Turning Hate into Love
Turning Hate into Love
Hey guys!
Yesterday as I was closing the doors at Blogilates HQ, getting ready to go home, I noticed something weird on our building:
Grafitti!!! UGHHH!!!! How could someone do this!? What does it even say? What does it even mean? “WR?” And if you were gonna tag my building, why didn’t you at least paint something cool!?
Because I didn’t have the original bucket of paint that was used to color this building, this wasn’t going to be a simple paint-over job. If I wanted to coat over this small area…I would need to coat over all two stories of the building! So I got to thinking…how can I use this as an opportunity to create something cool?
Then it hit me. Let’s turn hate…into love.
Why don’t I paint a big ole heart over it?
I went to Blick Arts that night to buy a big paint brush and then I started mapping things out. I would need to essentially paint a mural! I remember learning a little bit about murals a kid. You have to grid out the area you want to paint on paper beforehand in order to translate that onto the wall. So that’s exactly what I did here! I’m lucky the building already had a natural grid for me!
I then used pencil to draw the big heart on the actual wall. Once that was done, I grabbed a half full paint can of Blogilates Pink and got ready for my first gig as an official mural artist!
I grabbed some old clothes, put my hair up in a bun, threw on sunglasses and started tracing the outer edges of the heart first. I was really careful not to get any paint on the ground, my shoes, or myself! Some random people walked by and asked me if this was for breast cancer awareness, but I just told them that I was turning hate into love 🙂
This was what it looked like after 1 coat of paint! Not bad huh? The Blogifam came down to check on me every once in a while to see how I was doing! Good thing they did though because I had some odd interactions with some pretty odd people on the street. One tried to take pictures of me for “street art inspo” (yeah right), one tried to scam me into buying something, and another one yelled at me for not taking his business card even though both my hands were full! I just painted on and ignored the weirdness, which is usually what I do when I don’t know how to deal with negative situations. Don’t worry though, I’m fine!
Ready for the final result?
After about 1.5 hours, I finished my masterpiece of love! I was surprised to see how symmetrical it turned out! The pink adds a nice pop of life to the blue! OMG I love it so much!
You know, sometimes things happen to you in life that suck. But you gotta learn how to turn those negative moments into opportunities to be better. If no one had tagged all over my building, I would never have drawn this heart. So to the person who did this, thank you. You pushed me to get creative. Now, when I walk in and out of the office, I will no longer walk idly past a blue wall. When I start and end my work day, I get to walk past this beautiful pink heart and remember the story of how I turned hate into love.
34 thoughts on “Turning Hate into Love”
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Really cool and inspirational.!!!
Cassey,
Wow! That is actually incredible. I would be so mad, and not even think at all about painting a heart over it/ Wow. Just wow.
Beautiful!
Thank you for this post.
Cassey, you are such a HUGE inspiration to me. You are real, authentic and so incredibly inspiring. Turning hate into love – how beautiful. I absolutely love that.
And the heart look so beautiful. I love it!
xoxo,
Heidi
https://findingloveandhappinessblog.wordpress.com/
Hi Cassey, my name is Bari. I’ve doing popilates for 4 years now. I was born in a small county in Georgia, moved to Canada when I was six years old, visited my parents’ home country for three years (due to paper issues) and during that time, my mom had to go back and finish her masters without her husband or her children. Then two years later, just my siblings and I made it back in groups of two, years apart, to Canada. When I came back, I struggled with environment change which led to weight gain and I was 9, I didn’t know why it was happening. Alongside that, when I started school again, for 3 years, from grade four to six, I was bullied and ostracized for being a good person. I didn’t tell my mom because I wanted my parents to be proud of me. I got depressed. My mom already alot of stress taking care of her 5 children without her husband who was still stuck back in their country. My oldest sibling moved out and we moved after that. That’s when found your videos. Finally thought things were turning for the better. Then a year later, in the late August before grade 8, my appendix bursted without me knowing. They didn’t find out till early October but they couldn’t operate till the inflammation that my body was using to protect me was gone. So, I spent the first half of grade 8 in and out of the hospital, staying 3 or more days at a time, not eating alot and throwing up at midnight everyday. They finally got to operate it in December but on the 23rd, so I missed Christmas. The surgery was supposed to be a larascopic one (two small incisions and a tube camera used) but after 6 hours they still couldn’t find it. So, they had to ask my mom if they could change it to open surgery (they cut you open) and in 2 hours, they got it out. I stayed for week before going home. What I didn’t know is during this time though in December, my mom had a tumor on her spine and cancer in her bone marrow and was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. They said she had three months left. She didn’t tell me till after. So, from now on my mom had a nurse everyday to make sure she was comfortable as they couldn’t cure it. She didn’t even tell my dad cause she knew he would be sad and rush to get here. She just waited and he came back. My dad was determined to get her past 3 months and did so much research that he never slept during the night and fell asleep in the morning. He told to stop taking the pills they gave her and started using natural methods. With enough prayer she started to get better. The tumor is gone and she started to get her life back. My dad went back home to start a business and bring money back for the family. He also stuggled to come back again. We by help of prayer bought a house instead of renting. In those few years I still struggled with weight. I was starving myself and trying to have only salad with high intensity workouts but didn’t work and I got depressed again. You reminded me about what’s important, being happy and working out your body. I want to give this to my mom because she started chemo again it has been really hard. She loves the way you motivate her to exercise and be her best self. She says even if she can do one exercise, she will be fine for the rest of the day. You make me happy to workout and brighten my mood and that helps my mom to get the strength to get through the day.
