I connected with Joe in this space many months ago and not only has he been supportive, I find his articles inspiring. I never visit his blog and come away empty handed. Today, he has agreed to share more personal details about himself with us.

Thank you, Joe for obliging my nosy inquisition. My regards and best wishes in your endeavours.

1. Tell us about Joe. Your background, short biography and general outlook towards life.

I am originally from the Bronx, New York and of Puerto Rican and Scottish descent.  My Puerto Rican heritage dominated my life. Yet, I do not speak fluent Spanish. I know nothing about my Scottish heritage.

I currently live in Florida with my husband of seven years and our two fur babies Maddy and Lotis.

A dysfunctional family life and living in the Bronx helped to make me one of the statistics.  I was a dropout from the school system by the age of 16.

I later returned to school to get my High School Equivalency diploma and went on to college to study Culinary Arts.

I subsequently changed my major to Psychology.  I made this decision because I started studying metaphysics and saw a correlation between the two.  In my opinion, Cognitive behavioural therapy is very similar to using affirmative self-talk.

I never completed my studies but continued to explore these subjects independently.  To this day these are two things that interest me very much.

I love understanding how the mind works… what makes people tick… how habitual thought patterns can be changed.

I love taking a recipe and making it my own… cooking for others and seeing their faces when they are enjoying the meal I created.

My other likes besides cooking and psychology is gardening.

These are some of my plants in my garden.

Some of my crystal collection.

Photography: Some of my shots below.

For my singing, you can check out this post for that.

Pollyanna

Nobody is perfect.  But, for the most part, I am a very optimistic person.

I have a strong faith in the goodness of my Creator and I believe that there is a reason for everything, because of this, I tend to look for the silver lining in every situation, even in the midst of hard times I look for the reason and try to adjust my attitude to not resist what is going on. Some might call this being a Pollyanna, but I like to think it’s just having faith that I am always where I’m supposed to be in life.

Transitions

Like all people, I have experienced some events in my life that have changed the direction my life was going.

Miracle On 42nd Street

One such incident happened in the year 1990.

It was the day after Christmas that my life changed as a New York City bus jumped the kerb in Manhattan.  I only remember seeing the bus coming toward me.  The next thing I remember was being on the corner of 42nd street and Lexington Avenue.

The next day I saw myself pictured on some of the major New York newspapers.  There I was, laid out on the corner of the streets of Manhattan.  The headline read, Miracle On 42nd Street.  I survived this accident only by the pure Grace of God.

I have the belief that things happen for a reason and that this accident was to help prepare me for what was to happen next in my life.

Instant Family

Two months after my accident, my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer and she lasted only 8 months after finding out about her condition. This resulted into my inheriting the responsibility of raising my two younger brothers.

I wrote a little about this here if you’d like to read about it.

Oops! I Did It Again

After raising my brothers, I eventually ended up working with special needs people as an education coordinator, coach, and trainer. However, my work with this community ended on  October 9, 2013, when I experienced another accident.

I bet you thought I was going to say something about Britney Spears 🙂 I won’t go into what happened with this accident, but if you want, you can read about it here.

This latest transition in my life leads to the next question.

2. Tell us about your blog and your purpose for starting it. Did you have any set goals in mind when you were setting up your blog? What do you think about the blogging phenomenon itself?

My Blog is called What I Gotta Say About It

After having my last accident my self-image and everything I thought I was changed. I was physically unable to do most of the things I once did. Being physically unable to live as I once had affected me emotionally as well.  I soon found myself in depression. The only outlet I had was my journal. One day while writing in my journal I got the inspiration to share my writing and so, “What I Gotta Say About It” was born. However, there’s more to the story.

My Intentions

When I first started my blog, I was really interested in informing people about things they might not have known about. Things like the NSA and our privacy, whistleblowers, our civil liberties being taken away, and the like. I also wanted to discuss spirituality and self-improvement. As time went on I realised I like writing about these things but I needed to focus on something concrete. So, I decided to focus on helping people to realise their highest potential but, I also want to take it a step further.

Building A Community

I have had an awesome experience interacting with the blogging community. So much so, that I created another site in the form of a social network. It is my hope that I will build a community where everyone can share their knowledge and resources with each other. I’m also researching how to create online courses and would like to offer that. It’s not completely finished yet, but soon enough hopefully.

3. Take us with you on a typical day spent with you. Show us a bit of your World and yes we love photos of your pets if you’ve got any.

My Daily Quagmire

My typical day consists of

• Looking for a job.

I was released to go back to work.  However, I have limitations.  So, this has been quite challenging.

• Educating myself.

I am currently taking a course at Live You Legend.

I am also researching options for wigsai.com.

I’m contemplating studying to be a life coach.  I think some sort of credential would help me on my mission to help other people.

• Taking Care of Maddy & Lotis

Maddy is our dog who is 15 years old.  She has random seizures and is prone to getting attacked by Lotis. Lotis is our brand new puppy, who is a handful.  We recently lost one of our fur babies (read about that here) and added Lotis to the mix.  He is only 3 months old.

Thank you for the opportunity for the interview Jacqueline.

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P.S.: Would you like to grant an interview or guest posting? You can send an email to me at JacquelineObyIkocha@gmail.com