Twelve twelve twelve

12/12/12

I'm so excited about today's date! I might be in the minority with my excitement, but it's got me thinking...I'm getting old! The last time that this date existed was a cool 100 years ago..and the next time will be in 100 years! If I live to see this date again, I would be considered one of the oldest people in the world, unless of course technology had changed things and being 129 years old is a norm.

So I'm going back to 1912...the world was very different than it is today. Most of the people born this year are no longer here with us. Those that are should be revered....they have lived a long life thus far! I probably wouldn't have travelled to the United States were this 1912...commercial travel by airplanes wasn't the mode of transportation it is. This blog would be a diary that I would keep in my bedroom...well if I were in Ghana, I don't know if I would even have an education and therefore access to all this, but let's say I was educated...I would be writing down my thoughts on some other medium. There would be no computer, and therefore no internet, no google and definitely no blogspot. The world of fashion was starkly different...unlike in 2012, the point of clothes were to cover up, not show the world the goods, as it is today. The raging wars as we know it were a tad different, though folks are still fighting over ownership and land, the tools used to destroy are quite sophisticated these days.

Wiki has information about what was happening in 1912: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912

So, as we go about our business on 12/12/2012, what legacy are we leaving for those that will be around for 12/12/2112? I can't imagine what kind of world that it would become especially given where we are going in 2012 with technology. What kind of groundwork are we laying to ensure that our progeny and future will benefit. Will Earth even exist? Or would man, in his quest to protect his own, destroy the world completely? What are our priorities right now as we live? Do we live in love or in total mistrust of "the other people"?

As I have no answers to these thoughts...I'm going to continue in my personal walk...ensuring that the world around me continues to smile, laugh, grow and simply thrive!

Happy 12/12/12!

Half-stepping Diva

P.S. Ok I'm not the only excited about this date...see what others are doing to mark it.
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/12-12-12-marked-around-the-world-slideshow/#crsl=%252Fphotos%252F12-12-12-marked-around-the-world-slideshow%252Fgroup-children-celebrate-12th-birthday-times-square-york-photo-153516019.html

November 15: Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift that's why it's called present

I have been mulling over starting a blog for quite a while. And it recently hit me, what better time to officially “launch” it than November 15.  This date of course holds some significance for me. This is the birthday of one of my dearest friends who was taken away way too soon. It’s been about 5 years since his passing…and I’ve had a lot of time to reflect, pray and cry about losing someone very close to me. So I figured on what would have been his 33^rd birthday which falls on Thursday (day he was born) it would be fitting to celebrate a new phase of my journey by sharing a bit more of me with the world. He would have been so proud of this blog and probably have been the first person to log on to comment. He was one of my most vocal cheerleaders and always encouraged me to go to higher grounds.  

We were friends from childhood and he was the first boy to give me butterflies. When I moved from Ghana, he wrote to me and often. We talked on the phone whenever we could. We shared a love of music and he sent me CDs of the latest music in Ghana whenever he could. He was instrumental during my high school years…encouraging me to stay strong regardless of what I was experiencing and how difficult it was for me to adjust to my new world. In college he kept up with the letters and phone calls. During this time we got closer…after some time apart. We were both growing up and experiencing different phases of our lives. Being four years older meant that he experienced life before I did and got to give me advice as to how to manipulate through my world. Thanks to technology, we were able to keep in touch with emails and more regular phone calls. I was in grad school when he died. Less than a week before his passing we had chatted online…the last thing we exchanged before he logged off was “I love you”. This has been a very reassuring part of me losing my friend…he knew I love him.

Since then I have lost few other loved ones…each time it was even more difficult to accept that I would never talk to them or see them again.

Losing my friend taught me quite a bit. We had been friends for so long and many times I took our friendship for granted. After he passed and I started to mourn his loss, I realized that my tears of sadness  had become tears of regret…I was really crying because I regretted not spending more time with him or talking more to him or whatever else I could come up with. That feeling impressed on me so much more than realizing that I had lost him. I could accept that it was God’s will and that he was in a better place. But I struggled with the idea that I hadn’t done more as a friend.

This ushered me into a place of growth…I realized that life really is too short and I could not afford living in regret. This meant that I had to take others into consideration in all my actions. If anything were to happen to them, I could not afford to be regretful about the way I treated them. This meant spending more time with people I love, being positive around them, taking care of them, and loving them with all of me. My goal with all the connections I have made is to give them my best.