Thanks Cassey!
This is super cool, love to see things like this! Keep doing what you do Cassey! xoxo
I don’t understand why people feel the need to wreck things. “We mustn’t touch what isn’t ours.” Why is that so hard for people to follow? They have to take other people’s thing and uglify things. I hope nobody takes the heart as a challenge to retag the building. 🙁 My cynical side wouldn’t be surprised if that happens. Fingers crossed that when/if it happens again, you can create another nice design to cover it up. <3
Cassie,
When I saw that you mentioned this on instagram I was upset seeing that someone vandalized the building. You are so inspiring because you were able to turn something negative into something positive. I admire your positive outlook on life and I myself am trying to work on finding the positive side to things in life. I think that with a view on life that you have, you are instantly happier and full of joy because you see the flip-side on negative events. This was a great blog post thanks for sharing!
-Shenika
Cassey you are amazing and so positive! I love reading your posts and doing workouts with you!! <3
I dream of one day meeting you in person and even practice with you, Cassey, with love and greetings from Slovakia ❤ you’re a neverending inspiration!
This is so cool :3
You are my inspiration! <3
Hi
Nice Article & Pictures…keep up the good work.
Thanks
http://inauticalsoftware.com/
OMG CASSEY I have the same sriracha shirt you painted in!!! Ha ha!!!! Anyways love the post what a great message!!
Cassey, you are legit the happiest person ever. Anyone else would have been annoyed or angry, but you decided to take the hate and turn it into love. I love pop pilates and blogilates and all of the above that you do. I have seen so much progress and you are my inspiration. You have taught me how to love myself just how I am, and create the person I want to be. I keep thinking I’m fat, but I put on a bikini the other day and my friend said I looked so strong and she wished she had muscle on her legs. This was a crazy realization for me because she is so skinny and I have always wanted to look like her! I realized, being skinny doesnt equal being happy. That doesn’t mean eat pizza everyday and never workout, but it means dont be afraid to use weights! (which most girls are because they dont want to get “bulky”) But I just wanted to thank you for being you. ilysm and cant wait to come to your classes. (btw- I’m moving to CA this summer!!!! I cant wait to be able to workout this summer!!!) ILYSM and please keep being amazing <3
I’m doing the beginners calendar (I have never worked out before XD)! Is it normal that I’m dying at ever video?
Totally normal! You have to just get stronger and work through the pain! Beleive me, 1 year ago I was you. Stick with the calendar, because I gave up on a calendar and I have never forgiven myself ;-P
I can’t wait to take a pic in front of it! Wall murals are becoming such a trend now anyways, so it’ll be cool for Blogilates fans to have this as a destination to visit! 🙂 love it!
who would do something like that? But anyways it was good that you turned hate into love because that’s what its all about right. not letting anyone push you down but you turned it all around. Sometimes i feel like that when people bully because why dont you just turn the hate into love. That heart looks great by the way.
Oh Cassey, I LOVE this. I’ve been having a hard few days with school and running anxiety that I really needed to hear this message. It goes to show you really can make the best out of every situation, and I think you’re so creative to paint over it!
I love it when you share stories like this.
Cassy you always know how to turn a bad situation into a good one. Keep striving on to obtain peace and happiness, and spread it like you did here! BTW that shirt is super cute you should cut it up and do one of those DIY vids you used dto do <3
This is great, your last paragraph has made me think about looking at the positive in the negative situations. I have just started your blogilates program as a beginner and don’t understand the POP Pilates side, do I have to pay for this? what is it?. I have to say that I do love your videos and your enthusiasm and positive work, Keep it up!!
The workouts and the workout calendars are completely free! And it’s all POP pilates. 🙂 If you want to get to the Piit28 -programme, that costs something, but if you’re a beginner, I suggest you to stay with the regular calendars a while. 🙂
Awesome, got it! 👍🏼😊 Thank you so much!
Thanks heaps!, now I understand thanks again! 🙂
What is the difference between Blogilates and PopPilates? I’m confused and still new here. As a total beginner, where should I start? 😐?
Blogilates is my YouTube channel! POP Pilates is my format – my signature workout. It’s Pilates to pop music. You can even get certified to become an instructor here: https://www.poppilateslife.com
Oooh I see, thank you so much for explaining it to me. Cool! 🙂
Welcome to the POPster community, HIlda! Where are you from?
Hi Linda! 🙂 I’m from Southern California. Where are you from?
Toronto Canada! 🙂
Cool! 🙂
Beautiful
Cute