The Mixtape

by Brittainy C. Cherry

Asking for help doesn’t make you a failure.

“You’re much quieter today,” she said. “I’m a quiet person. I’m not myself when I drink.” “Then why do you drink?” “Because I’m not myself when I drink.”

When it rains, it pours, but the rain always stops, and the sun comes out again.

“No life is better than another. They are all just uniquely different.”

The hardest truth to learn in life was that not everyone loved the same way you did.

The oddest thing about life was how something could show up out of nowhere and change everything in a split second of time.

“I’d rather sit in my loneliness than be lonely with someone who doesn’t care for me at all.

You don’t have to stay where things are familiar all the time. Sometimes the best way to move forward is to leave some things behind.”

Healing doesn’t walk a linear line; it takes the messy route. I believe that healing comes during both the dark days and the bright ones. It’s not all rainbows. Sometimes healing means slicing open the scars that made you hurt so much before and examining them to fully understand yourself. Why did the cut hurt you in the past? How did it change you into who you are today? What can we learn from the pain of your yesterdays to better your tomorrows?”

True success comes from within. And that success is defined by being able to wake up and have gratitude. That’s the goal. Now, that’s not saying that everything is perfect when you are happy. That’s not what happiness is. Happiness, gratitude, is the ability to wake up and say, yes, some things in my life are hard right now, but I still get to feel good about one or two things.

You get to choose joy, even when times are tough.

“Not every thought you have is yours. We live in a world where outside noise pollutes our minds.

Every person in this world has a mixtape of sorts, a collection of tracks that defines their lives. Each memory is a song, and they all come together to create a masterpiece. So, tell me about your story. What lyrics, what melodies, live on your mixtape?”

You get to start from the ground up, building a family set with values that serve you. From new traditions, to new love stories—you can break generational curses based on how you love one another.”

mourning doesn’t get easier. It just gets quieter.

living uniquely different realities based on perspective. It’s like comparing Picasso to Van Gogh. They might both be artists, but their work is solely theirs. The good, the bad, and the painful. And one doesn’t cancel out how great the other is. There’s space in the world for everyone to be extraordinary.”

“That’s for you to decide. It’s not about the songs you’ve played in the past to yourself. It’s about the songs you want to play from this point out. So, what song are you going to play?”

“You probably have no clue what’s happening right now. You probably feel like you’re falling apart, but in truth, this is you falling together, sweetheart. Sometimes, part of the healing journey involves falling apart. That doesn’t make you weak; it makes you strong. So, fall apart tonight, and you’ll be stronger for tomorrow. You’re doing great.”

There wasn’t one cookie-cutter way to create love bonds. Families came in all shapes, forms, and sizes. Some were tied together by blood, and others by heartbeats. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter how you came together; it only mattered that you stayed together. That you looked out for one another and loved in an unconditional way.