Welcome to #KLowInspires

Disability Pride Month is celebrated annually in July to honor people with disabilities and their contributions to society. As of 2024, at the tender age of 37, I am living with two chronic diseases. I'm grateful to God that I wake up each day. On my worst days, I wonder why me, Lord. Then I look back, remember what He’s already brought me through, and thank Him. Let’s all remember that not all disabilities look the same. One of my nieces saw my handicap sticker on my table and asked who was handicapped. I explained to her that not all disabilities are people in wheelchairs or visible to the naked eye. I battle with being an advocate for my new disability because I feel like I'm too young to be going through all I'm currently going through. Then, I must stop and remind myself that God still has me here for a reason. I pray that my presence helps someone else continue to fight and push through whatever they are going through. Remember, we are not alone. I'm grateful to m...

       I was asked to answer a table topic question. Table Topics is an impromptu question given to you by the Table Topics Master. You have 1-2 minutes to answer the question with a 30 second grace period. My first time being called on for Table Topics I was so nervous and shaking in my shoes.     I signed up for my Pathway & set out to start my Toastmaster journey. My first Pathway was Leadership Development. I gave my first speech which was an icebreaker to my club on December 7, 2019, titled, "Who is Kennedi?"     Listen to it below...

      I get ideas, and I run with them. Many times, without doing the proper research before executing the vision. After battling depression over my HIV diagnosis, I decided to be a public HIV Advocate. What made me decide to do this? I told myself it was to assist young black women like myself not to feel alone or ashamed because we live with HIV. Once I came out to my family and friends with my status, they were very supportive.     One day my cousin sent me an event advertising an upcoming women's group, Toastmaster club. Before this, I had seen Toastmasters advertisements and video clips, but I was always scared to go. I have a very warm, friendly personality, but if I was put on a stage and the room was quiet, I FROZE UP. The people that know me are shaking their heads like not you, Kennedi. Yes, it's true. I knew that I needed to improve my general speaking skills if I wanted be a public advocate. I had a fabulous time, and that night I joined Toastmasters...

 After years of writing poetry I finally performed in front of a live audience!!! It wasn’t as frightening as I thought. The crowd showed me love and I had fun! Here’s to more live performances in the future!!!

 

Life is for the living. There have been plenty of times where I have wanted to quit and throw in the towel. But God told me Kennedi, not yet. I might wallow, scream, shout, or cry but I wake up and keep it pushing. It’s not easy. It’s a hard pill to swallow, hating where you are currently at in your life & not seeing a way out. But God! He sends you signs, miracles, and blessings. His grace and mercy renew every day. Surround yourself with genuinely supportive and loving people. Stay positive and hold on Joy comes in the morning. Remember, I LOVE YOU 

I am sexually liberated if I shall say so myself. My mouth has no filter majority of the time. If I say it I probably have been thinking it and trying to come up with the best way to say it “nicely.” I was not always so sexually open and that was due to my upbringing. You know our parents and grandparents didn’t talk about certain things out loud. It was a lot of unspoken rules in the black community.   Baby when I got free from the mental hold of what a women is supposed to do & say sexually there was no holding me back. I can say how I want it and when I want it with no fear of guilt or shame. GROWN people have sex. These kids that y’all aren’t rising are too. But that’s another story for another day.  I can look back over some of my life’s experiences and see how they helped me become the sexually vocal woman I am today. We were supposed to be getting ready for a night out with friends but a quickie was first on the list. Or that time I wouldn’t get off of the phone fa...

Life is for the living!!!

To know me is to love me, 50 thousand shades of Kennedi. The funny thing is I never know which one I am going to be when I wake up each day. Sometimes an event can happen & I flip the script. I can go from one to a thousand real quick. Not always in a bad way but I can go there if I need to. I am getting close to the edge between the personal stuff I am dealing with & being sheltered in place due to COVID-19. I... AM... over it. I miss hanging out & chilling with my friends. I miss our weekly or biweekly restaurant dates. I miss the activities & events I do with my community family. I miss the social part of life. I am a social butterfly & I miss hugging my people. It is not any easier since I live alone. To help my sanity I planned a cookout with a few friends this past weekend. By few I mean five people were invited. I had a great time. It made me remember my college days & the times I used to cook & my friends would come over & e...

