Craig Thomson wrote:
not a member ?

For not having 4 photos.  Put her back in for now but that is semi automatic.  Not sure if she knows. 

(please keep 4 photos up and a minimum of a profile up if you wish to remain an active member.)

Melissa Rachelle wrote:
Let me start out by saying a bit about myself.

I was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  The country is over 96% poor.  I remember having to sleep under my bed at nights because of the incessant gunfire from the corrupt military.  When I was five years old I saw a man burned alive.  A rubber tire wrapped around his waist, gas thrown on his body, the match lit and thrown at him while the so called "police" watched.  I used to hear stories of how beautiful the U.S. was and all of the great things everyone who lived there could do and could become.  I didn't even know what the US was but I knew I wanted to go there.

After seeing that man burned alive I told myself that I would never treat another human being with cruelty.  Of course I was only five years old then.  But I have done my best to live my life by that.  Some people call kindness weakness.  So I guess in their eyes I am less than nothing.

I am now 24 years old and I still have horrible nightmares about my first years in Haiti.  Waking up everyday and working as hard as my body would allow is what gave me hope.  Makeup artistry gave me hope.  Working hard on something that I loved gave me hope.

I am not here to tell anyone who to be or how to be.  I am simply stating the obvious.  What is the point of being cruel to one another?  What gain do we as human beings receive at the end of the day from being cruel to one another?

The next time you think about saying or doing something cruel to another human being just ask yourself these questions:

1.  who is this person?
2.  where does this person come from?
3. doesn't this person have the right to have hopes and dreams just as I do?

I'd like to say thank you to all of the makeup artists on here who gave me a slight bit of hope to carry on and work harder and harder each and every day.  I'd also like to say thank you to all of the photographers who gave me a chance when so many other people turned their backs and slammed their doors at the "poor little Haitian girl".  Thank you. 

I am eternally indebted to all of you who understand that a couple of kind words have the power to change someone's destiny.


With As Much Love as my heart and soul can give thank you!





Much Love Always and Best Wishes to all of the people who push on to live a dream that most do not have the confidence and determination to pursue!

Melissa

Totally agree, I lived through the last years of Aparthied here in South Africa, with the release of Mandela and the subsiquent urban unrest and vioence that erupted form there, tribe murdering tribe, Mandela Supporters Murdering non mandela supporters, whites killing blacks, blacks killing whites.

You just gotta thing what the hell is it all for huh.