Category: Daily Living

Cancer You Did Not Win…

“Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.”

-Gail Devers

I wasn’t sure if this day would ever come, the day that my parents would meet their grandchild, but we all know or I should say I know nothing is impossible for God. Guess what? the day did come, the day that my parents would meet their 4th grandchild which is my daughter.

My parents are cancer survivors. My dad is a stomach cancer survivor, thankfully his cancer never came back or I better said hasn’t come back in any way shape or form. In the other hand my mom had suffered more than we would ever thought, she had fought breast cancer twice and recently had been taking chemotherapy due to a bump that my dad discovered in her back that had to be removed.

My mom was extremely sad because she wasn’t able to be here for the birth of my baby. It is hard for my parents to travel nowadays due to their health. My dad is cancer free however he does have Alzheimer’s and if you are familiar with the disease changing environment for most of Alzheimer patients can be dangerous.

Thankfully my mom’s oncologist decided to put the last chemo treatment on hold so she can come to United States with my dad and meet their granddaughter. We were so excited when we received the news (my brother and I) that my parent’s doctors gave the ok for them to travel. Having them meeting my daughter was something that I was dying of but if they were not able to come my goal was to take her to Puerto Rico for Christmas.

What a blessing!!. So many things I would never imagine would happen just happened and all of it was definitely Gods hands working his magic behind close doors.

People don’t understand that things always happen in Gods time, He better than nobody else know what purpose he has for you, each one of us. The only thing that we need to do more is not to lose faith in him. This is the number one reason why my little girl’s middle name is Faith because I never lose Faith and I always believe. He will always be with me when life goes the way I want it to go but also He will be with me when life doesn’t go my way, I just need to trust him.

Cancer have taken a lot of people away from their loved ones. I have to be very honest with you, If you are ill or have some type of disease you have to have the desire to live and along with it you have to have a positive attitude. Many people give up and I am so proud of my parents for not giving up. When they were here I got to see that desire to live I am telling you about, the way they look at life had giving me a different perspective as a healthy woman how you should continue to live your life as positive as possible. They get their days were they are tired, they have no strength to do anything but they get up and get it done. They inspire me so much. My mom had this past week her last chemo and I pray to God is the last one but if is not God desire’s I ask him to give her the strength to continue to be strong and an example to my family and her church community.

We tend to complain a lot and there are so many people who have the right to complain but instead they just thank God everyday for being alive. I am so happy my parents were able to meet my baby girl, I am so thankful for the doctors who out of nowhere gave my parents the ok to travel and I hope they continue to bless all the people that go to their clinic just like they blessed my parents.

If you are reading me I ask you to take a minute to thank God for all you’ve got and continue to ask for all the goals and dreams to come true but be open to receive what God has for you because He knows better than you and make sure to be thankful either way. This is exactly why I am very thankful, in the last 10 months I have been blessed, absolutely blessed just because I had FAITH!

“I believe if you keep your faith, you keep your trust, you keep the right attitude, if you’re grateful, you’ll see God open up new doors.”

– Joel Osteen

God Bless,

Janitza Rivera

 

 

 

 

I was looking for the Perfect Dress and I Found the Perfect People

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In 2016 I decided to compete for a beauty pageant in California thanks to a friend of mine who nominated it me. I have never done one of those before, growing up my mom put me in modeling school which I loved very much. I always liked to be in the runway, learn about fashion, learn how to carry myself in public and learn about business etiquette. Since I enjoyed all of that I took dancing classes and participated in different talent shows and plays. I missed doing all of that, it was my passion growing up. When the opportunity about being in a beauty pageant araised I was thrilled, it was a good new adventure for me. The pageant I was going to compete for was Women of Achievement and I was representing my second home, the state of Virginia. This particular pageant is not all about beauty, is about a venue for single and married women of all ages to attend networking events, an Annual Leadership Luncheon and National Pageant awards.

There were many things to get ready for but the first thing I wanted to have out of the way was the prefect dress. I didn’t know of many places to go to buy a new night gown for the pageant, so the first thing I did was to google for places were I could go to in my town. The first place I went to had very nice dresses. As soon as I walked in I felt like I was in heaven, dresses everywhere. Since I didn’t know where to start I asked one of the ladies that worked there to help me with different type of dresses and she told me to go to the back of the store and find what I was looking for. First at all I didn’t know what size I would wear on a night gown, it would’ve been nice if someone could’ve guided me but that didn’t happen. I was with my brother and my fiancee, I wanted them to help me pick a good dress for me. I picked few dresses hoping I had the right sizes and proceeded to go to the fitting room. Once I had the first dress on I came out of the fitting room and called my fiance and my brother and the lady almost lost her mind because men were not supposed to be that close to the fitting room. I didn’t know the rules and also I didn’t like the way she said it to them. Hey, I didn’t see no signs or anything so how are we supposed to follow the rules? I think she could have used a different tone of voice to convey the message. My fiancee and brother left the store and decided to wait outside. I changed into my outfit and decided to leave. Their customer service to me really sucked.

Next day I decided to go to another boutique, this time I just took my brother. My fiancee didn’t want to go to another bad experience so he decided to stay. I wished he would had gone because this customer service was much better. The owner as well as her employees gave the best customer service anyone could ask for, from there on I became very good friend with her and her employees. I found the dresses I was looking for, I even found accessories as well as shoes. I was very happy with this boutique. Since I became a very good friend with them the owner even asked me to work with them when there was someone who wanted to be off or whenever they needed me as a bridal consultant. It was a great experience, I learned a lot about wedding dresses and pageant dresses. I was also invited to participate in bridal shows and the owner even helped me with some coaching for my pageant.

I would have never imagined that from one bad experience I was going to be taken to an extraordinary experience where I would make friends for life and learn something different from the field that I am in. The following year I participated again at the same pageant and everything I needed for it I bought there. The owner of the boutique gained a customer for life. This is exactly what happens when you give extraordinary customer service.

If you work with the public always give extraordinary costumer service. Remember that you either represent your own company or someone else’s and customers deserve to be treated good. Put yourself in a customers shoes. Would you like to be treated bad, unkindly, without respect? I really don’t think so… When you go somewhere you do not get good costumer service, your client or potential client will go somewhere else and you don’t know what kind of sale or friend for life you are losing. I’m glad I went through that bad experience because thanks to that experience I learned a lesson and I met wonderful people with a wonderful heart. I do not settle for less and you should not either. I always expect the best of the best and you should to.

Here I leave you with few tips about costumer service:

  • “Don’t try to tell the customer what he wants. …
  • “Assumptions are the termites of relationships.” …
  • “Always hear your customers…
  • “Just having satisfied customers isn’t good enough anymore. …
  • “Always ask open ended questions.” …
  • “Ease your customers‘ pain.”

“I think it’s important to always keep professional and surround yourself with good people, work hard, and be nice to everyone”.

-Caroline Winberg

God Bless,

Janitza