Hello, my name is Lolly

Hello my LOVES! Omgosh I am soooo excited to be launching my very own website and blog for you to join my journey on a whole other level. I have always loved writing and my aim is to do a blog post a week to help inspire you to live your best life. Whatever your best life may look like, it is entirely possible for you. Once you have released the negativity that no longer serves you, the possibilities are limitless.

Just wanted to insert a potty mouth warning here, I swear. Alot. You've been warned.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Laurelee Bennett (nee Olszowiec) but I am lovingly referred to as Lolly. I am an East Coast girl living in the West of Canada. I grew up in a farm town in Nova Scotia where the air often smells of cow shit. My Dad was a mining engineer from Cape Breton and my Mom was a nurse, a Cree woman from Northern Manitoba. I have two older brothers that I grew up with that were 5 and 8 years older than me. We lived all over Canada, moving from place to place mostly by car to some small mining town in buttfucknowhere. Sometimes yearly, one time 3 times in one year. But we always came back to Nova Scotia, where my Dad originated. He was a Cape Breton legend, so was his Dad. More on that another time. We made friends, but knew we'd be off on the next adventure soon enough so didn't set our roots too deep. When I think back on it, it's kind of like we were gypsies, three kids in the giant backseat of a Chevy Malibu, the sweet scent of cigars mixed in with Mom's perfume driving to the next town. We arrived in Milford, Nova Scotia in 1986 where we stayed until 1994 for a brief move to Venezuela.

My Dad died in a car accident in Venezuela in 1994 when I was 14 years old leaving my Mom to raise a stubborn, mouthy, unruly teenage girl by herself. We moved to Elmsdale, Nova Scotia where I resumed attending the same high school; Hants East Rural High. She did her best while working full time and trying to keep a social life, my brothers had moved out and on so it was just her and I for a while. To say I was slightly rebellious, maybe a little bit of a misfit trying to find my place to "fit in" is an understatement. I really liked to party with my friends, and we had LOTS of parties... soooo many parties that we didn't often make it to school. I dropped out of high school in 1995 because it got in the way of my social life. I returned to school in 1996, but again... I was rarely ever there so I was asked to leave in the Spring of 1997. My vice principal told me that I'd never amount to anything as I was walking out the door waving my middle finger at him. What a dick! (I am talking about myself... lol). Maybe he was right, maybe I won't amount to anything, I thought.

Little did I know, I was pregnant and I became a single mother to my first child when I was just 18 years old. My partying days were over, my first son David, named after my Dad was born in September 1997. Mom was planning to move to her home in Northern Manitoba, and I wasn't prepared to leave my home. So she left. Some people didn't agree, but it was the best thing Mom could have done in that situation. Otherwise, David would have been raised by her. I went back to school for a year and barely made it through my grade 11 year because, well, I was still partying every chance I could! David spent alot of his first year and a half with sitters because I had no idea what the hell I was doing. I kept him fed, clothed, a roof over his head and loved him deeply but other than that, I really had no idea how to be a nurturing Mom. That summer, my roommate and I had our power cut off, my babysitter told me she couldn't do it again for the school year and my piece of shit car broke down. I made a call to my brother Scott who was living in Wolfville, Nova Scotia and asked for help. This was the first bout of depression that I remember, I felt so down and out. My bro is a cool guy who tried to help Mom raise me and was always there when I needed him. He came and got David and I from a dark lonely house and we left, bound for Wolfville (about an hour away) not knowing what the future held for us.

Turned out there was this adult high school in Kentville, two towns over from Wolfville... where I could complete my grade 12. I found an apartment for David and I just a few blocks from the school and moved in a couple weeks before school started. This was my first time alone with my son in what felt like forever, back home I could just leave him with whoever to run to the store or go out or do my thing... but now we were alone, just the two of us. I remember I ran out of smokes one night and I got ready to go to the store. I looked over at my almost 2 year old and suddenly it dawned on me that I had to take him with me! This was a pivotal moment in my life, I realized I was his Mom and he depended on me and only me to keep him safe and provide him all the love and care he needed. I packed him to the store with me and from that moment on, it was just the two of us, taking on the world. I buckled down in school and graduated the adult high school with Honors and as Valedictorian of my graduating class. I grew so much in that year that I blubbered and cried through most of my speech... haha. I applied to Acadia University and was accepted to their Bachelor of Science program and we moved to Wolfville, and yet another chapter began.