Posts

Uncomfortable? Good, Me Too

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I've been quiet around here for the past 9 months. Life was one thing and then another. But most of that wasn't on my mind in terms of writing publicly. However, now. Now is different. Now my words, while still not something eloquent, they are meant to be shared. If you're new around here, welcome. I ramble and write sometimes in odd patterns. I'm trying my best to get my emotions out right now, but I cannot promise that this will be even a decent piece of writing. The biggest thing on my mind right now is my students. For a plethora of reasons. But let's get to the one at the core. I had 16 students on my roster when we were told we wouldn't be returning to school. 16 students. 15 of those students are Black. 1 is Hispanic. Of those 15 Black students, 9 of them are boys. 9 of them are going to grow up and become Black men. 9 of them. 16 students. 15 Black. 1 Hispanic. 9 Boys. 7 Girls. 9 Black boys. Nine. 9 Black boys who are going to grow up and bec

A Growth Story: A Year Worth Acknowledging

About a year ago I wrote an Instagram post about my unemployment. It was hard to write but it felt important at the time. I was unemployed by choice, but that didn't make it any easier. My mental health had been struggling for about 3 years at the point of the decision. I chose to leave a career that had been my only passion for a such a long time because I know longer knew how to take care of myself. The decision was made with support and urging from mental health professionals and those closet to me. The decision was made because I thought the root cause of my unstable mental health was the field of work that I'd chosen to go into. Before I get into this post, it is extremely important that y'all understand something. Teaching is 1000% my passion. I have never doubted that I made the right choices when going to college and choosing this career path. This post has been really hard for me to write because I want it to be clear, that while teaching is a stressful career an

A Moving On Letter: Thank You for Letting Me Be a Part of Your Story

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It's been quiet around these parts for a little while and I'm not sure what to say in regards to that. Except that I have been writing, just not publishing because sometimes the words flow easily but they share a little differently. Those who don't know. I'm doing okay. And I read something this morning on Instagram that I want to share because it is incredibly important for you to understand who I am to my core. "I observe the different thoughts and emotions going on inside of me and I'll verbalize all of them to someone and a lot of times, they'll start to get worried about me, when really I'm perfectly fine because I'm not allowing those thoughts to rule over me. It makes a lot of sense to me, but I can see how it would be confusing to someone else." -  enneagramandcoffee So this post is a letter that I wrote to an old friend, but really I wrote it for myself. Partly because that's how I process life and partly because I sometimes

A Growth Story: Finding My Way Back to Me

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Oh y'all this post has been on my mind for months... but somehow the words kept getting scrambled and the message wasn't clear. So I sat with it. And for a long while, I let that be enough. Me and my thoughts. It really was quite that simple. Then this past week, I did a lot of reflecting. I sat with my morning coffee and old notebooks every morning. And then I got to work in the evenings. I went through a ton of things on my external hard drive and found the delete button to be so refreshing. I went through my closet and filled a bag for Goodwill. I finalized my grad school apps (yes multiple, because why apply for one program when you can dual enroll and drive yourself crazy for 2.5 years). I wrote a letter that has been on my heart for a while (and I'll share more about that at a later time). It can be so cleansing to get rid of things, not just physically but emotionally. I feel lighter this weekend and I promise it's not because of cutting out dairy -- I may ha