Latasha Johnson

The greatest piece of advice that I have received is don't look at the faces. I was told, never look at the faces. When I studied that, what they were telling me was you can look at a person's face and pick up a whole different attitude on what you think they're looking at you, but in actuality, their nose could be itching. You're looking at their face and you're not understanding that there's something going on within them, but you have gotten confrontational. Sometimes you can be confrontational on your thoughts, and the person is not even thinking about you that way because of how you're looking at them. A person told me one day, when you go and speak to people, to the young people, when you go to school and you're speaking to the teacher in the classroom and you're doing presentations, don't look at the faces and become shy or a pullback or drawback. Don't look at the faces, do what you're supposed to do, and focus on what the message is. You'll get angry at people for no reason. They're wondering why you're angry at them because they were thinking about what they had that morning. You done got upset by looking at them, and you wonder why they're looking at me like that, and it has nothing to do with you. I've learned when I sing not to look at the faces. I look at the wall, I look at the chair.

You have to have a passion for doing what you believe that you're able to do. But it has to have a passion behind it, because if you don't have any passion, you'll be going from different intervals in life, trying this, trying that, and before you know it, you'll be getting older and have not accomplished anything because there was no passion in it. So do what you feel that you're capable of having a drive to do and a passion to do. Don't do what you feel your parents want you to do. Sometimes parents want you to follow their footsteps, become a police officer, a teacher, and then your friends might put in info on what they feel that you can do because you look a certain way, you act a certain way. No, at the end of the day, I would tell young people, do what you wake up in the morning, after you say your prayers, what draws you? What is it that make you want to make money? What is it that comes easy to you? That's your passion. I would tell them, you gotta have passion behind you. Passion has to drive you into your next level. It's nothing wrong with having a job because the job pays the bills, but when it comes to your passion, that's a different interval. You have to have a passion to complete something, so when you're older, you can look back and say, I feel fulfilled because I did what my heart was calling me to do.

My greatest challenge, I would say, is the perception of me. Because I am a Black woman, I'm shaped different. I draw attention, and just because of who I am, it's not so much that I draw attention because I'm African American. No, I draw attention because of the way I look, my body shape. And some people will draw to that, and some people look at it as a negative. So that's the negative part of what has been somewhat of a hindrance, but I love a challenge. Because people judge by what they see, I think we all do that. It comes to us like that naturally. We perceive something, we look at something, and we immediately judge it. That's why we have to learn constantly to turn the pages on people, because when you turn the pages, you'll find something much more different than what it looked like. What it looked like really isn't what it is. My confrontations concerning my career has been what people see on the outside of me. But when they get to know me and I begin to open my mouth, I draw people, and that's how the doors open for me. Doors open for me because of character, and I'm not perfect. Nobody's perfect on the earth, but doors open for me because of my personality and my character. I don't see color. What I see is just an individual that was made by their mother and father, and now they are here, and we gonna work this thing out together, this thing that's called life. I never looked at color, and I was raised in a household to look at color. When people say that African Americans cannot be racist, I believe that is something that is totally a lie. I was raised with African American parents who taught that to me and my brothers, but I grew out of that because I learned the skin color and the culture of an individual, that's something they can't help. So I turn the pages on everybody that I meet. And when I turn the pages, either I'm gonna vibe with you, or I'm going to distance myself because of what comes out of your mouth, because of your character.

Professionally, my top values are perfection and professionalism mixed with perfection. Concerning my personal life, my top values would be to learn how to communicate with family. Currently I take care of my mom who is bedridden, and I take care of my two granddaughters who were on their way to the state of Illinois DCFS. Instead of them going into the system living with strangers, I sacrificed my life and my career to take my granddaughters in temporarily. I feel that when you sacrifice things for other people, I feel complete in the end, as if to say that I did the best that I could to give them a comfortable life at that time being, because this too shall pass. People grow up, people move on. I believe in staying humble no matter what life brings to you that's great and that's good. Sometimes you gotta keep your mouth closed and keep it to yourself. I don't see color. What I see is just an individual that was made by their mother and father, and now they are here, and we gonna work this thing out together, this thing that's called life. I turn the pages on everybody that I meet, and when I turn the pages, either I'm gonna vibe with you, or I'm going to distance myself because of what comes out of your mouth, because of your character.