What Can We Learn From Whitney?

The best three things I've ever done with my life is this:

• I've never been arrested (knock on wood)
• I've never been addicted to drugs (sampling doesn't count right?)
• I've surrounded myself with good people, if they turn out NOT to be, we say bye bye to each other.

I believe that these three things are the ONLY reasons I'm successful and where I am today. Lets be honest here, I'm NOT rich, but I have a good life.

That brings me to the late Whitney Houston. Back-in-the-day, I had me a dream to be a singer. So my mom got me a karaoke machine and a Whitney Houston tape and said go for it. It turned out that I enjoyed messing with the microphones echo features way more then I did the singing parts, but at the time I greatly respected Whitney Houston. You could just tell that she worked hard, that she did her best, that she pushed to better herself. And that was cool to me.

Fast forward years later: I moved on to Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson, but I still had a place in my heart for Whitney. Then enter Bobby Brown and their reality show. This is when I realized she stopped pushing to better herself. This was very sad.

As I write this blog, I have a cousin who may or may not be living on the streets, selling her body for drugs. I don't know. I love my cousin, but because of the drugs, she's not really there anymore. That really sucks. We've tried to help her, every single person in my family has given it a go. She has good and bad days. Sometimes I see her and she's back. Sometimes not.

I will never give up on my cousin, but what we can learn from Whitney, is to NEVER GIVE UP ON YOURSELF!

Not to get all mushy on ya, but surround yourself with people who love you, people who will tell you if what you're doing is whack. I said whack. I want friends who will tell me if I'm being an ass hole! Now that's a great friend.

RIP Whitney Houston.