~Falling UP Stairs~

Sometimes Life's intricate design can leave you feeling exhausted. There are so many highs and lows that make you feel as if you are sprinting down a flight of stairs, only to stumble and fall. It hurts for a few moments, but eventually we laugh it off and hope like Hell that no one witnessed our clumsy head roll down those stairs. The reality of it is, we all fall at some point. We spend so much time looking back trying to find answers to why we even fell in the first place, that we don't look forward to what awaits ahead of us. Every once in a while the universe decides to lend us a hand in our journey back to the top. It's like a tap on the shoulder that says "Um, Excuse me but you may want to watch where you're going." By the time you finally turn back around, Whoops, you're falling up that first step on your way back to the beginning to start the whole process again. 

I didn't realize at first just how far down I had fallen. I was depressed to the point I would cry myself to sleep or I would do nothing but sleep all the time. I shut down. I was sad, lonely, hurting inside and not knowing what my place in this life was. Wondering what my purpose was and did I even have one anymore? It was a very dark place I let myself sink into. One day, I was sitting home feeling really down when I received a message from my friend Bridgette. She told me that she had volunteered our creative talents with those of our friend Melissa, to create a T-Shirt design that we would then donate to raise money for charity. Naturally I jumped at the chance to not only be creative but to do something good for someone else. I work the overnight shift at a hospital every other week, and even though it was my week on, we spent the week collaborating on how we wanted the design to look and I drew a new picture every day until we decided on one we could really be proud of. All three of us are perfectionists so of course we wanted to make something that would show how much we cared about the charity we designed this for. 

We then sent our completed design to Guri Weinberg and his beautiful wife Tammy, who had built the website GFYS4Charity.com, a site dedicated to help raise funds and awareness for smaller local charities around the country that wouldn't get much recognition otherwise. They loved our design, which made the three of us swell with pride, that we could contribute something to this charity. The Weinbergs are people we all look up to and respect, not because of their job title or what movies/ shows we may have seen them in, but because we have gotten the privilege of getting to know them as people. What most people don't understand is that actors are just normal people. The only difference is that their profession makes them more popular than others. Just like us when we go to work, if people like your personality, you become more popular. At my job EVERYONE knows who I am. They love my personality and how I make them smile so in that aspect, I could be a celebrity. Am I right? Ok then…you can stop fan grilling now. *I may have just chuckled out loud at the thought of ME being a celebrity* 

Anyway, after several emails and some good old fashioned hard work, The Weinbergs decided to ask my partners and myself to join their team and help with the website they worked so hard to build…an opportunity NONE of us could refuse. Suddenly I felt as if God and the universe spoke to me, telling me that this was just the beginning. A new beginning I so desperately needed. A calmness I have never felt before encompassed my body and I felt at peace with the world. This was the moment I realized I had fallen up the stairs I had fallen so far down and was climbing back to the top on my own. 

GFYS4Charity gave me opportunities to live out a few of my dreams…to help others and give to those less fortunate, to have a place where people like me could share common interests and just be ourselves with no judgment. That was exactly what I got when I joined the GFYS4Charity.com community. Our community was growing fast and still is, but to me, it is not JUST a community….it's a Family. The people are positively lovely and inspiring. We support charities, we support positivity and love, we support EACH OTHER. We have been given a place where we can live in harmony even when some people will try to cut us down and tear us apart with their negativity. This community and the people in it, pulled me out of the darkness to show me the light. They gave me purpose, they gave me life. They saved me…from myself. No one will EVER truly know what this journey has given me…what it IS giving me.

I want to say thank you to Guri, Tammy, Bri, Mel and the ENTIRE GFYS community, for being part of my life and helping me climb up those stairs one by one, getting me where I am right now. I love you all more than words will ever begin to express. You are my angels, my saviors, my friends and my family. 

Much Love and Respect to you ALL <3

~Melinda (Aka GFYSLoveBug)