Create the Life You Wan't to Live

Change Your Life 

As a kid you dream of your perfect life, maybe its money or fame, possibly just having your dream job. Then growing up gets in the way and we throw away all those dreams and just get by with a job we don't like and a life we don't want to wake up to. Huffington Post writes "1 in 3 Americans are not happy with there life"(Gregoire) I myself am guilty of not being happy just like everyone is. Why does everyone do this? Jack Canfield writes that "the real truth is that there is only one person responsible for the quality of the life you live. That person is you"(Canfield). This is true, only you can change your life and create what you want. You are responsible for choosing the job you hate or going and getting a job you want to wake up and go to every day. You are responsible for the people in your life choose who you want. People create excuse to why they have to stay in a job or a relationship or even a place they live. Just start small look at what you have in your life that you like. Maybe you have an amazing family, create your life around that. If you want to travel go on vacations with your family. There are ways to get your ideal life and think of reality. One step he write about  is to believe it is possible to achieve what you want. If you don't actually believe you can do something then it won't happen. He writes how scientist are "learning that instead we respond to what the brain, based on previous experience, expects to happen next. In fact, the mind is such a powerful instrument, it can deliver literally everything you want. But you have to believe that what you want is possible"(Canfield). We base our new experiences that already happened. Every opportunity is new and with different people so the outcome couldn't possibly be the same. Don't keep doing the same thing expecting a different outcome. If you change your thinking you can change your life. If you would like to learn and implement some Canfeild steps click here. 

http://jackcanfield.com/blog/7-steps-for-creating-the-life-you-want/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alysonkrueger/2014/06/14/how-to-create-the-exact-life-you-want/#586c252c78ce
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/01/happiness-index-only-1-in_n_3354524.html

Pet over Population

         

Saturday March 18th the community of Tri-cities came together to support Pet Over Population Prevention's 5k run. Tons of furry friends and families gathered to run enjoying Spudnut donuts and Starbucks coffee that were kindly there to support this event. All profits from this event went to Pet Over Population Prevention(POPP) here in Tri-
cities. I had the opportunity to photograph this event. Even 
though I was in dog heaven shooting all the images below, this 5K did make me think about the true meaning of this event and what the POPP does for the community.

 Many animals are left on the streets because of people not properly not taking care of their pets. POPP's mission is "to promote responsible pet care through educating the public on the importance of spaying and neutering their cats and dogs, as well as providing spay and neuter assistance"(POPP2017) with the number of cats and dogs born being 70,000 a day, this means almost 3,000 an hour. A lot of these animals are left on the streets, in neglectful homes,and even taken to a shelter to be euthanized. If people got there pets spayed and neutered this number would go down incredibly. Only 15% of animal owners in a survey said they got there pet from an animal shelter. This means many animals are going in to the animal shelters but not
 coming out. The number of animals euthanized in the U.S is 3-
million. With the help of things like no kill shelters and POPP many animals can be saved. If more pet owners spayed and neutered their pets this would leave more room in shelters for animals that have been left or in neglectful homes to be saved. More people should adopt or donate to no kill shelters and POPP organizations. Our furry friends have feelings and a voice they just cant talk to you. Things like the Pooch and Pal 5K gives a voice and spread the word of pet overpopulation that needs to be heard. To donate or adopt from POPP click here. If you dont have the ability to pay for a procedure there are ways to have it done for free or even on a payment program your way. More information and another place to donate in this video. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PekkOefSu-c
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/pet_overpopulation/
http://oxfordpets.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61
http://www.popptricities.org/
www.ashbyphotography.com

Woman of War

The book A Long Way Gone tells the story of  a young boy going to war in Sierra Leone, showing the tribulations and losses he went through. Kid soldiers were the army's main source of man power and is incredibly sad, but I would like to talk about the women and young girls in this war and tell some of their stories. I feel there isn't enough focus on the women and what they went through along what

happened to their lives after.

At first the women were not treated any different then men because the Rebels just needed man power, this why children were used. After a couple years of war they realized that women were better for cooking, cleaning and keeping the houses nice.

I feel these women don't get recognized for what happened to them. They became slaves to men. There to cook and be a sex object for any man. The women had children to men they didn't love and didn't know the father because of the amount of sexual abuse. Laura Conteh was taken at 12 by the rebels, her family didn't know they were coming and had no time to pack or anything they just ran. Laura got separated from her family and got captured. For the next three years she was apart a group of men that she didn't even know their names. She was sexually abused my many men and one man described her as his "bush wife," but this didn't stop others at all.  Her son now 18 was born during this war. Laura heard many stories of other women like "one women in Binkolo recount. ‘I was raped by 10 men on the first day,’ Fatsmata Koroma, a husky-voiced former combatant, said. Fatsmata thinks she was 11 at the time. She added, ‘They took turns with me and then left me lying there" (Friedman-Rudovsky2013).  Laura also said "You just wished you weren’t beautiful because they didn’t let the beautiful ones do anything or go anywhere, even to fetch water. You were guarded day and night because they really didn’t want you to escape" (Friedman-Rudovsky2013). If you tried to escape they would flog you. (beat someone with a stick) Also if you showed you were homesick or cried because of someone else getting punished they would beat you or kill you. Other punishments were squatting for multiple hours and spending the day in the toilet. Nobody really fought the sexual abuse, Laura states "you just get use to it (Friedman-Rudovsky2013). 
These women's hard times were not over when the war was over. One woman Janet Masaray came back to her family pregnant and was unwelcome by her father. She says "‘He was ashamed of me. He and a lot of others here thought we weren’t fit to live with our families any more because we had been with the rebels.’ This was the norm. ‘People would say to me and the other girls, you are rebels – you don’t belong here"(Friedman-Rudovsky2013).  Some beliefs from the war was that the woman didn't try to escape because they were enjoying a life of sex and stealing. These women were unwanted by men because they were disgrace to families and were undesirable. These women have lived through hard times during the war and even after the war ends they still have to fight for respect. More information straight from the woman in this video here. 


http://i1.wp.com/globaltableadventure.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/woman-and-children-in-Sierra-Leone.jpg
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/sierraleone/10450619/The-women-who-bear-the-scars-of-Sierra-Leones-civil-war.html  
https://vimeo.com/84057158