A dream + A passion + A promise = brewing a sisterhood of lifelong friendships and mentorships

Thanks for joining my coffee chat!

I did it! I have created the space that will house my dream until it decides to grow!

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Welcome to the first of many coffee chats here at The Lothes Lounge. It still feels weird typing it out as if it is real. It is real now, so I guess I have better get use to it. I have the urge to climb a mountain (an easy hike) – I am kind of out of shape, wait no I'm really out of shape I'll be honest with yawl. Why do I want to climb a mountain? Because! I want that satisfaction of screaming at the top of lungs That (I DID IT!) Can you visualize that? I know I just did. I must thank yawl for sharing this moment with me! It means a lot!

So, what is this dream of mine that Is coming alive right here before your eyes and using The Lothes Lounge as its place of residence at the moment.

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Here it goes, growing up a few moments of my life decided to make their mark and stay with me as if my soul was starting to brand who I was going to be unbeknownst to me.

This idea started small like a mustard seed and grew into a passion that was driven by many experiences and adversities. My mother did not ignore my experiences and the adversities I journeyed through. She took me her daughter to a coffee shop that was in combination with a bookstore kind of like borders and spoke to me like a maturing young woman who needed advice. To her she wished that she would be having these conversations with me when I was older instead of then but, she knew the importance of educating and providing a safe environment for me to explore the world and ask as many questions as I needed to.

This was a place my mother spoke to me about many life lessons and very hard conversations. My mother would buy me my own cup of coffee and a treat of my choice, which in my eyes was a reward and meant getting a glimpse into what grown up life was like. My mother would listen to me attentively as if I was an adult friend of hers which meant the world to me.

I thought everyone’s mother took them to a coffee café to talk about tough situations and I figured no wonder everyone is addicted to coffee it's because of all the long-winded conversations that grown up women and young girls have as they cross that bridge of childhood to womanhood. It was a sad realization when I found out that some kids grow up without anyone to take them under their wing and give them wisdom and mentor their heart.

In that moment I became aware of what I wanted other girls like me to have that and I was going to find a way to give them that mentor.

As I got older I chased wisdom and soaked it up from anyone who would listen to me ramble on continuously and help me solve my problems.

I took those nuggets of wisdom and gave them out like candy to anyone who would listen. I couldn’t bear to hold on to the wisdom all to myself I had a burning desire like it was imperative that I passed on the wisdom I gained to any soul I thought needed a little extra TLC.

Pretty awesome right! I thought with all this knowledge and wisdom I would be set when it came to life situations. In some respects, it did help and in other aspects it made me more confused.

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Here is where my dream turned into a passion!

I know ways to get knowledge, but I felt like girls from my generation needed more than just words of wisdom. But what was it that we were missing?

At that time, I didn’t know and wouldn’t know for a long time.

Any one will tell you that if you want a dream to come true you need to have a goal or steps to guide you in the direction of your dream to turn it into a reality.

My Goal! Oh, I thought I was the only one who had this idea and it was going to be amazing! Turns out there are thousands of coffee shops around the world and most of them don’t even stand the test of time. My coffee shop was going to be different! My coffee shop was/is going to stand for something! My Coffee shop will serve her community! YES! I just called my café a she!

She became the vision of the mentor I wanted to give all other young girls and women around the world and the mentor I wanted to strive to become.

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It became a passion of mine to make my dream come alive through some form of conversation over a nice warm beverage in the comforts of what would look and feel like a home but would be open to the public.

And then I heard a sermon from my pastor’s wife and she spoke the words that still ring loud and echo in my heart. She said that wisdom is the application of knowledge and discipleship is the application of wisdom. Wow! She spoke those words strategically with confidence and power.

You could say that this is the moment where my dream and passion came into alignment with each other.

Here is where I started to struggle in my own life! I had some knowledge and wisdom but the application process to practice it in my own situations was a total wreck.

This is when I started to doubt my ability to follow through with my dream. I dubbed myself unworthy of wearing the crown of that platform but, now I pick the jewels of my crown strategically. Because I know my worth and where my worth comes from. It did not happen overnight! It took a couple of years.

During my voyage of finding who I was I discovered YouTube influencers, Blogs, music, spoken poetry, podcasts and many books.

On my voyage I became aware of a new way to reach people at a global level with the ambiances of an intimate level of communication between two screens. The Lothes Lounge the place and testimonies as the mentor/mentee and you the reader as the mentee/mentor.

I searched high and low on these platforms and forums of the internet to find ways I could be discipled to thrive as a woman in today’s world. I found many different concepts and philosophies but not very many real-life ways to apply it to my own imperfect world.

Here is where “A promise”, “My Promise” motivated my confidence to create this place you for you

An influencer (who I will share with you soon) said in her video “if this is the one thing you

don’t give up on or in other words, what is that one promise you won’t break to yourself?”. What could come from it? How could it affect the people around you?

I won’t wait until I have everything figured out to create a place where mentorships will thrive and friendships will grow I will just focus on one promise to not give up on this community I am deciding to forge out of adversity.

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Let’s build a community that thrives from mentorship, discipleship and friendship!

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