Reflections:My Young Heart

While packing up my childhood home, I found a journal that my Grandmother gave me in 2001. In 2001, I was in middle school and would have slapped anyone who said they liked the Britney Spears more than me. I was fitted with a set of  braces, and acne, and a horrible haircut that my mother gave me our front porch, but after reading this journal I discovered a complex young girl who reflects the woman I currently am. Around this time I was being introduced to the world of poetry, and my very first poems are in this journal. I would like to share the emotions I was experiencing ten years ago:

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Beauty on the surface, but yet nothing underneath

Talk with a lot of big words, but no conversation to speak

You have so much going for you, but yet no action

All the things in the world, but still no satisfaction

No one is against you, but that isn't what you see

You only feel the lies you conjure emotion created by the false prefixes in your life

Love for [your]self is the only thing that can save you

The past ten years have gone by so quickly, I encourage you to reflect on your life; Are you the person you hoped to be? What are you going to do with the next ten years? 

Come Again?

After a night on the town filled with debauchery and a few too many gin and tonics, I am left with a dull headache and true concern for my fellow club-goers. I am constantly people-watching and over the past four years I have attended the same night club. As the years have gone by, I see more people masking their insecurities and displacing them onto others. Maybe it's me who has changed and not the club scene, but I feel the need to highlight the blatant problems I see commonly. I know that nightclubs are a place to let go and that some people attend them just to hook-up, but just like any other game there are rules. The rules of the game boil down to one key factor-- respect. R-E-S-P-E-C-T-- especially for oneself, is in extreme shortage. The most disturbing theme I observed is that people openly try to play other people's faces. The reality is, you are only playing yourself. If you have sex or hook-up with people that you do not respect you ultimately are disrespecting yourself. Why open up yourself, mentally and physically, to someone who you do not respect? Is an orgasm worth risking your life, your safety, and your self-worth. The answer NO. Please evaluate your actions and realize a drunken roll in the sack may be doing more harm than you care to realize. I would also like to stress the importance of safe sex because 1 in 4 people have a sexually transmitted infection or disease, often without knowing. In the words of singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles, “you only get what you give away, so give love” and I think that loving yourself is a perfect place to begin.   

Ignorance is not bliss.

Education is the key to the ball and chain that holds our nation captive, and our government chooses to take that key and melt it down, through budget-cuts and mass teacher layoffs, in order to remold the our precious key to freedom into bullets. Bullets used to terrorize the rest of the world. But according to our leaders we are “free”. The political leaders hold this delusional sentiment because they all too often overlook the racist and sexist institutions that they and their elitist fore-fathers help forge, that oppresses and divides the masses.

If people would reject the oppressive ideologies that focus on our slight differences, and instead realize that we are all in this together, a true revolution will begin. Not as black and white, or female and male, nor young and old; but humans with the same need for clean water, shelter, a balanced diet, a way to express ourselves, our family and friends, and a true opportunity for personal growth.

 Education can expand the boundaries of our possibilities through personal empowerment and discovery of practical solutions for our future. We as a nation are already on a downward slope, and we have almost nothing else to lose, so why not try?