Social media is a mixed bag. On any given day, my timeline is flooded with a variety of posts. Mostly positive things and then I will stumble on something that is absolutely outrageous. At that point, I can choose to scroll past it or click and dive deeper. Honestly, it just reflects life. We take the good with the bad…the happy with the sad. While doing an early morning scroll on social media, I stumbled across a post that was advertising something that seemed too good to be true. They posted a number and said that you could call it to hear pep talks from kindergarteners. Well, I don’t know…

You may not be aware of this, but I am a HUGE book lover. I devoured books when I was a kid. And I must say that my mom did her part to help my love for books grow. Maybe my mom took us to the library all the time to help her pockets out. Because as soon as I finished a book, I wanted another one. And a book habit is not cheap. Whatever the reason, my appreciation for books translated into a real love for the library and librarians. The downtown library was not shiny and new when I was a kid. It was showing its age. And…

You would think that a blog about the many ways that I love my Mama would be easy to write. Not so much this year. And it’s not because I don’t have new reasons to love and appreciate her. No, that’s not it. I think it’s because I do not feel that I have words to adequately describe how much she means to me.  So, I found myself typing and erasing and typing and erasing. But I have settled myself. And I am going to try my darndest to get this out of me. I love my mom like a fat kid loves cake. And I am a fat kid.…

I am a girl that wants what she wants…exactly when she wants it. Patience and waiting have not been my strong suits. So, when I decided that I wanted a sibling, I wanted what I wanted…and I wanted it right then. To be fair, I had no clue about the birds and the bees. No concept of a gestational period. I just knew that I had to make it plain to my mom that I was not meant to be an only child. Well, I didn’t have to wait too long. Nine months after my mom and stepdad got married, my brother burst onto the scene. The word “burst” is…

    Quilting is a huge thing in my family. For as long as I can remember, everyone has had at least one in their home. They feel like magic to me. They are so warm and embody the essence of love and care into each woven square of fabric. I’ve never doubted that God existed and my first time realizing he was real was most likely under those blankets. I can recall when I was younger, maybe 5 or 6, that it would take my mom or dad sitting next to me in bed with their hand on me for me to go to sleep. I needed to feel that…

I wasn’t always the most confident guy. I’m still not to be honest with you. God gave me my own talents, but they are things I feel anyone could do. I write moderately well, and I’m an amazing lyricist. By lyricist, in layman’s terms, I mean an amazing rapper, and I’d go so far as to say songwriter if you pushed me on a ledge. I got to this point with hours upon hours of just writing rhymes and focusing only on being the best me I could be. What I want to share with this post is how I got the foundation to be who I am today. Back…

It’s oxymoronic to be an introvert who also wants to be seen. At least that’s how I see it sometimes. Mostly because I’m not the loud, confident, and all in your face person that I assume this would create. There’s one exception to this rule of mine. Whenever I am on stage or asked to do something in front of people, I feel at home and have never shied away from it. I’ll have to take you back into a time machine for this. Back when I was in 2nd grade, one of the homeroom teachers for our grade, Ms. Laura Smith at the time now Mrs. Young, was in…

For my 18th birthday, my mom and I went on a road trip to St. Louis to see my cool Aunt Pam. Now the reason she’s cool is our birthdays are two days apart, and she’s just amazing because of it. That year we basically shared our birthdays together and I got the experience of a lifetime. This was still during my culinary dreams phase in life, and I was debating on whether I should go to college or just go to culinary school. Being the genius that my Mom is, she brought me up to the Lou to experience my Uncle Vincent’s cooking. Now just so you know, Uncle…

My all-time favorite movie is Finding Forrester. I stumbled across it on HBO around 2005 or 2006. I don’t remember what compelled me to watch it or anything. I hadn’t heard anything about it, seen any promo, or had anyone tell me to check it out. It opens in New York with hip-hop playing in the background and a young man doing spoken word as he looks into the camera. At the time, I was really into writing poetry so immediately this hooked me in. The movie is about a young black man by the name of Jamal Wallace. He is a brilliant kid who doesn’t want to appear too…

My Dad and I don’t have what I would consider the typical father and son relationship. We don’t go camping. We’ve never gone on a father-son road trip. We don’t sit down and watch Sunday football or anything like that. But, what I cherished the most was the fact that every year around my birthday we used to watch the Bond movie marathon on TNT. There wasn’t anything better than seeing Odd Job, Goldfinger, and the rest of Bond villains. Overly dramatic intro music, the most high tech gadgets, and hearing the best line ever- “Shaken not stirred.” We also agreed on the fact that Sean Connery is, and will…