Hi. I'm Back.

I guess it would take a near death experience to get me back in the groove of writing again*.

2011 has been a truly interesting year for me so far. A lot has taken place since the last time that I wrote on this blog, something that I’ve told myself time and time again that I wouldn’t allow to happen. I always thought that, as a writer, I would be able to keep up with my life’s pace. I assumed that my real like-writing ratio would always be even. In typical fashion, God totally broke that mentality. He’s funny that way; whenever I try to manipulate what he has granted me with to fit my schedule of inspiration, He hits the button to throw it all in disarray (read: His will).

Note that I haven’t really written anything, like REALLY written anything since November. And a lot has gone down.

Let’s see, where to start?

• I got the chance to meet and hear a living legend, the graceful Nikki Giovanni. She spoke at Randolph College in Lynchburg, VA. After she spoke and I had the opportunity to say something to her…I asked for a hug. DJM.
• I’ve learned a lot about manhood. Now, this doesn’t mean that I know what it’s all about. But I’ve learned a lot. I noticed that there are a lot of boys calling themselves men. There are a lot of hurt women who want to love boys into being men. I’ve learned that boys and men cannot live under the same roof if no one will be honest with themselves and know which they are.
• Music is beyond important to me. It’s vital to my existence. So much so, that I’ve become something like a pseudo-elitist. Everyone may be listening to song/style of the month, an artist may win Grammys and awards and get kudos from self-acclaimed professionals and legends, and I would generally shrug them off. No joke, I cannot for the life of me figure out why Jerimih is more known than Darien Brockington, or what is so appealing about planking (#random). With that being said, here are some artists that I've discovered/grown in appreciation of in the past few months:
• Propaganda and the Humble Beast camp.
• The Foreign Exchange
• Jeanne Jolly
• Zo!
• Phonte was speaking gospel when he said that love is hard. It truly is. I used to want it to be easy, and a part of me still does. And it will get there one day. But as for now, it’s going to take work. A lot of work. And a lot of sacrifice. Note that I put sacrifice in bold letters. More on that later (maybe. I hope). But because love takes work…
• I decided that I want to put in the work. God created so many beautiful things, and I believe that Love is at the top of that list. Because of that, I decided that I want to pursue that. I want to experience a growth in love, an ascension to the heights that it was created for. And I want to experience this with HER. So…as of June 9^th, 2011, I proposed to my love and future wife. Fear – 0, Love – 1.
• I probably should have thrown this further up the list, but I love my culture. My entire family is from the beautiful isle of Trinidad; I am the first of my bloodline to be born in the United States, a fact that I am slightly ashamed of. Slightly. I love where I’m from, and I was fortunate enough to spend two weeks there this year. Man. I ended up with a pretty bad allergic reaction to some fruit down there, but I also ended up with a fiancé (or is that fiancée? I can’t remember.).
• In the past three years, I’ve lived in three different situations, all with roommates. Each situation was different from the last, but this past year has shown me many things about myself, and not many of them were positive. With that being said, I shall be finally moving into my own apartment in a few days. MY OWN apartment. As in Mine. As in no one else living there but me. As in my own dishes, my own drawls, my own stank, MINE. Praise baby Jesus.
• A few weeks ago, I stood a few feet away from my best friend as he crossed the Great Divide from boy to man and got married. Disclosure: I almost cried. I really did. Between the two of us, I believe that I am probably the more emotional one, but it was incredibly significant to me. I’ve pretty much grown up with this man, and we have shared a lot together. From our church’s VBS to the discovery of Terry Tate and Chappelle’s Show, he’s been around for a lot of it. I couldn’t deny a feeling of a bittersweet joy. As we (him, his new wife, the bridal party and friends and family) danced to Rob Base’s classic party jam, I realized that things would never be the same. He was her husband, a role that was righteously more important than our friendship. I wasn’t sad; changes may come, but he was and is my man, one hunnid grand. But it cemented a fact that I wanted to run from for a few years now; we were growing up, miles away from where we were. And in a few months, I’ll be making that same move.
• I am almost 24-hours fresh off the plane from Nicaragua. My very first missions trip to the Central American country with Third Option Men, Beautiful Feet and Adventures in Missions has taken me into places that I never would have imagined I would have been. From literal mountain tops to literalvalleys to literal waterfalls to literal near-death experiences, this has made the Summer of 2011 one of, if not the best summer of my life. A post to truly talk about it in depth shall come very soon, because it’s that serious.
• My master’s degree cannot come soon enough. Ironically, it also cannot come without any stress. Be that as it may, I’m ready to be done with sitting behind desk and putting the past few years to work in a relevant way.

So here’s to hoping that I don’t lose my steam. I need to write. Like I told a fellow writer in Nicaragua, the feeling I have now is similar to when you have to use the bathroom really, really, really bad, and finally being able to find a restroom.

Ah, sweet release.

*I was serious about that near-death experience thing. I'll write more about that later.