I am in a complete daze. We are living in uncertain times. COVID-19 has disrupted what we thought life was. Life will now & forevermore never be the same. We have lost so many loved ones that we never got a chance to tell I love you or goodbye one last time. Some were swept away in their sleep & we did not even know the cause of it until disaster struck. Everyone is saying we have to pray & seek God and I am a firm believer in the Holy Trinity. God has seen me through some mighty dark days. But what about the individuals that do not believe in God? What about the individuals of other religions or the spiritual but non-religious individuals? We need to find common ground & come together as human beings and that common ground should be love. If we extend love & kindness to one another, oh what ways we could change the world & the way everyone views it. Through this whole ordeal, I have been praying & reading my Bible devotionals, I have also hit my ...

I know there’s no how-to book for parenting or exact guidelines on how to be a good parent, but as you grow & learn from your mistakes you should talk these things out with your child(ren). That old saying I’m the parent & you are the child just do as I say is the reason we keep carrying these curses from generation to generation.   As you became a parent you should have remembered the things you didn’t like that your parents did to you & not repeat these things with your offsprings. That “it was how I was raised” is not always the right way. As the book of life tells us when you know better you do better. So I’m sure there are things you know you could have done better than your parents. For the unnecessary situations or harm you brought to your child, for the lies & broken promises, for abandoning them, for the abuse, or for the early introduction to drugs, alcohol, and/or sex APOLOGIZE.  Since a lot of these generational curses are still being passe...

Enjoying my 1st silent music party      I finally had the opportunity to attend a silent music party held at our favorite community gathering spot. What was so unique and different about this silent music party was that there were three different DJ’s playing three different genres of music in three different rooms. Each station was set by a different color (red, blue, and green) on our headphones. We had the option of listening to Reggae, R&B, or Rap. I’m a lover of all three genres so I kept constantly switching back and forth between all three stations.      This event was sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) for International Condom Week 2020. Awesome event! Shoutout to Timothy Webb and his team. He mixed in speed dating in one of the rooms gathering participants from a certain station. Important HIV educational facts were mixed in with the R&B station which I thought was an awesome idea of educating the community.   ...

If your grandmother, mother, or aunt prepared meals using a cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven pot you knew that meal was heaven blessed. There were plenty of Sunday dinners spent with families sharing love and a meal prepared from one cast-iron skillet. You can use it to cook your vegetables, fry your chicken or fish, and bake your bread. This is an old kitchen secret weapon many people don’t make use of nowadays. I grew up watching my grandmother prepare plenty of meals using her cast-iron collection. She had skillets in all sizes. My favorite one was the small one you could fry 1-2 eggs in. And after using any one of her cast-iron dishes you better clean them properly or prepare to hear her wrath. In honor of this being Black History Month, we should start gathering more around the table to spend time away from the tv, digital and electronic devices to spend more time with our loved ones. Time is of the essence. Remember I LOVE YOU!!!!!

Auntie Oprah owes me nothing. I was blessed to be gifted a ticket to Oprah’s 2020 Vision: Your life in focus tour. I left State Farm Arena feeling energetic, empowered, & invigorated. She lit the fire back up in me. Lately, I have been tired & have little to no energy. I honestly need to have my butt back in the gym or on a regular exercise routine, but I can’t find the energy to make myself go. So, I was not feeling my best as I have been battling a low-grade cold all week but I felt like being in that building might give me the ump I need to start back attacking my dreams & goals. I bundled up & battled the cold weather & traffic to see what I could learn. From the opening act with Daybreaker to get our energy up & blood flowing to the closing with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, I got my whole life. Daybreaker is a phenomenal group of dancers, singers, & musicians who got us to align our energy so that we were open to receiving all that was in alignme...