Gift from Yao in 1998

It has been very challenging to constantly do the right thing. But I’ve learned to forgive faster, laugh more, love harder and work on being in the present. I’ve been blessed to meet a lot of people…many of whom I’ve had a solid connection. I hope to continue building friendships, relationships and of course grow from my interactions with so many wonderful people.

So Yao, this blog is dedicated to you. Thank you for being such a friend to me. Thanks for being my first valentine…you’ll always be my valentine.  Even though you passed on our favorite holiday, I will always celebrate Valentine ’s Day with love in my heart. And I will continue to share my love with all the special people around me.  Happy birthday, sweetie. Much love always.   

Half-stepping diva

Your Vote is Your Power

I voted I voted!! This was my first year to be part of the selection process of the leadership of my country. I left Ghana when I was 15 and never got to participate in that process.  Last year I finally became eligible to vote in the country I’ve been calling home for almost 15 years. It was very exciting to be part of the process especially given the tension surrounding this particular election and the relevance of the leader selected for the next four years.

It took me about 3 tries to get registered…I finally realized I could register online and in a few clicks was officially registered. I waited nervously to receive a sample ballot in the mail, in the meantime I kept checking the registrar’s record online to see if my registration had gone through. Did that a few times before my name popped up and I got my poll location. Yay! Finally I was in! I absolutely enjoyed receiving the sample ballot and going through them and picking my choice. I had studied up on the propositions as well and was fully prepared to add my selection….Oooh this is what democracy feels like.

Election Day was like Christmas for me! It really felt good to perform my civic duty; I guess a big part of it was a sense of belonging that I finally felt. And it felt amazing! The actual process of voting was rather uneventful…the most exciting part was the overbearing poll worker that was helping the other poll workers get through what they had already done. And the poll pen that I used to pick my choices was capped and my slippery hands could not pry the cap open…I guess I was a tad nervous. So I called the overprotective poll worker over and in a few attempts, I was ready to go. The process reminded me a bit of a scantron test…the worst is to get to the end and realize that you had missed one or a couple of boxes…who came up with that idea anyway? There is so much room for error on a scantron sheet! Anyways, it didn’t take long and it was done. In fact I probably spent more time taking pictures than the whole process of voting! And I got to go into work a bit late so that I could exercise my right to vote!

November 6^th proved to be a day of smiles...until about 7pm when the tallies started coming in. I was at the gym where I had just finished teaching a Zumba® Fitness class. I watched nervously with other gym enthusiasts who obviously didn’t want election results to interrupt their workouts. At some point when Present Obama was projected to win, none of us believed it…we figured that they were just getting our hopes up...after all California had just closed the polls. The nervousness was quickly replaced by excitement when I called a friend who had more faith in our media than I…Yay! My preferred candidate had made it! And I felt proud to be a part of picking him. This is what democracy feels like!

As quickly as they came, the elections were over and the influx of stories replaced the excitement of the reelection of President Barack Obama. One of the stories was from a friend whose grandma, at age 79, had transported some voters to the polls to ensure that their voice could be heard and this got me thinking!

In all my excitement of being a part of the process, I had forgotten that as recently as the 1960’s many people in the United States were not allowed to be part of the election process. In many parts of Africa, people were still under colonial rule…which meant they had no rights in their own land. The significance of my participation in the election grew. It wasn’t just about getting my voice heard…after all ONE singular vote never determined the outcome of an election. It was also about being able to exercise my rights in this country.

When I was in college, I learned about the freedom fighters, the civil rights workers and how they tolled to ensure that people of color were recognized first as full human beings and then given the same rights as any and everyone else. I remember the outrage I felt…it was the same outrage I felt when I learned about the history of Ghana and how several European countries had come in and exchanged alcohol, tobacco and guns first gold and ivory and later for people.  My parents were born during the time of colonization and during a time when blacks in the United States did not have many rights….it really was not that long ago.

My pride in voting in 2012 has swelled since my actual participation. This is my way of thanking my fallen ancestors and letting them know that their fight was not in vain. This is not just for my African ancestors, but also my African American ancestors.

 

It was not coincidental that during the decade when blacks in America were earning rights, blacks in Africa were witnessing a glimmer of hope.  We have certainly come a long way and though there is much work to be done, it is wonderful to see the manifestation of all the blood, tears and sweat that went into our freedom.

