By Trissean McDonald

As a child, I experienced many life-threatening moments leading to multiple hospitalizations. Epilepsy was the demon that bound me for years going into adolescence.

However, the will to fight and live for more incredible things has been embedded within me since birth. I believe the epileptic episodes were a testament, if you will, to the resiliency that God wanted to prove to those around me that I have.

Somebody told me, perhaps it was my father, that one day I was found unresponsive while I was a baby inside my crib. I was taken to a hospital in critical condition, but I eventually regained consciousness.

There’s been evil working against me all my life. Yet there’s always been an inward assurance that everything will be OK, even during the scariest grand mal seizures I’ve endured until I aged out of them.

I was heavily medicated as a kid and didn’t like taking the medication. So my parents used to plant the drugs in my food as if I never suspected. The side effects of the medicines made my moods fluctuate, and I was pretty temperamental. However, a sweet-spirited entity has always guided me toward truth, wisdom, and humility.

Since I was a boy, I could hear what some may refer to as the voice of God. I’ve always been intuitive– a chosen child of the highest in which the Lord’s enemy has known since my birth. Therefore, Satan and his dark angels have been on assignment to take me out, whether through family, friends, life circumstances, or my health.

As a kid, the Lord’s enemy would also disguise himself to me and lie, causing me to get into a world of mayhem. It wasn’t until I got baptized that I began to understand the difference between the Lord’s calling and the enemy’s lies, prompting me to start building a profound relationship with the Lord.

The Lord blessed me with optimism that day when he told me I was healed of my epilepsy. I dumped all my medication down the toilet, and my mother eventually found out and took me to the neurologist. The doctor conducted several neurological tests and determined I no longer had to take the medication. It confirmed that I could trust the Lord in what he says.

Many of God’s chosen people have undergone affliction to the point of death. Yet, he uses those scenarios to get glory. For instance, the three Hebrew boys were thrown into the fiery furnace because they refused to denounce their belief in the Holy Father. However, none of them were burned or scorched. Yet those who placed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego inside the furnace and attempted to increase its heat were the ones who suffered the fate of the pyre. The Lord rescued the three and displayed his glory.

King Saul sought David because the king wanted to kill David out of evil intent and jealousy. God used Jonathan to warn David that the king tried to kill him and flee. However, once Saul died, David was blessed to be king in his place as the Lord intended. The Lord restored and blessed David for the sake of his glory.

Joseph was sold as a servant by his brothers because of their jealousy toward him. The brothers returned home and told their father, Jacob, that Joseph was mauled by wild animals, giving their father Joseph’s clothing that they stripped from him and dipped in animal blood. Jacob had the impression that Joseph had been dead for many years. His brothers, however, knew that he was sold. Yet because of his devoted faithfulness to the Lord, Joseph became the chief steward of the pharaoh and a ruler throughout Egypt. The Lord never left and always consoled him, even when his family gave him up. The Lord even blessed him to forgive his family and bless them with his possessions.

Then there’s Daniel, who was thrown in the lion’s den because he refused to worship or pray to King Darius as governed by law. The king’s administrators attempted to kill Daniel because of his faith in the Lord. They initiated a decree that forbade the worship of any other gods or human beings other than the king for thirty days and found Daniel one day praying to God in his room.

They brought Daniel to the king and reminded the king of his decree. The king became greatly distressed because of his fondness for Daniel, and he couldn’t retract the law. Before he ordered the execution of Daniel in the lion’s den, he said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!” Daniel was placed in the lion’s den, and a stone was rolled across the mouth to close it. The king sealed the cave with his signet ring and left full of grief and anguish.

The next day, King Darius rushed to the den and called out to Daniel to check if he was still alive. “May the king live forever,” Daniel said. ” My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, Your Majesty.”

The men who falsely accused Daniel were brought to the king, along with their wives and children. The king ordered them to be thrown into the lion’s den instead of Daniel. And before they reached the den’s door, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.

So although I’ve been through years of torment, the Lord remembers me and rescues me from the pit of death and has done so numerous times. He still watches over me, which gives me hope and joy, for the Lord never leaves nor forsakes his children or chosen people. With every hard point in life, there’s always a rejoicing moment because the Lord always provides a way for an escape or for the tables to turn in his people’s favor for the sake of his glory.

It’s important to know what you want to accomplish and plan to go after that goal. You have to know that in pursuing success, many people will not understand your purpose. Some people are going to believe that you’re better than them, and they’re going to leave you — these people are usually people you’ve known for a while who only want you to be in the same boat as them because their misery needs to be comforted.

Hold on and be strong. It is only a test of your endurance, will, dedication, and hard work. Success comprises three major components: compromise, adaptability, and reliability.

Hard-working and utterly dedicated to anything that relates to assisting others using writing and public representation is who I am.

My passion for assisting or advocating for others has always been a part of my natural makeup. It’s rewarding for me to help others who may struggle in areas requiring representation and understanding. I’ve witnessed many marginalized individuals experience hardship and sometimes give up because they feel nobody is in their corner.

The gift of writing and giving are my superpowers. I’m glad I entered the journalism and public relations field because, with journalism, I can share people’s stories in ways that spark human interest to bring about a call to action or stir up conversations for change.

I have a platform that allows me to tackle narratives to invoke a shift in the direction of events benefiting a local community or perhaps the world.

Journalism is a robust business and a skillful craft many cannot possess. It’s a gift to tell a story using words in a relatable tone that’s not only understandable but sparks human interests and brings about change.

I always enjoy meeting people and trying to understand their life goals and purpose. I constantly visualize the components of the items people convey to me and arrange them in a relatable way that elicits human interest and brings about a call to action, which is where public relations come in.

So, in all aspects, I have a passion for serving the community with my knowledge, along with the wisdom that the Lord blessed me with throughout years of trial and error. I love helping people by using my voice, platform (Trissean’s Blog), and skills of public influence and writing.

What sincerely helped guide me through most of my journey was my parents believing in me and knowing I could do anything I wanted to do with hard work and dedication. That’s the ultimate thing any parent can do for their children — believing in them. It means the world to them. But, it also takes the child deeply believing in themselves as well. That’s the most important thing.