This is me

Who am I? I am Latasha Williams but my friends call me Tash. I am a brown woman who was born and raised in the streets of Philadelphia. My early childhood years were spent in Southwest Philly. Brought up in a 2 parent household, along with 2 older siblings, I assumed that things would always be easy and I would always be happy. That was my life until I was old enough to recognize that life wasn't so simple. At the age of 5 I began to understand that there were problems in my home, I just didn't know to what degree. My mother abruptly moved me and my siblings to North Philadelphia without any explanations. All I could comprehend was that daddy treated her badly. With that I felt no bitterness towards him he was my father and their issues was just that "their issues". Time elapsed and my teenage years were here before I knew it. As a teenager I understood that daddy was a full blown crackhead whose only concern was himself and his hit. No love lost though because in my mind he had a problem and needed help. I just prayed for him. Mommy was always there for us, nurturing, caring, and doing the best that she could to provide for us.

In addition to my family struggles, I was teased and ridiculed for wearing glasses and not being the hippest kid, mostly by kids who didn't know me. Those who knew me loved, trusted and appreciated me. As I got older I identified myself,I loved myself for who I was... coke bottle glasses and all :-). I was determined to enhance my beauty so I had my optometrist put some high index in those coke bottle lenses to thin them out. I got some cute frames and couldn't anybody tell me anything! A few years later I upgraded to contact lenses and that ugly duckling was transformed into a beautiful swan! At that point I noticed more people were interested in getting to know me because they thought I looked nice. I became "Popular" I developed "Swag". To be considered cool made me feel good. I was blessed, heavily into the Lord, I had a boyfriend, and at 19 I had a son. My mommy was supportive, my daddy was still on crack but we communicated sometimes so that gave me peace within the situation. I thought the age of 20 was my year.

That same year I lost my bother to gun violence. He was brutally murdered. If that weren't enough, the next year I lost my mother to Lung Cancer. Through it all, and as the years passed I lost my father due do an overdose on drugs. I have had failed relationships, moments of oppression, depression, joy, peace, and happiness. More recently, I am a single mother of 2 beautiful boys an 11 year old and a 2 year old.  Still single do to unfortunate circumstances I am now expecting my 3rd child.  A baby girl.  A blessing from God.  I'm naming her Lyric.   I love the Lord, I am here to show that I am not perfect, I have made many mistakes and I am sure there are more mistakes to come, however I learn from my mistakes and sometimes it even takes for me to make the same mistake over and over again to finally get the picture, but it's okay because I am human. I am growing and I am maturing. At the end of the day I am grateful, I am blessed and I will keep on trusting the Lord. I hope you all feel as if you have known me forever, I look forward with sharing my thoughts with you and hearing back from you all as well.

Sincerely Tash