Lifestyle

I Am Not My Hair

“Javacia — the girl with the long, pretty hair.”

That’s how people have described me for most of my life. As I got older and started making a name for myself as a writer, blogger, business owner, and teacher, I thought this would change. And in some ways, it did. In some circles, I’m “the blogger girl.” Some people actually call me “See Jane Write.” And to my former students, I will always be “Mrs. Bowser.”

But for most people, I just went from being “the girl with the long, pretty hair” to “the lady with the long, pretty hair.”

I know I should have been flattered. Someone saying my hair is pretty is a compliment. But I was tired of people paying more attention to my hair than to me.

On May 7, I started chemotherapy for breast cancer and by the end of the month I’d lost my “long, pretty hair.” But even in its absence, my hair continues to steal the show.

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Writing My Way Back to God

I was a freshman in college when I first started keeping a prayer journal. Merging my love for writing with my love for God was exactly what I needed to take my faith to another level. My prayer journal became a collection of love letters to God. My prayers became poetry and suddenly God was everything and everywhere. God was a post-workout smoothie. God was the sun kissing my brown skin when I would lie on the quad reading. Once on New Year’s Eve, I felt God with me on the dance floor of a night club.

Prayer has not made me immune to crises of faith. These crises usually happen when so-called Christians are being racist, sexist, homophobic, or xenophobic in Jesus’ name. I stop going to church and I start questioning everything – until I remember the God I fell in love with so many years ago.

But this time things are different.

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Could the Enneagram help you be a better writer?

Originally published May 31, 2020

Could the Enneagram help you be a better writer?

I started asking myself this question earlier this year as I began to delve into this ancient personality typing system that has seen a resurgence of popularity and been thrust in the mainstream in the past few years.

The Enneagram teaches that there are nine different personality styles in the world. Each type has a distinct worldview and underlying motivation that affects how that type thinks, feels, and behaves.

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Writing for Wellness

Many health care professionals, from medical doctors to psychotherapists, recommend writing as a way for patients to heal ailments of both mind and body. So, when I learned that See Jane Write Collective member Dr. Millie Jackson led “Writing for Wellness” workshops I was eager for her to host one for the Janes.

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Writing My Way Through Cancer

Things could be worse. I could have cancer.

That was always my go-to, my retort and my refrain when I got bad news. When I found out my boyfriend was cheating on me. When I found out I was broke and my checking account was overdrawn. Even when I found out I had lupus.

But on January 24, 2020, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and I had no mantra to make me feel better.

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