Being a Mom and Trying to Build a Business With AS
I've always been an active, outgoing person, so when I lost my job of 8 years, I became very depressed for a whole year. Then I realized there's still life to live and things I can still do, I just have to do them differently now. So, I brainstormed ideas of how I can turn this negative into a positive, and I started making awareness t-shirts as a hobby to see if I was any good at it.
Creating a t-shirt business
I came up with my own designs and sayings for AS shirts because I had never seen these ideas before. After a few months of teaching myself and mastering the technique of making shirts, I started selling them on my social media platforms they did very well, however, it became overwhelming with the orders because it was only me making the shirts and as we all know your hands and wrists become affected as well.
So, I started occupational therapy, but that didn't seem to help much. So I had to slow down, which sucked because I was so proud to see others wearing what I created but it was taking a toll on my body. And on top of raising 3 children, let's just say it was 2 full time jobs that my body could not handle.
Balancing motherhood
I always worried if I was being an active enough mom. Did I pay enough attention to my children? Did I play with them enough? Are they going to remember mommy as always being sick and in pain, in and out of the hospital? But I realized that just loving my children and teaching them right from wrong was good enough, and to this day I never worry about those things anymore because I know that I'm doing all I can to be the best AS mom I can be for them.
Getting back to my business idea--I sought other ways to continue this small business, but many wanted to change my ideas into their own...that wasn't the goal. So, I stopped posting for a while because I wanted it to be something that I can do myself and something that I can put my own name on, without someone else stealing my ideas. I'm now working on building my brand and website. I've now learned that I can create my own designs still and send them out to be printed without anyone wanting to change my ideas.
It's still a work in progress but I know with faith that it will happen
I just want to say that if you have a dream or something that you are good at, go for it full force, even if it takes some time and effort. The reality is that we are always going to be in pain, but we can't let that stop us from achieving great things in this lifetime. We deserve to be successful and happy too. There are so many things that I still want to accomplish. Am I going to be able to do them all? Maybe, maybe not, but I won't know unless I try and put my full effort into it even if it's from my bed!
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