I love the ship metaphor for relationships. If both parties are working together to keep the ship afloat it’s smooth(ish) sailing (you can’t control the weather). If not, you’re going to sink. It may not be as fast as the Titanic but it’s inevitable. Finishing my first poetry book Return to Sender was the closure…
Category: Life Happens
Emotional Maturity: Stop Attending Every Circus You’re Invited to
Most of the time I was the only girl among four brothers. Crying and whining wasn’t really tolerated so I learned to adapt. I don’t know what it is or where it came from but the ability to pack my emotions away became second nature as if I was taking vacations left and right. The…
Not to Burst Your Bubble: Your Pandemic Pod is Way Too Big
You know how they say that every time you have sex with a new person you’ve had sex with everyone they’ve had sex with and so on and so forth? Let’s think of our pandemic pods as so. If you’re in America, there’s a high probability that your pod has burst long ago. Someone in…
We Are Never Getting Back Together
“The light at the end of the tunnel” “Together alone” “Stay in your bubble” If I never hear some of these phrases again, I’ll be satisfied. After 2020 and 2021 I may not want to blow bubbles, ride in tunnels, or even hear High School Musical’s “We’re All in This Together.” The truth of the…
Empathy, Toxic Ships, and How America Creates its Own Villains
“Sometimes you gotta care for the Cain and sometimes you gotta care for the Abel.” Justdae One morning I woke up and that’s the only line I remembered from a dream and I woke up and jotted it down to dissect later. Growing up my mom didn’t force any kind of religion on us as…
So You Want to Run for Local Office?
I remember volunteering with the teens at The Braddock Youth Project. I wasn’t supposed to be there but a few days before I was to report to my Keys Service Corps AmeriCorps assignment at Braddock Borough Building I was asked to change course. “We need more people at BYP to mentor the youth.” In high…
Freedumb is Ringing: How Not to Respond to a Pandemic
The United States government has been attempting to respond to the pandemic since March and it doesn’t seem like we’re doing much of a job at getting a handle on the pandemic. Federally, it’s the wild wild west with little to no leadership. It’s almost like this administration doesn’t believe in pandemics, science, or even…
We Need to Talk About the 200 Year Head Start!
Sure, slavery was abolished in 1865 (155 years ago) and segregation was deemed illegal in 1964 (66 years ago). That means my mom and my grandma’s American Dream was a nightmare. For some reason our simple-minded government that after segregation was abolished that it would fix 200 years of slavery, racism, redlining, and all in…
Zoom Has Blurred Life/Work Balance
On average since the pandemic I’ve had about a Zoom call a day and that doesn’t even take in account that I still have a full-time job. At first Zoom was the perfect way to make us closer to each other but six months in I find myself not wanting to go to any of…
The A Word
I am an awkward black girl and I don’t apologize for it. My heart races every time I speak in public. I have to stop myself from trying to appease everyone and I have routines that I hate to break but sometimes have to and it frustrates me. “You’re not awkward if you’re self-aware.” I’ve…