 

 

 

This Veteran's Day, I'd like to thank all those who have been part of the fight to ensure that we continue in our quest for peace and freedom.

Half-stepping diva

What's in a name?

Half-stepping diva?  Say huh?  For those of you who know me, you know I’m hardly a diva. Well, on most days, anyway. I chose the name half-stepping diva because I find myself half-stepping…very often. Tiana who blogs on www.thinkingstilletos.com, discusses being a procrastinating perfectionist.  And I must say that those two words describe me absolutely perfectly. In my mind, I want everything as perfect as possible. Most times I actually try to make that happen. In reality, I like to wait until the last possible moment to make the perfectionism manifest…usually with highly dismal results.

 In the last few months in seriously examining my life, I realized that I live in a lukewarm world. I am neither hot nor cold about most things, and have been skating through life in survival mode so much that I have landed in the world of “I can go either way”. I realized I have been half-stepping. I always admired people in college who could play hard and work hard. On Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and sometimes Sundays, they would be out enjoying the world through a bottle, the dance floor and maybe a companion. For the rest of the week, they managed to stay at the top of their class. Me, I was never out during the week, spent moderate time partying, and came up with lukewarm grades.  

As I am still a perfectionist, I strive for the best hoping to at least break even and often settle for less than I’m worth…still half-stepping. I am quite conservative, but very much a liberal…nope not a moderate, but rather a conservative liberal. I think big, dream big, and want more…only when I allow myself to think, dream or want…actions which are apparently needed to achieve more…still half-stepping.

In all of it, I have managed to accomplish a bit. I moved to a new country and into a completely new system as a teenager, suffered through living in suburban Ohio, went to college and graduated with two degrees and then worked on a Masters in one of the largest cities in the U.S. I have been at the same job for almost five years. I’ve been fairly accomplished despite my half-stepping tendencies.

So, as I have been created for excellence, I need to work out of this neither here nor there attitude. This blog is to help me remember this and to work towards being a woman of excellence.  Working through mediocrity means fighting complacency, staying focused, increasing strength (mental, physical & spiritual), and seeing projects all the way through to the end…no longer half-stepping.  

Half-stepping Diva

Pre-About Me

I am so excited to start blogging… I feel like I’m stepping into a whole new world. Ok so why blogging? Well I’m constantly  having discussions with myself in my head, so I figured why not put that information on paper and share with others. I love to discourse and get feedback and grow from what others are saying or experiencing, anyhow, so I think it will be good for me to put myself out there and see where this goes. I also would like to publish a thing or two in the future and so this is sort of my start in that world to see if I really really like writing as much as I think I do. And furthermore I have nominated myself editor in a few people’s worlds, so why not put my pen where my mouth is and let’s see what I can come up with on my own.

I am hoping to use this blogging forum as a place to express myself and also to gain knowledge about what’s going on in the world. I interact on a deep level with several people and it seems like most of the people in my circle are dealing with career or career issues, relationship problems (no relationship is also considered a problem), life journey stories, family related drama (no one can ever escape this one!) and many other things that we all share. I’ve decided that around age 30 everyone, no matter how successful they are goes through a place of evaluation and figuring out what next….I say around 30 because I know some 40 somethings that are experiencing the same things. It turns out there’s no formula to succeeding in life..there seems to be no formula to even living life. Different people come with different priorities, different opportunities and many many different experiences.

I tend to be on the dramatic side and this often comes out in my writings. I love to tell stories though I’ve been told I don’t know how to tell stories/my stories are not really stories (whatever!) but rather bits of information that I piece together (again, whateverrrr!) so I’m hoping to tell a few through this blog.

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about starting this blog and as usual I’ve mulled over it as much as possible. I decided to start the blogging on November 15, which is a significant date in my world, but I think I’ll explain why on that day. In the meantime since I’m into research I decided to get started before that date with mini entries to get into the habit of blogging.

I really have no set goal for the number of entries or how often I will blog. I just want to share my world with folks around…feel free to invite others to share read along. Even though I never comment on other people’s blog, I really would love for you to respond with thoughts and questions or comments. Please remember to be respectful in all entries and absolutely no bad language.

Thanks for taking the time to get into my head!

Half-stepping Diva