Funny statement. A long-time friend of my sister made a statement that will forever stick to my mental like glue:

"I don't know how people live off of 12 dollars an hour."

Keep in mind, this was almost a decade ago. Factor in where our economy is now. So, what does that mean to me if I just left a job as a preschool teacher making 13 dollars an hour? Does that mean I'm horribly failing at life? Like, damn, sis.

It poses the question of how many other people work their nine to five, can very well pay their bills, yet the lack of contentment eats away at them daily? We can all agree that we would love to be making more money and shelving jobs that don't represent what we love to do. So, why aren't we? And by we, I mean the rest of us that hasn't jumped on the entrepreneurship wagon.

I spend a lot of time at night watching young YouTubers and listening to their stories of how they turned simple ideas into a career. The have totally branded themselves and created a nice cushion to steer all the things they always wanted to do in the right direction.

The Edwards Family, Kaelin and Kyrah, who started off as two young individuals in college making videos together, took on a career making YouTube videos full-time. Back in 2016, they were just a bubbly couple doing vlogs and challenge videos. After trying to juggle the success of a fan base, the output of video content and sponsors, they made the difficult decision to drop out of school.

Just last night, I watched their vlog about potentially returning back to college. They emphasized the theory of returning back to college as a choice instead of an obligation.

The conversation circled around the idea of being financially stable first. It gives an individual wiggle room to chose what they would like to do next. Kyrah then argues the point of not knowing which factor works best: having a choice or not having a choice. If you have a choice, you sometimes take for granted that freedom and could leave at any time for any reason. If you don't have a choice, that option isn't available to you.

What's interesting to me is how a dark cloud of dissatisfaction in the workplace plagues the middle class. We are taught to be humble and grateful for what we have, but what about being happy, humble and grateful?

"What you want baby, all three?" (Only Hamptonians would get that inside joke.)

But yes, we want all three! Being grateful is not enough, it's just not. I think if we all started a journey towards being our own boss it would leave some of these heavy mental burdens that swarm our communities in the dust.

Make a vision board, jot down a few ideas, rebrand yourself, take chances, break barriers, speak out, explore and, most importantly, live this best life while you can.

Kaelin Edwards

Get relevant content delivered to you once a week