Hi, my name is Lacey Nelson, writer, photographer, entrepreneur and former member of the “you’ll never amount to anything” club.
From juvenile delinquent carving words into a cell wall and a desperate soul looking for more through broken eyes. To writer with a gift to share and entrepreneur with a vision.
I grew up in a small Northern California town with an average life. My dad applied for a job transfer from the Bay Area when I was young. Moving us to a cute little old mining town in hopes of keeping me, his one and only precious daughter, away from the rising crime rate, drugs and gangs (the irony of which came later). My parents loved me very much, but emotional connection and affection were not present in our home. They were good people, doing the best they could with the tools they had. So why was my life so damn hard? Why didn’t I fit in? Why was I so lost when it seemed like everyone else had it figured out?
In my endless search for a place to fit in, I looked to my external world to show me how. Oddly enough, the people I admired most didn’t fit in at all, they were the rebels, the outcasts, the gangsters and hustlers. They weren’t college graduates, doctors or attorneys. They were the wise guys with street smarts, outside of and above the law, not some ivy league educated square with a 9-5 and no personality. From movies, to music, to real life, the people I aspired to be like the most and the people I surrounded myself with didn’t “fit in” to social norms at all, they rebelled against them, carved their own paths and made their own way. However, in the process they also mowed down anything and anyone that got in that way. I began to believe that to get what you want in life you have to be ruthless and that led me down an obscure and gloomy road.
I created my own personal hells and touched a darkness that many never find their way back from. I’ve seen and done things some have only witnessed in movies. I’ve dug myself out of depths that leave some for dead. I now clearly see it genuinely is all for a reason. I see why I chose the path I did and why the darkness is crucial if you truly want to see the light. If a soul doesn’t experience the trials of life organically, it will create them in order to evolve.
A decade ago, I decided I didn’t want to be at war with myself any longer. I had to destroy the “trust no one” & “everything that can go wrong will go wrong” mentality that I had grown so accustomed. I realized I wanted peace, I wanted joy, and I knew it was up to me to change course. I began to look for resources and information to help me transform into the person I know I had inside me all along. The truest version of myself, a positive, motivated, inspiring, and loving human being with the capability to transform reality. I began to change my mindset, and my life began to shift. The challenges began to evolve, as did the tools I used to tackle them. I no longer found resonance with the dark and realized all of our true nature resonates with the light.
I learned shortly after I began the journey of healing and personal development, that there is no end to self-discovery. Only ends to chapters, even then you sometimes have to go back and re-read. Healing is not linear, and it does not look the same for everyone.
My hope is that sharing my journey will help someone along theirs.
Soulfully Rich 