to the emotions and mental status of others than I was before the trauma.

My life has been a whirlwind of ups and downs along with new life lessons since the car accident occurred. The most important of which is that I am worthy and I am capable of overcoming any problem set before me. The only thing stopping me from accomplishing my goals is self-percieved limitations. I am capable, I am adequate and I am strong enough to handle the struggles of life.

These facts are not only true for me, but for all disabled people all over the world. There are so many of us that doubt our abilities because society hasn’t learned to accommodate to our needs. The current President of the United States of America, and Prime Minister of Canada have joined forces with disability and mental health awareness campaigns to improve the conditions under which we live in those countries. There is still a struggle for many, if not most, of us, but steps are being taken to improve the well-being of citizens.

The US is becoming an even easier place for us to get jobs and the accommodations we need to function in society, and so is Canada. It pleases both Debra Ruh and I that the governments of the USA and Canada are making equality for disabled people a priority. It is also extremely important that those governments are making mental health a priority because so many disabled people are experiencing mental health problems because of their disabilities or that cause their disabilities. This progression of equality for disabled people is a big step for us.

This post is just to remind my fellow disabled people all over the world that you are not alone, there is support out there for whatever struggles you face. I am sending positive energy your way to help you get through this, please feel free to reach out to Billion Strong for any support you might need. The organization will surely try to help.

Also, to people who do not associate as disabled, please look for ways to support your disabled friends, colleagues, family members and even strangers that need your support. You have no idea how much a smile or even a small sign of compassion or support can go for us.

To the ungrateful one

This is directed at a very ungrateful family member, I’d just like to be clear about that right away.

My mother is currently in another state to take care of said family member and she is feeling very unappreciated. She’s taking her own personal time to take care of said family member and I am infuriated by the fact that she’s being taken advantage of and treated poorly when she is offering her help and care to someone I see as undeserving of her patience and tolerance. This may not be a very ‘professional’ piece, but it’s on my heart and it has been for several days.

I hope that said family member reads this and understands why my mother (and a few of her other close family members) don’t appreciate her behavior which often lacks grace and composure. This family member seems to feel that the grace and composure of my Grandmother exists within her, but that could not be further from the truth. The person has no appreciation for when others sacrifice their time and compassion, she has little appreciation for others in general and seems to think that she is the only important person on the planet. This person needs to do some deep self-evaluation and realize that grace and wisdom are definitely not her strong-suit. A ‘reality check’ needs to happen.

If you are reading this, you know exactly who you are. If you are a family member of the person this is dfirected at, I trust that you will agree how amazing my mother is and that she does not deserve to ber treated as she is being treated. It infurtiates me that my Mom tolerates this, I wish she had the gaul to stand up for herself, but she is too concerned that others will dislike her. That’s not the case with me !!

That’s a big difference between her and I. If I’m being mistreated, I am going to let you know that I don’t like how you’re acting towards me. I don’t care if it angers you. I know that I deserve to be treated respectfully, and I will make sure that you know it too. I don’t care if you don’t agree. In fact, if you don’t agree, I don’t have time for you at all. If you can’t see that I am just as good a person as anyone else you know, why should I bother to think well of you, or treat you with any respect ?

That’s pretty much all I have to say about that. I hope these words meet the eyes of a certain ungrateful family member. I care about you as the family member you are, but I have little respect or appreciation for how you act towards your family. My mother is your family, even though she may not be your blood.

Trying New Things ! (that include the old)

Hey folks !

It’s very late here and I’m getting a little sleepy, but I think I might make it through this post (I hope, anyway).

I’m coming to you to announce something that I just realized the enormity of tonight.

The Traumatic Brain Injury that I sustained in the car accident after prom in 2010 has affected me more than I realized. I just messaged everything to someone who reached out to me on LinkedIn, trying to give me advice on how to better prepare for applications, interviews and careers in the User Experience (UX) world. I really love UX and I want to work in accessibility because its important to me that websites and apps are available for ALL users, disabled or not. I have a slight disability and it affects me when a page is too busy or when I have to deal with loud or big advertisements on the screen.

I’m kind of embarrassed by that, to be honest. But I shouldn’t be. I should be able to manage those busy pages and annoying ads just like everyone else does. The ads get me distracted and I forget what I was trying to do on a page or just change sites if the website is too much. It shouldn’t be hard for me to function on a computer without getting distracted, but the way some people design their websites make it difficult for that to be the case.

I want to work on websites so that people like me don’t have to struggle on the internet. I mean, ALL kinds of disabilities: visual, hearing, emotional, mental, learning and the ones I’m not thinking of with my tired brain.

Well, with that I really need to go to bed.

I’m sure I’ll post again soon. 🙂

A Little Bit More About Me

Hello, fellow globe inhabitants ! (I know . . . I’m really weird sometimes)

I hope you are all well.

I am writing because I’m just so excited to be learning a skillset on LinkedIn Learning that will enable me to help people via web and maybe app design ! My education in UX Design with Kenzie and this are to serve the same purpose, make it easier for human beings to communicate their ideas, feelings and wants. I’m going into web development, focusing my studies ( because I don’t really need many pre-requisites, except HTML and CSS) on accessibility. My goal is to focus my career on developing ways to accommodate the internet to users with disabilities, be it vision, hearing, learning, mental or physical disabilities.

I think I’m mostly passionate about this because of the fact that I, myself, have a learning disability. That disability has been the direct cause of me getting fired from , or simply walking out on several jobs. People don’t understand what the disabled are going through, and no matter how compassionate they are, they never could.

My disability is invisible, but not life altering. I struggle socially and emotionally more than anything because of my disability. I used to have a normal brain, (before I broke the passenger side window of my prom date’s car with my head) so I vaguely remember how it is to fit in with society and not feel like an outsider in my own body. Though, that was over a decade ago, so the memory of that feeling is fleeting more and more with each day that passes.

I have several friends with mental health problems and they often tell me about how they struggle to deal with small bumps in life or (what I want to focus on) to navigate websites (and I know it is because of their impatience and frantic behaviors) and I want to go about fixing that problem as much as possible.

I have a few friends that have physical disabilities, but to be honest . . . we don’t talk very much about the issues those disabilities cause them, it’s often hard for them to describe the problems because most of them have never seen color or clearly, so they can’t describe how difficult it is and why it’s harder for them than it would be for me. I don’t really know if or how I can help websites to accommodate to physically disabled users, but that is why I am learning this stuff!!

It’s really important to me that I do something that will directly affect the people of the world (aka fellow inhabitants of this globe) in my professional life.

OMG !!! VALENTINE’S DAY comes TOMORROW, guys !!!!! 😀

*my gamer name is LobebugAly, and I feel like I embody that in my personal life too. But, I just really like to ‘lay it on thick’ with my clan-mates this time of the year 🙂

(yes, I’m a gamer, but only in one RPG where I’m raising a dragon)

Also, I like all of the stuff that the ‘typical girl’ likes: animals, kids, books, movies, beaches, spa days, picnics, etc. But that’s not very special.

What is special about me is my propensity and love for providing for others. That is why I am going into Web Development and UX Design.

There you have it ! If you want to know more about me, just ask. I’m really open about my past and present. I would be about my future too, but I legitimately have no idea what is going to happen in my life in an hour let alone in the future.

My love to all, especially on the globally (or maybe it’s just America) commercialized day of love (Valentine’s Day),

Aly Mae (LovebugAly) 😘 😘