Whether or not you are a resolution-maker or goal-setter, chances are good that over the past few weeks you’ve found yourself thinking about one or more ways to improve your life this year. Losing weight, eating healthier, reducing stress, being more present, attaining work/life balance….
Like almost everyone in the Houston and Southeast Texas area, I spent last Friday preparing for a hurricane. We bought a few cases of bottled water, prepared some cooked food, stocked up on non-perishable items, and thought through a plan for collecting water on the…
I recently had the rare opportunity to sit down with a man whose parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and even great-great-grandparents all made their home here in our city. A 5th generation Houstonian, Doug Pecore is often called Mr Houston by his friends. You may assume the…
I recently read that people with indomitable spirits don’t need pep talks or protein shakes, but that their strength comes from within. That is the distinct impression I had as I walked away from my short interview with Nahla Nasser. This woman has one indomitable…
It’s time to take a hard look at the real immigration issues and not build a wall around our country, but realize the worth of immigrants to our country. Kathryn Karam has written a beautiful piece on just this issue. #JustVibeHouston #Alllivesmatter
Photo Courtesy of http://americasvoice.org This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court released three decisions, including its holding in U.S. v. Texas – the lawsuit challenging the implementation of President Obama’s Executive Actions for Immigration Reform, which were announced in November 2014. When Justice Scalia passed away…
It’s not easy doing non-profit work. They get paid the least and are always wondering where the funds are going to come from to keep the good work that they are doing for the communities they help. People who work in non-profits work tireless hours…
Once in a while, you come across an experience that is both enlightening and transforming, and when it happens on campus, in your first year of college, it adds a whole new dimension to the learning experience from that point forward. Such an event took…
I had a dream… This is a very famous line that we know from Martin Luther King’s Speech that was made on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, in which he called for an end to racism in the…
John Wilkerson Tennis is the type of game you can play forever. Once you learn the fundamentals of the sport, you can play for fun with friends; you can play in friendly leagues and make new friends, or you can play competitively on an amateur…
There are people that you meet in life who just care about people. It doesn’t matter where they come from, how much money they have, what religion they practice or race they are; they are just a compassionate advocate. When you meet these people you…
Abraham Hausman-Weiss Abraham Hausman-Weiss lives and breathes basketball. He’s been playing B-ball now for over 11 years and feels more at home on the court than anywhere else. His coach would tell you that he has one of the best shots in the country. Abraham…
You can never tell a book by its cover. You can’t just read the inside cover or the final page to know the real story, and that’s also the case when you meet someone and hear their story. Everyone has a story to tell. Some…
Some people are born leaders and change makers. They are those that don’t just look at an issue and talk about it but try to figure out how to make things better. They rally the troops, make connections and get people excited about the possibilities….
Not everyone is going to agree with you all the time, and when you are a Pastor of over 9,000 congregants, you are certainly going to ruffle some feathers, but Pastor Rudy Rasmus is a Pastor for a love revolution and believes that all should…
In 2015, we met with the coolest people. At the time, we didn’t know any of them existed, much less that we would end up with so many inspirational articles about Houston. Every single day, we unearth more and more people that are quietly telling…
Never judge a book by its cover. You never know what’s on the inside until you start to read the pages. That’s sort of how it went when we sat down with the unassuming Ed Pettitt. Ed Pettitt is your average amazing guy that is…
Sometimes we interview someone, and we have to let it marinate for a while before we sit down to tell their story in our online publication. And, sometimes over the course of that period, their lives change and so does their story in small ways….
CDC OD Deaths Infographic We met a woman the other day, Maureen, who was so full of love, light, energy and hope you would never have known the grief and sadness she carries in her heart. This is the grief that no mother or anyone…
Imagine what it’s like to move to a new city and not know a single person. Now, imagine if you were immigrating to a new country and didn’t know a single person, the culture or what to expect, other than it felt like you were…
I was recently asked to speak on a reentry summit panel with The Women’s Home addressing issues women face when reentering society after incarceration. While the majority of the summit focused on the adult population, I was asked to speak on behalf of the child-…
It was a few years ago when Ginger Barber, renowned Houston Interior Designer, was driving the back roads of Galveston County on a beautiful Saturday to go birding when she came across a site that she will never forget. She stopped her car and couldn’t…
There is something beautiful that happens when people are telling you their story. It all starts out the same way when we sit down with real people. We get the resume. The party line. The who, what, where and why. The bare bones and the…
Every day we meet people who inspire us. Real people. People who are living their lives, raising their children and quietly making a difference in the most humblest ways possible. These are people that you might not look across the room at a party and…
It was a characteristically warm early September day as I walked up the path towards KIPP SHINE Prep. The feeling in the air held all the promise of a new school year playing out everywhere across America. Unlike many schools, though, it was clear this…
When a death happens in the family it is devastating. There are details to take care of and often, the grieving that needs to happen is put on the back burner and then sneaks up on you at the oddest moments. It can be when…
Not everyone is cut out to work in the public service sector. It’s a job that can have its perks, like personal satisfaction when a job is well done and change is made and created, but it has its foils as well. There can be…
If you stop and take a look around at the kids today and what they are doing, they will amaze and astound you. You have the Meta-Four kids, who are creating change through the spoken word. There is Sara Portugal, who is a force to…
It seems like the kids just got out of school yesterday, but today it’s time for them to go back to school if they are in HISD. Every year, we as parents, have great expectations as to what we hope our children will achieve over…
What would you if your dream life that you had studied for, worked for, lived and loved was suddenly taken from you? Would you be able to redefine your life? Pick up the pieces of what was left and start over and begin a brand…
Diversity: the condition of having or being composed of differing elements : the inclusion of different types of people (as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization Infinity: the quality of having no limits or end : the quality of being…
We love advocates. We love patient advocates and community advocates and we love advocates for justice. We’ve talked to you about Marcy Kurtz, who is not only an advocate for justice, but has started a non-profit for Uterine Cancer called Peach Outreach and then there…
Advocate: to speak or write in favor of; support or urge by argument; recommend publicly a person who speaks or writes in support or defense of a person, cause, etc. a person who pleads for or in behalf of another; intercessor. Synonyms: champion, upholder, supporter,…
Having trained at a local county hospital in Houston Texas, I was always taught first the value of limited resources. At the time, it was difficult to understand that I was training in the world’s largest medical center and yet most of the patients that…
The days when the images of poems that looked like those of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are being turned upside down and in the best ways. Going to school, poetry was a stanza. 4 lines with rhyming words, or perhaps a well thought out…
Some women are born knowing who they are, what path they are meant to be on and what their purpose is. For some it could be becoming the President of the United States or finding a cure for cancer. For Lauren Santerre, her path has…
The flood has brought many people to a standstill, still unsure of what to do and how to move forward with their lives. So much was lost by so many. Between the cars and the homes and the personal belongings, there are some that are…
If you have kids, then you have probably already thought about the financial logistics of college. Whether it is a state school or a private school, the costs of sending a child to college today is staggering. According to collegedata.com, ‘the College Board reports that…
Real Stories Houston will highlight real people doing amazing things around our city. Those people in your neighborhood who make you never want to move, people quietly weaving the fabric of Houston, people creating change.
If you know of a story you would like to submit for consideration in Real Stories, please email editor@justvibehouston.com.
