A Dream Delayed Not Denied

Hello! my name is Aletha Jacobs. Interestingly, my first name is pronounced “Uh-Lee-Thee-Uh.” Yes, I know there is no “I” in my first name. However, my mother swears this is how she wanted my name to be spelled. Yes, I tried to change it when I was about 16 years old, but she said absolutely not. So, now that you know my name and how it is legally spelled, I would like to introduce you to my new space here on the Internet. It is my personal blog. Since about the age of 12, I always had a desire to write and I wrote in my journals, wrote poetry, short plays and stories. I didn’t know if there was a career in writing, but I connected to it as much as I did people and at times even more. When I was about 14/15, I had an English teacher who told me to stay after class, because she wanted to talk to me. To my surprise, she told me how my weekly in class journal entries was remarkable. She went on to say how she believes I should consider becoming a Writer and she signed me up for Journalism for the next semester. I suffered heavily with imposter syndrome and self-sabotaging, so I immediately said no! I pleaded with her, told her this was not a right fit for me. I lost the battle and was in the class the next semester. I was greeted by upperclassmen and a teacher who absolutely made it known I did not belong. Luckily, I had an older student who took me under her wing and helped me tremendously. I was so proud of the first article I wrote. I enjoyed interviewing classmates, collecting information and putting it all together. I began to see myself as my English teacher saw me, as a Writer. Internally I was gleaming, at the thought of one day I would become a Journalist like Oprah and Lisa Ling! I carried around a copy of Essence magazine everywhere I went from class to class. I wanted to become a Contributing Writer in Essence and live in NYC in a high rise apartment. If you know what I do for a living now, you know I have not worked as a Journalist or Writer. You know I am a Counselor and have been for over 20 years. I spent only one semester in the Journalism class. The teacher who made it known I didn’t belong told me outright I needed to give up my dream of becoming a Journalist. She gave me a failing grade and told me my writing style was “too improper” basically. Not to mention, I gave up and doubted myself so much. I suffered with this silently.

So, here I am today with this dream of writing that has never died. I never stopped writing, but I did stop sharing for a while. As you can see by my testimony, the desires of our hearts even from childhood won’t go away by blocking them out.

If I still have your attention, I hope you can come back weekly to my personal blog. My personal blog seeks to empower others to unlock your dreams ,hopes, desires by addressing issues that attempt to keep you stuck and unmotivated. Let’s Get Empowered!

The first image is of me now and the picture below is 17 year old me! The girl who wanted to become a Writer. Today, I call her a Clinician, Writer and an Empowered Empath!