Humans of Ottawa

I’m broke. I got scammed by some chick in the States. I’ve never met her in person; I met her online. She promised me a bunch of money if I came up with something to give to her because she works for an investment firm, but then she disappeared. Hopefully, if I win a lottery, things will work out.

It's gonna make me cry if I tell you. I’m all by myself. I've lost all of my family, and I've been drinking because of that. I have a son. He's in Montreal; just let him be.

Lest we forget...

"There are 4 of us that own this place equally. And all four of us work really hard. So, I have no idea how someone would do it by themselves. It would really be hard to do it solo. One of the main things is just to have a purpose. Like, make sure that there is a reason that people wanna come to your store or come to whatever you are doing. Instead of just being a skateboard store, you need to have an idea for people to come in. Independence is one thing that inspires me in w...hat I do. Like, owning your own business is extremely independent. No one to talk to, no one to make money for, you're only doing it for yourself. In my case, I'm doing it for 3 others, and they're equally doing it for me. It's always a learning process. Respect is another big one- treat people how you want to be treated. If you're an asshole, people should treat you like one. It's true - it's that simple. Even in all situations - at work, in friendship, with family, in everything. No one is above it." See more

Honestly, I think my short-term goal is to be happy, which I’m not right now. But I will be; in the short term and long term too. Well, I’m generally happy despite today. I’m laid back; I don’t take myself too seriously at least I think I don’t. I’m a bit of an introvert lately, but people never actually believe me. Right now, I’m just preparing for a hearing. I can’t talk about the hearing itself, but it’s to see if my client can be released now or not. I’m a criminal def...ence lawyer. There’s a lot of people in the criminal justice system who are mentally ill. So, I’m hoping that we can do something to improve the way the mentally ill are treated in the system. A lot of people are going to jail and really what they need is to be in some sort of institution, or they just need better mental health care, as opposed to being thrown in jail - when they’re not being treated well.Recently, the Ford government cut a whole bunch of funding of legal aid in Ontario that has a huge impact on alleged criminals. A lot of them are people who are just poor, mentally ill, and indigenous. So, I think having fewer mentally ill people in jail that’s something that I would hope to in some ways influence. See more

(2/2) I want to overcome this, but I don’t know how. Maybe I’ll start allowing people to take pictures of me, and maybe it will help me overcome my body image problems as well. Body image is a big thing in Brazil because we are a country that performs a lot of plastic surgeries. I think another country that does a lot of plastic surgeries is South Korea. So, yeah, we have a lot of problems. Women must be super beautiful, super-hot, have a hot body. I had anorexia when I was ...younger. So, photography really helps, especially self-portraits. But I’m still a little afraid when someone else is taking a picture of me. Because you don’t know how they frame or see you through the lens. I don’t have anorexia anymore, but I still have a lot of problems with beauty standards and stuff. I read a lot about it, but I’m still having problems. I don’t know what I need to do overcome this. Maybe if a lot of people take pictures of me, it might help, but I don’t know or go to therapy. See more