So, I’m going to try to share my experiences with you more often & be totally open & honest with you. When I moved back to GA, I made the decision to love people regardless of their circumstances or how they treated me. I can honestly say it has been one of the best decisions I have made in my life. The love I have been pouring into the community has been coming back to me double fold. I call people & ask for help or favors & they don’t hesitate to help or send me someone who can help. When they see an opportunity that they know will help me grow or network they send them my way. Even if I can’t afford the experiences, they have helped me make them happen & I thank God for putting me in the right place at the right time. I promise you it’s nobody but God. On Martin Luther King, Jr Day I was invited to a freedom dinner. I honestly was not feeling very well but I knew being around my loves would cheer me up while I was at the invite. Derrick said to me yo...

Happy New Year!!! Oh, how I have missed you. My plate was full & I was neglecting things that I love such as writing blogs. I had my hands in many pots & they weren’t always beneficial to me.  I started to get disappointed, overwhelmed & frustrated with people & things. So I made a decision at the end of last year to step back & focus on Kennedi & the things that were near & dear to my heart. I know a lot of people will be hurt or disappointed but I’ve given so much of my time & energy to others that I have none left for myself right now.  I am  MENTALLY DRAINED.  I know deep down in my heart I deserve the same things I give unto others such as my time, a shoulder to lean on during rough times, & endless love. So I’ll be focusing on giving myself these things. I deserve them plus more. I refuse to let depression win.  “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭122:1‬ ‭ ...

Last month I celebrated 3 years of finding out my status. This month I will celebrate 4 years of being infected. I can tell you that because I went back through my life and mapped out the times when the symptoms first started & the person I was sleeping with at the time. Roughly, 1 in 6 people in the U.S. don’t know their status. The date most ppl celebrate as being diagnosed is the date that they were informed of their status.  It takes HIV antibodies around 90 days to start showing up in the body. That’s why it’s recommended you get tested every 3-6 months. It’s still a lot of people out here having condomless sex. Condomless sex is the new term for people who like to have sex without using protection. I am in a much better place than I was when I found out 3 years ago. I still experience depression & dark days but I don’t dwell in them. I find ways to bring myself out of them. Whatever storm you are going through it’s only that, a storm. Storms don’t last foreve...

I hate I must tell you this, but women are emotionally driven during sex. If you aren't meeting her needs or handling business outside of the bedroom, she's not going to be as excited in the bedroom. The little things matter to us. If you know bills are due this week don't come home with a sob story and expect her to comfort you once y'all get in bed. She's running through her mind different scenarios and possibilities of how she can keep the lights on and have food on the table until you deliver. If she keeps catching you in lies or sticky situations, she's not going to get sticky for you. It's as little as may be cooking dinner one or two days a week since you get home first. We as women just want to matter to you as much as you matter to us. There are some that expect diamonds and gold or the world but the majority of us just want quality time, attention, and for you to show us how much we mean to you while you put in the same amount of effort to this...

Shhhhh... don't tell anyone I admitted this. It feels good to have people coddle you with love and affection after feeling so isolated and alone growing up.  I felt like an invisible person as a child. I normally stuck to my books and schoolwork. I was like a shy quiet nerd and I wasn't popular in school nor sports, so I kept my head in the books. This continued as I grew older where I started to blossom, and I became a bit more comfortable in my own skin. But after this tough life lesson where I had to learn self-love, you can't tell me I'm not the sugar honey ice tea. Your opinion doesn't matter. I know I'm beautiful and I show it often.  It's sad that it takes trauma or a hard life lesson for us to learn our worth, but... YOU ARE SO WORTH IT. That storm was sent to reinforce what you already know. You are it and can't nobody tell you sugar honey ice tea or rain on your parade. Take that lesson and find the rainbow at the end of it. If yo...