Unstoppable I got this now

Hi all, this is Brandi, and welcome to my new blog! So glad you jumped on, because I am on a journey to become a homeowner in 2021 and there is quite a story behind it and ahead of it, still unfolding, that I can’t wait to share with friends, old and new, through this series.

Hanging with my best friend, Jane, so good for my soul.

Have you ever had an “I’ve got this” moment, that rare glimpse into how everything that is swirling around you suddenly comes into focus, and you discover that everything you need to fulfill your life is already out there in the Universe, you just need to be ready to listen to your heart, erase the fears and doubts, and go for it? Well, here I am, and I hope that my story inspires someone – or lots of someone’s – to put their darkest, scariest moments behind and just get up and press ahead!

Through my 43 years on this earth, life has taken me up, down, and sideways. I’ve lived my dreams as a photographer and videographer in St. Thomas, a place I love and know that I will return to often, maybe for keeps. But first, my life would take a sharp turn to the north. Ten years ago, I moved to Cincinnati, Ohio with little more than a pair of flip flops and some outdated camera equipment to my name. Following a split with my son’s father three years later, I scrambled to afford my own place so that I could continue co-parenting my precious son, Seven.

The next years could best be summed up by one word -- struggling. Filing for bankruptcy, pushing through the days when the shelves in my refrigerator stood bare. Struggling, yes, but determined to emerge from my upside-down circumstances, I seized every opportunity I could find to work and rebuild my life. I have managed to get out of debt, repair my credit score, buy a car, and open a savings account.

Some truly amazing friends have opened doors for me that I would never have discovered on my own. Last year my friend, Amanda, introduced me to residential property management and not long after, I became a licensed realtor. I now manage 55 properties in the Cincinnati area, business is growing steadily, and for the first time in many years, I see my future in a bright light, no longer shrouded in fear and self-doubt. Everything I had been through was either teaching me lessons or showing me new paths forward, I just needed to listen to my heart and say, YES!

Feeling back to myself being on the island.

Now, I’m on a mission to buy a home for Seven, me, and our cat, Otter (more on how this furry friend contributes to my story in a minute). I can already visualize our home in my mind’s eye -- a nice clean condo, near downtown or my son’s school, a place that doesn’t need “fixing up,” and can eventually remain Seven’s home when he’s older or that I’ll rent out. Being a realtor now, it makes it easier for me to search, and I know that I will find the perfect place when the time is right.

Otter was adopted in St. Thomas, where Seven, my son, was born.

I’m just back from a get-away in St. Thomas, thanks to my amazing friend, Jane, who made the trip back to this magical place possible. The flight down was that pause I needed to just breathe, pick up a pen, and begin again. I felt free to put my thoughts and goals down on a piece of paper: buy a house, pursue my Space of Love project, grow as a realtor, start this blog. It seemed like under the din of the airplane engines, no one had to hear my thoughts and better still, no one would or could tell me why these dreams shouldn’t be mine or give me a reason to doubt myself.

Maybe it was the altitude, looking out the window next to my seat and noticing how tiny everything was – everything that looked so big and daunting down on the ground. For once, I felt like I knew where I was going. So many things had collided all in a short frame of time. The beginning of my real estate career was a huge step forward; my letting go of fear that I might not succeed was maybe even the bigger step.

My time in the sunshine and turquoise waters of the Caribbean, sharing love and laughter with friends, reveling in nature and capturing my experiences in photographs, all nourished my soul. Good thing, too, because my return to Cincinnati would have life throwing some punches from the moment we (me and new cat, Otter, in tow) were wheels down on the ground. A normally twenty-minute trip turned into a slippery, treacherous 3 hours of white knuckle driving in the dark and snow-covered streets. An urgent trip to see my beloved Grandma was suddenly called off, as she passed away before I could reach her side. I found comfort in the knowing that she and I shared a deep and loving bond that transcends our time in this material world on Earth. Back-to-back snowstorms kept pummeling Cincinnati, and I must admit that I was feeling a bit weary and having trouble getting back on track.

The intense sun with the beautiful blue that I have spent so many days.

Even after warming up to her new home (or so I thought), Otter suddenly vanished into the basement. Maybe the long trip to her new home was more traumatizing than I knew. For days I couldn’t find a trace of her, even resorted to placing food out, along with a video camera, to reassure me that she wasn’t just a figment of my imagination – that’s how surreal it was! After days that felt like an eternity, she resurfaced and we made up lost time snuggling and bonding. What they say about owners and their pets sharing personality traits is all too true. Just as I had done at times of upheaval, spending days curled up in my room reading novels, binge-watching Netflix, hiding from the world, Otter must have needed some time of refuge. But with time, like Otter, I am now ready to get out from behind the boxes and shadows and concrete walls of “the basement” and taste life again.

Arriving back to Ohio in a snowstorm in flip-flops and a terrified cat in the middle of the night.

As if to re-affirm that the Universe was pushing me to get back on task after my trip and the tough days that ensued, people began showing up in my life perfectly aligned with the very goals I had made my firm intention on paper just a week earlier. I was unexpectedly re-connected with a permaculturist, which gave fresh life to my dreams of the Space of Love project (more on that in future blogs!) Next, the writer who had helped me craft my bio months earlier for my new real estate career contacted me, and voila! Is it possible that she somehow “knew” that I wanted to start this blog and might need some of her word magic? Yes, the Universe was signaling me to listen to my heart and step forward confidently. Fear had no more place in my wheelhouse.

My best friends on island. I miss both so dearly.

I believe, with my whole heart, this represents a path that so many of us are taking in different ways, no two in the same direction. But no matter where we’re headed, we all gotta navigate the twists and turns, the heartaches and struggles, yet best of all – the getting back up and pressing on!

I’m going to close with a quote I stumbled on that seems like the perfect place to pause until next time…

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning,

but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”

Maria Robinson

I love money!