Cele-Late?

This post was inspired by Madonna’s song Holiday (blame my affinity for 80’s pop-rock on my mother) in which Madonna challenges fans to celebrate life. This cheery little ditty inspired me to attempt to celebrate my professional accomplishments. Honestly, this notion of celebrating myself is quite foreign. I find it difficult to recognize my success; I am my biggest critic. Growing up I may have set some unrealistic expectations—perhaps becoming a millionaire by 25 is quite unattainable when one spends (when one could invest or save) every dime on frivolous exploits like technology and clothing—but I digress.

In college I dreamed that I would become a corporate attorney, but this dream was quickly rejected when I enrolled in my first Sociology class in which I learned how the deindustrialization of Detroit led to its decline. Detroit was and will always be home—I realized in that moment that I would rather work for something meaningful. I continued to pursue Sociology, volunteered with a few non-profit organizations, and I learned how organizations could work with marginalized groups to increase their agency instead of working against them and leading to further disfranchisement.

After my college graduation, I did that—helped others increase their agency.  Over the last few years, I have worked with many high school students to increase their educational attainment. This year, I plan to transition into the realm of Higher Education/Student Affairs to help support their success while in college. The work that I have done is meaningful and important. I am proud of the impact I have been able to make—with a lot of help from others—and plan to expand this impact at the post secondary level.  Yet, when I discuss my professional endeavors, I always feel a tinge of shame—as if I am not living up to my full potential. In conversation I tend to justify my professional journey as a gateway to my  Ph.D,  MPP, or JD. Truth be told, I am just following my heart. I am working with people I love, and shaping my passion. Where this journey will lead, I have no idea. Today I challenge myself to live in the present, and value my next position for what it is—an opportunity. So Let’s celebrate before it’s too late. What in your life needs to be celebrated? How are you living, growing and learning? Let’s help cultivate an empowering, positive community that honors our journey, not just our destination.


Just for fun here’s a pic of the Madonna loving culprit and I circa 1987:




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Living Out Loud: Recognizing the Contributions of Queer Detroit

When asked about the queer community in Detroit, she laughed me off saying, “we ain’t got shit here”—I felt the hurt and frustration in her response. Queer Detroit feels like an abstract concept—we know it exists because we all have a group of LGBT friends, but we also feel disconnected, overlooked, and even erased. That’s why when my wife Cara and I purchased our home on the Northwest side of Detroit, we made a commitment to be unapologetically gay. We knew we wanted to connect with other queer folks, host all the gay dinner parties and involve ourselves in local government working towards progress. It is these intentions that help us navigate the complicated relationship between Detroit and the LGBT community. Because, let’s be honest, In Detroit, the clergy reigns supreme and many churches aren’t rallying to support us queer & trans folks. In fact, every church I’ve visited since returning home has used heteronormative language and outright exclusionary practices to suppress “t...
Read more

Hurt People, hurt people.

Though completely cliché this idiom is the MOST true, and it was never more apparent to me than when I faced an intervention . Ever experienced an intervention? Unfortunately, I have—from my best friends, nonetheless. I was told that if I were “smaller,” I would be “killin’ em.” Apparently I have all of the right features, my complexion and hair, for example, beautiful, but my size...well…it restricts my status as the ‘full package.’ Naïvely, back then, I agreed. I mean...I have been told throughout my life (by multiple sources) that I have good hair and skin. The problem that resulted from this completely unsolicited and quite frankly unnecessary and ineffective intervention was that my already low self-esteem rejected any positive messaging, and I instead internalized another level of body hate. However, my friends were not at fault; they were just trying to be helpful. They only reinforced the shallow, normative beauty standards to which they were also restricted. In fact, the ...
Read more

Pursuing Forgiveness.

I come from the fatherless tribe . My father was and is currently battling addiction . A fact that that has limited his role in my life, and while I hate to be stereotypical, I have daddy issues. I had not come to terms with this fact until a couple of days ago, while crying... no... weeping, and listening to "I loved her first" by Heartland. [Which, by the way, will not be played at my wedding Thank you very much Spotify!] 😑 My reality? I've never felt enough and consequently no other person around me has been enough. My mom.. she was never able to provide me with enough love to fill the void, my grandmother, my friends, my partner, never enough to make me feel fully loved.  & don't start on the love yourself first bit, that's not the point of this post. My point? My father's addiction, a disease, has created dissonance. I can absolutely rationalize and advocate for addiction to be considered a disease, yet I have a ton of displac...
Read more