Youthful Life: X

Truth - Love is the most powerful force on this Earth ... that I know. When people say that love conquers all, they are speaking a powerful, undeniable truth. Love is not something to be trifled with. It cannot be stifled, hidden, or silenced. Love is louder. Love is everything. Love is life. I sincerely believe our entire purpose as human beings is to love; to give it, receive it, and to pursue it to no end. Nothing should ever stand in its way and nothing ever can. This the L-Word. "Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life" Leo Buscaglia The uttering of those three little words in succession, "I love you" can sometimes be so easy and other times so difficult. It wasn't until the past few years that I understood the absolutely crucial importance of saying I love you. It was only in recently times that I switched from the taboo conceptualization of the l-word to embracing it in its monumental magnitude. I think for me the complication of telling ...

Truth - Life is a constant fluctuation of emotions, situations, and states of being. It's so easy for me to get caught up in the changes and get lost in the chaos of it all. I find myself stuck in my head or flustered in my heart rather than living in the moment of taking into account all the good things around me. I find myself ragging on myself, pointing out where I could have done better, and holding on to moments that may not be have been so significant. What I miss out on is that in the grand scheme of things life really is good.   "When we only look for the good in people, we often miss the rest of them" Unknown Something I have been working on throughout my college experience and I guess life in retrospect is looking for the good in everything and everyone. I often fall into the trap of pointing out faults, flaws, and imperfections in myself instead of highlighting the things that I'm damn good at. Thankfully I'm better with others in being able to...

Truth - How does it feel to be a problem? Activist, scholar, and writer W.E.B. Du Bois posed the rhetorical question that has both intrigued and confused a nation, namely the racially stratified federation better known as the United States. It's a question that has served as an explanation inherently of the duality of black consciousness and an existential to it. It's a hyperawareness of a mode of being and disregard at the same time. Du Bois' poignant quote gets at the implicit struggle of what it means to have a marginalized identity, specifically that of a person of color and even more so that of blackness. This is black renegade. "To the real question, how does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word." W.E.B. Du Bois Renegade - n. -  who deserts and betrays an organization, country, or set of principles. How fitting a title to bestow upon oneself. How am I a renegade? Much like Du Bois this double consciousness - that is the necessity of a com...

Truth - everyone gets one special day out of the year that is dedicated to them, their birthday. Today is my 22nd birthday and I cannot believe it. I'm telling you time absolutely zooms on by and all of sudden another year has passed. In the blink of an eye it seems that the annual celebration of my coming to this world has returned. For one day it gets to be about me and me alone, but you know what I've come to understand ... I'm not me without everyone around to support me. This birthday isn't just mine it's for all those that have been part of getting me through this year. I may be the birthday boy, but it's everyone's day. "We have to be able to grow up. Our wrinkles are our medals of the passage of life. They are what we have been through and who we want to be" Lauren Hutton   As someone who highly values reflection and tracking change I love rereading my old birthday posts (check them out here:  21st   20th 19th 18th ). It's...

Truth - I'm both uncontrollably excited and absolutely terrified to embark on the next part of my life story for so many reasons. I wonder if I'm ready to do so. I want to know who I'll become. Most of all, I am scared to be separated from my friends and those I have come to include in my chosen family. I'm asking the big questions of what does friendship look like when there's physical distance between you. How do you sustain friendships when work, love, and life seem to get in the way? Sing it with me - should old acquaintance be forgot? "The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it" Hubert H. Humphrey   One thing that stands out of me most about my friendships is just how different each and every one of them are. The relationships vary in length, depth, and dynamic. I am beyond blessed when it comes to friends. They are abundant and plentiful. I'm never at a loss to have someone to talk to, check in with, or inquire about. ...

Truth - I have no idea what my post-college version of adulthood will be. I can identify bits and pieces of what my version of adulthood might look like but other than that I'm lost without a guide to help me on my way. There are no waypoints, no path markers, or points of interests to show me who or where I should be. Am I grown up enough? Do I act appropriately for me age? Will I be taken seriously? I'm betwixt and between.    "You think that adulthood will hit and you'll suddenly be more capable. But that doesn't happen, ever, does it?" Sally Hawkins   My entire conceptualization of adulthood has always been skewed because I never say myself becoming one. I guess I always imagined it to be this point of arrival and knowing that I could be self-sufficient or contribute positively to society. In actuality it's not a single place that you come or even a state of being but rather a lifelong journey. To be quite honest, I still have no idea what it...

The 20s are all about finding your way back where you belong. There are so many times where I know I have felt out of place, but even more distinct have been the moments when I have known I was supposed to be where I was. It was just this feeling of peace, feeling fully present, and appreciated that I had arrived at a place where I was meant to be. Somehow things and people end up falling in to place. It's just this feeling that you can't really tack down or even the absence of feeling most directly those of anxiousness, fear, or discomfort. Whatever it is, I'm more than okay with it. It's time to head back; it's comeback season.   "Things never happen the same way twice" C.S. Lewis This whole concept of supposed to be (not the Omarion song) is one that I know well and yet escapes me at the same time. How do you know you're where you're supposed to be some place? Before we veer off into philosophical meta territory never to return, I think ...