Introduction to weed

I had no idea about weed until I was 16 years old.

 

I also had no idea that it was in my house throughout my entire childhood. Yes, I was a very naive child. 

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I was also a latch-key kid who found herself in more trouble than not and secretly wished she could just keep her ass at home. Where I loved organizing, rearranging and doing crafty things.  But not knowing what others were doing - would almost be the death of me. 

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I would eventually stumble upon marijuana at 16 years old and quickly found 2 new gal friends. The laughs we shared, the silly stories, and the pot we smoked. Boy, did we have fun. 

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Early adult hood

But that didn't last long. I met a boy, did everything backwards and had a baby at the age of 19. I quit smoking weed. It was the worst pregnancy ever. Also my only one. I couldn't eat, I was nauseated all the time, I threw up all the time or was dry heaving, I peed all the time, and I was always struggling to breath. But even as horrible as it was come delivery day - I was begging the doctor to let me go home. I didn't want to give birth anymore. But obviously that didn't happen. 

 

I kinda of started smoking weed after I gave birth but by the time I was 21 my relationship was over and so was my weed use. 

 

Quitting was the worst thing I did for my health. 

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I would spend the next 10 years committed to making myself grow in the corporate world putting any dreams I had on hold. 

 

The twenties

My son paid the price for years because my depression, anxiety and anger issues went untreated. I was gaining weight so fast that I stopped looking at the scale - I got up to 215 pounds by the time I looked again! I had more stomach issues than I care to admit during that time.

 

I was so busy listening to society and everyone around me that I forgot that I was living my own life. I tried prescriptions, went to therapy, read self-help books, tried to keep friends, tried to have more mom friends. 

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But none of that matter because I was never me. I was never living authentically to my values. Hell I didn't even know what they were! 

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At that time I thought the best thing I could do for me and my son was to move. By this time I was closer to 30 and I was ready for change, so was my son. We needed to start over.  

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Plan the "biggest' move of our life

We moved to Raleigh, NC. Which in hindsight with my black child, was not the smartest move but also somehow turned out to be...great, amazing, wonderful and also miserable, awful, incredibly sad.  We both learned a lot in 2 1/2 years. 

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JD's hockey career would start here. My "dream career" (project manager) would start here after being laid off for the first time. We lost my father figure, or as JD knew him Grandpa, my boyfriend moved to be with us full time shortly after his death in 2015, we would lose my cousin tragically a year later. My son gained some amazing friendships that he still has today and unfortunately as a black young man was forced to learn about racism. A struggle he and our family still deal with today. 

 

It was a roller coaster 2 1/2 years and I was in a career choice that I thought was my calling - project manager.  My relationship was struggling, my relationship with my son was struggling and I was pulling away from my family. I was a mess. 

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My depression, anxiety, anger issues, and my stomach issues were getting worse. 

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On top of this, I was struggling with the use of my right hand. I thought it was carpool tunnel. So I never took it that seriously. But by the time I was 32 years old, it wasn't just my hand, it was my entire arm, shoulder, neck, right back, hip and went into my leg all the way down my foot. 

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I was getting worse, doctors in the south treated me like I was crazy and didn't want to do anything to help me except to tell me to quit my job, give me pain killers and anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds. I asked for physical therapy and I found my own therapist to continue to deal with my depression and anxiety.  And eventually, I would find cannabis again and myself. 

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Finding weed in my life again 

I never thought I would be a daily user of cannabis. I never thought I would want to be a cannabis coach. When I started using weed again, I thought it would be a temporary thing until my stomach settled and the pain in my right arm would go away. 

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But what I thought would be temporary became daily medicine. The first couple of years I used, I lived in a prohibition state. I hid all my stuff in my master bathroom and my son had no clue. I felt like a horrible monster even though I was calmer and more relaxed, in less pain and eating again but healthier. 

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Cannabis helped me re-discover myself in ways that I never thought were possible. 

 

It was during this time that I started Pinterest boards of owning a business, I was slowly allowing myself to open up to this secret dream I had but very cautiously. 

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But that's not the end of the story - life wasn't just great because I started smoking pot again. Oh, if only it were that easy. 

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The next BIG move​

In 2017 I would have a mental breakdown. I saw it coming, tried to control it but it was still an epic meltdown. I was ready to throw out my relationship, grab my son and go. Go where? No idea. It seems to be the first reaction when I struggle to find the words to express myself. 

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Thankfully, my now husband has a calmer head and knows how to talk to me. We decided to start fresh and that we would stay together and move our family. With a map, we quickly narrowed out regions. 

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We were only worried about two things; hockey and access to my cannabis. 

 

Hence, how we landed in Colorado. It wouldn't be long before I would leave my last corporate job and start my entrepreneurial journey. With a lot of hiccups, struggles, and going back to the drawing board what feels like a million times. 

 

 

Getting started in the industry 

I was excited about the move to Colorado and I won't lie I did not have an interest in being in the cannabis industry. At least not at first. But as I started going to dispensaries and learning more about cannabis I was curious. But my thought process of "what others may think" prevented me from making the change. I stayed in my safe industries until 2019. Yes. you read that correctly. 

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My first foot in the door was as an 'associate grower' for a more corporate cannabis company. Yes, that is a thing here in Colorado. The experience was amazing and unfortunately short-lived. About 6 weeks. I actually mourned the loss of that job for about a week because I thought I could never work in the cannabis industry ever again. 

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What happened?  To be honest - we aren't really sure. Two major things happened that triggered a serve allergic reaction along with some sort of infection that was either caused by working with the marijuana plants or because of the excessive dog hair in the used truck I bought. I was sick for two months with no real diagnoses in September and October of 2019. 

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My new dream of becoming a grower had crashed and I was beyond devastated. 

 

After I was done wallowing in my self-pity, I discovered cannabis coaching and an array of online cannabis courses. I started with a basic intro course that dived into the history of cannabis, how cannabis works and why cooking with cannabis and even growing cannabis. It was amazing and I knew I wanted to learn more because up until this first course in 2019 I was completely self-taught and learned a lot from my budtenders. 

 

My next move in the industry was to become a budtender. With everything I had learned, and with everything I continue to learn in my Cannabis Coaching Course I was ready to start helping others on their cannabis journey.  It's been an amazing journey and I have learned so much and have been able to help the people who come in.

 

I'm now in the process of launching my cannabis educator and coaching services. While also preparing the cannabis-friendly lifestyle store. 

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MJS Today 

I have spent the past year dedicated to learning all I can about cannabis and building this website to be useful for women to understand cannabis and more importantly to feel comfortable with cannabis in their life. 

 

MJS is committed to helping women navigate the cannabis world by providing cannabis education and sharing how I integrated cannabis in my life to create what I call the cannabis-friendly lifestyle.

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Simplifying cannabis while providing education to live a responsible yet fun cannabis-friendly lifestyle.

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