I accepted a few years ago “Ayesha everybody is not going to like you” and that is okay.

There are so many amazing people that I am connected to. From pastor Josh of 217 church to the woman Yolanda (she’s two years older than I am) who runs the 217 kids and tots ministry to memoirist: Professor Edvige Giunta, to the people I work with and for in the DREAM program at Mercer and the people at NAMI Mercer NJ like Madeline Monheit, Suzanne Gross, Barbara Eget, Louise Beste and others. I also have a leadership role in Just Friends social group. I love that! I have no issues with the way people either react to or think about me. For every person that likes and welcomes me there seem to be fifteen that for whatever reason don’t like me. I learned to be okay with that as a 35 year old woman but as a child, as a teenager and yes even in my 20s it was hard for me to accept. To be honest I felt like something was wrong with me for a long time. I love myself. I believe in being kind to other people and being good to myself. I am such a self centered person but now I am trying to contribute to my “household” by helping my mother cook and by preparing breakfast and dinner a few times a week for me and for my parents. My parents are getting older. I’ll be 40 years old in four years. My parents gave me everything. I want to help them and so I helped cook dinner this Christmas and Thanksgiving. I hope I can continue helping to prepare Holiday meals,  cooking dinner a few times a week and making breakfast for myself and for my parents most mornings. My mother is approaching 60 and my step father Neil is in his mid-late 60s. I really want to help my parents. I just bought a subscription to Cooking Light magazine. I also love to watch the Cooking Channel.