Introducing CABOOM-SASS:
Carry-Along Bliss Of Optimistic Motivation – Snag-A-Star Stamina
As a writer and lover of all things inspirational, I have always been a fan of magazines. Years ago, back in high school, I took this love a step further and started to cut out the words that I liked from the pages of my favorite publications, and I would place them into what I called a word box. First, I took these cutouts and created the cover of a journal. I enjoyed this so much, the process and the product, that I created an inside-cover and back cover for it, as well. From there, I still had a box full of words left over, and the desire to create, so I started to make collages. I have not stopped since, and I am now a 22-year-old with a Bachelor’s degree in Professional Writing from Grand Valley State University.
Throughout college, I would make these collages in various sizes, so small that they could slip right into my purse or pocket, and so large that I used them as posters to decorate the walls of my dorm room. I enjoyed being surrounded by these colorful clusters of motivational words, quotes, sayings, and sometimes-even images, from my favorite magazines. I loved it so much that I thought maybe others would love them too, and maybe they would receive the same feeling of encouragement and enlightenment as I do. How cool would that be, to take my favorite hobby and make something out of it that could brighten people’s days, their mentalities.
I kept this idea to myself for quite some time, for fear that maybe I was the only one who thought it was cool. Does anyone else respond to words in the same way that I do? I was not sure, so I waited it out. One autumn afternoon, I was chatting with the Assistant Editor, Meena Rupani, from an entertainment company in New York City that I worked at and wrote for during the summer after graduating from GVSU, and I told her about it. She is the first person, other than my mother of course, that I ever told, and to my surprise, she was completely supportive and excited about the idea.
Meena said that especially as a cancer survivor, she could have used something like this to help her get through the rough days of treatment. I was so relieved to know that she didn’t think the idea was crazy [or that I had gone insane myself], so I told my best friend and college roommate, Angela Antonio. She also liked the idea, thankfully, and this gave me the confidence to move forward and finally establish Caboom-Sass: Carry-Along Bliss Of Optimistic Motivation – Snag-A-Star Stamina. The second half of this name is inspired by one of my favorite quotes by Les Brown, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”
