A BIG, BIG WORLD.

This is about us all.

I have shared spaces with people who knew I was not their equal. One day I was asked, “What are you doing here?” I could've been offended, but I took those words as “You are better than this.”  I could tell you how I played in my own face by entering contracts with companies that only saw me as valuable to them. However! This is a safe space, not the post for war stories.

These past three weeks have been about spaces and how we choose to navigate them, and here we are today. My journey as a writer is not new, by any means, and I value and adore the relationship that I have created with the craft. It’s the art of story structure, characterization, and world-building through every detail that came naturally to me and honestly, storytelling chose me, and I am ok with it. 

After a long journey, 2022 was the tipping point. By choice, my circle was getting smaller, never even half full to begin, but at that point in my life, I was not about to wait for the other shoe to drop; so I ended relationships. Honey I thought that I was going crazy, but in actuality, I was just cleaning house with intentions, because I said that that was how I was choosing to move and I was held to that.

“Outside of that, you know, we got to keep showing up and forget the Grammys for a second. Just in life.” - Jay Z

2023 was a time of true self-discovery. I had been sitting on my current work in progress (WIP) knowing that it was magic, but found myself lacking the traditional support system or validation that I figured I needed before, but I didn’t need external validity after previously snaking out life’s drain, and just simply started showing up for my damn self, and given how my stories light me up, I knew that I had to move, and that was when the real party started.

"You know, some of you gonna go home tonight and feel like you've been robbed. Some of you may get robbed. Some of you don't belong in the category when I get nervous I tell the truth” - Jay Z

 

2024 is one for the books, ALREADY. That is because I decided to live on the edge a little by placing myself in spaces to network and build healthy relationships, or to nerd out with people who truly understand how I get to fall in love with myself with every trope, and witty scene and sentence. Through social media, I found virtual rooms for co-working and to just write. I am allowing myself to attend as many events as my mental health will allow and that alone is kinda over the edge for me but with self-care and meditation there will forever be awareness and I know how to stop if it just doesn’t seem fitting. know that my work is the work that will put me in spaces where I am supposed to be.

The saying is, “Know your worth.”

Nah! There is way more to it than that. First things first, “know your work.” The right praises will come; until then, celebrate you! Can you say, living room dance party?

That last sentence screamed GRACE. I could never be me without it, and I wouldn’t want to ever again. I am very clear about where I want my relationship with the art of writing to go. With realistic expectations and boundaries, I am committed to the journey, which is important, and I am gonna ride this ride and continue to evolve. Besides, I know that my work in this craft and love of the work will open doors to rooms where I am meant to be, even if there is a fight for the right to be there.

• I dare you to put yourself in rooms where you are seen.

• I dare you to do what is right for you

•  I dare you to allow yourself GRACE!