Pay It Forward

I've learned early on that it is better to give than to receive. Because of this, I have always tried to lend a hand whenever possible. I used to think that the only way to lend a hand, to help the community, is either with time, such as volunteering, or using money to donate to a charity. I have volunteered at the library and I had been doing that for years, off and on. I would have volunteered at other places as well if I had a way to get there. I also had no money to donate to any charity either (and I still don't).

Fortunately, there are other ways to donate to a charity or to do something good for the community. During college, my sorority and I participated in the 5k run/walk for the American Heart Association. A year or so ago, I donated my hair to Locks of Love. A couple of weeks ago, I found some old cellphones that I still had around the house. I plan to donate those to a charity for domestic abuse victims. You can also donate cellphones to people that are in the Navy. You can also raise money for a charity by having fundraisers, or you can collect things for a charity. I have a friend who holds a food drive every year. There are people who uses Youtube or Twitch to do livestreams for charity. There are some celebrities who do good things for the community. You can do a google search to find out ways to donate, what charities to donate to, and/or what you can do for the community.

I would be careful though and do a lot of research on different charities, especially if you don't know the charity that well, because some of them may actually be scams that just want your money, either for personal reasons, or for reasons that you may not want to support. I have found a list for charities you can support, but like I said, do some research, but this may give you an idea of the kind of charities that are out there.

Here is the list:

http://www.charitywatch.org/azlist.html

I do have some favorite charities of my own that I support. Some of them are well-known, some may not be well-known, and there are a few local charities I support. Here are the links to those charities:

American Red Cross

http://www.redcross.org/

The American Heart Association

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/

St. Jude's Research Hospital

http://www.stjude.org/

Locks of Love:

http://www.locksoflove.org/

Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN)

http://autisticadvocacy.org/

Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation

http://www.christopherreeve.org/

National Institute of Mental Health

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/

American Library Association

http://www.ala.org/

Florida Library Association

http://www.flalib.org/

I think that if we all did something good for the community, we could make the world a better place. There's a song that I have been listening to. The lyrics seems to descibe exactly the way I feel. I want to make a difference in the world. 

Until next time, God Bless.
- Chloe

It's been awhile...

It's been a long time since my last post, and I apologize. It was not my intention to go this long without posting and I just thought I would at least post an update, to let you know what's been going on in my life.

Last October, a day after my last post, Oct 27th, windows would not load up. I got the dreaded blue screen of death. So, I was without a computer for awhile, at least for almost a month. After I got my laptop back, it was around Thanksgiving. I was gonna plan to take a break until just after New Year's Day, because I knew I'd be busy. So, sometime in January, two things happened. One, my hard-drive crashed. Two, I was starting to have some severe migraine episodes. They were so bad at one point, that I've had to go to the ER. So, because of my migraine episodes, fixing my computer would have to wait. I finally sent it in and it came back. Then, my computer broke again, so I had to take it back in. I finally received my computer the other day and I'm hoping that it does not break again.

*Knocks on wood*

Some people might think that migraines are just really bad headaches. They are not, and I just want to explain. Unless you actually, truly experience migraines, you cannot imagine the pain. If you know someone who experiences migraines, but you don't experience them yourself, you probably can understand what it's like for the person suffering from the migraines... maybe, depending on how close you are to that person and how much that person tells you and all that other stuff. 

Migraines are severe, painful headaches. 

Well, they're actually more than that. It is a neurological disease that is characterized by episodes known as migraine attacks. They are usually accompanied with other symptoms. The symptoms differ from person to person. Some of the symptoms can include: throbbing, pulsating pain, light sensitivity. Sound sensitivity, nausea, vomiting, vision changes, and auras. 

There are different things that can trigger a migraine, like stress, loud noises and/or bright lights, weather, during menstrual cycles and/or hormone fluctuations, etc. Avoiding the triggers does not prevent migraines though. Sometimes, they are random. People suffering from migraines have different triggers. 

  

There are treatments for migraines. The treatments that can help differ from person to person. I do what I can to get rid of these migraines, but just because something works for me, doesn't mean it will work for someone else, and vice versa. There are quite a bit of treatment options that are available. Most of them, I did not even know about, so I will provide a direct link to what I've found:

https://migraine.com/migraine-treatment/

I have found a website that explains more about migraines and has more information on the symptoms, triggers, treatments, etc:

https://migraine.com/migraine-basics/

And I have also found a video which basically sums everything up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8TzqrRbPlY&list=LLcTxA-baz8q-7iJ2H5ZqCYg&index=2

I am hoping that I have shed a little more light on the topic of migraines.

I hope you all are well, and until next time, God bless.

- Chloe