K is for...Kids

Those that know me know how much I love kids. 


To be honest, I believe that they're the reason God has me here on Earth. I've known this since I was a teen. I may have even subconsciously known this as a kid. It started when my brother and sister were born. When I was seven, my brother three and my sister one, we played school in my room. They'd sit between my stuffed animals as my students. It was a game, but I taught them how to read, write, and count. They were the first children God used me to educate. After them, I kept going: working in the church's nursery before I was even 10; babysitting as a teen; teaching children's Sunday school & working with preteens & teens at church; tutoring; teaching...the list goes on. And now, I'm working on a writing career, mentoring program, & an enrichment center. 

Everything I do will always go back to my purpose. My writing career? Children & teens. My mentoring program? For girls (ages 5 - 18). Enrichment center? Children & teens. When I graduate with my doctorate - prayerfully within a year or two - I plan to use it to do reading research so I can help better education for our youth. I even thought of becoming an advocate for youth who can't speak up for themselves.


Some people go through life never knowing their purpose. Why am I here? What should I do? I'm blessed to have had my purpose revealed to me at a young age. My mission is to educate, enrich, & empower children/teens. I have no doubt this is what God has called me to do.

D is for Dreams (and Aspirations)

How many of you remember the first thing you wanted to be when you grew up? I do. A Solid Gold dancer.For those of you who don't know what it is, Solid Gold was an 80s music countdown show. The difference between the music countdown shows of today like BET's 106 and Park, or VH1's Top 20 Music Video Countdown is the fact that Solid Gold had dancers. Oh, how I wanted to be one of those dancers. I was so addicted to that show...and I was only 5 years old. Thirty years later, I still have my love for dancing, though my Solid Gold dreams ended with the show.

As I got older, I went from wanting to be a dancer to wanting to be a teacher, writer, actress, singer, lawyer, doctor, nurse, and child psychologist (not at the same time, of course). My wanting to be an actress and singer was quite laughable cos I was painfully shy. I mean, getting in front of my family or even in front of my church was fine, but in front of thousands, maybe millions of people. Nuh uh. Not me. Wanting to be a lawyer was laughable too cos...well, it just was. I could've been a doctor or a nurse, but, thanks to my sister breaking her toe (I was the first one to see it...*shudder*) and my dislike of needles, well, I decided a career in the medical field just wasn't for me. So, I became an educator...and I don't regret the decision. I LOVE working with children and teens, whether I'm in the classroom, tutoring, at church...wherever. Children and teens are AWESOME!

Now, at almost 35, I still have dreams and aspirations that I'm trying to achieve. I have 3 that I'm working on now: author, entrepreneur, and doctoral candidate. I've always wanted to become an author, but I put it to the side to concentrate on school and becoming an educator. about 6 years ago, I came up with an awesome book idea and decided to use my God-given talent to write books for youth. Though I haven't become a published author yet (my time is coming, I believe that), this journey is AMAZING. I heart writing so much...coming up with characters, figuring the plot, everything.

I'm in the process of writing up a business plan for my enrichment center. A few years ago, I knew the classroom wasn't my last stop in the educational field. When I asked God about where to go, He brought to mind the fact that, when I was 14, after watching an episode of The Cosby Show (where Theo worked at a community center), I decided I wanted to have a like of enrichment centers that offered some of the stuff the community center offered and more. So, I'm working to have the dream come to reality. And in a few years, I'll be known in academia as Dr. Raenice B. Weakly, EdD. With this degree, I plan to do more research on both reading education and aliteracy, which is when people can read, but choose not to. There is so much research on illiteracy, but not enough on aliteracy.

So, what were your dreams/aspirations as a kid? Are you living them out? Or do you have new ones?