When I was younger, my mother and grandmother had this saying when raising me: “You’re black. So, what are you going to do with it?” Of course, it’s said to me in two completely different ways but the message was the same, nonetheless. Then, I came out as gay to my mother and just simply asked, “Okay, so you’re black and gay. What are you going to do with it?” It was her way of asking me what I was going to contribute to the community; what I was going to leave behind so further generations can pick up on. The writing was, eventually, my answer and my mom said, “Go for it.” Let me explain why…
life lessons
I can finally start saving up for my plans to making San Francisco my permanent home. In addition to it all, I will be able to start saving up for my writing career so I can properly hire people for editing, co-writing and many other things in an official capacity. This is really exciting for me because I can finally “spend money” to “make money”. But there’s something else I’m increasingly excited about. See, in a week, I will be in the Big Apple for one of my favorite conventions of all time: New York Comic Con.
I’m still making a list of remaining friends I want to spin a light on for the next few weeks of my “We’re All In This Together” segments. But, while I was working on that, I was working on my writing projects which has been going pretty well. But, along with that, something interesting happened this week. Something that gave me pause. Something that made me smile.
I’m not completely done with the “We’re All In This Together” segments because I have way too many friends that have been making strides in their chosen path. However, I do want to talk about something interesting that has happened to me over the week and how coming to a gay bar (the only gay that I go to in Philadelphia) has helped me bounce back from it.
This is the week I will never forget. It is a week that will live on in the back of my mind as I continue to walk the path I was placed. You want to know the crazy thing about all of this: I was completely blind sighted by it all and I chose to take the high road. Oh, right, you still don’t know what happened to me, do you? I was rejected from a job because of my location.
All this week, I have been doing things that would make me more professionally appealing to the public. See, I’m not that heavy on social media outside of Twitter and Instagram and I’m not extremely active on there. Plus, there was something important that I forgot to create at the beginning of my writing career…a portfolio.
Okay, let me start off by saying that traveling cross country via Greyhound is a wonderful idea in concept. But – my GOD – it is a very difficult test of endurance and sanity. Though I got to take pictures and explore numerous states and cities (I think eight states and over a twenty cities), the real prize, after enduring such a grueling trip, was the new friends I made throughout this journey.
So, my time in San Francisco is temporarily on hold because of a few reasons. One of the main reason is that I am a bit homesick…which leads to my second reason. I need to regroup in preparation to make San Francisco my permanent home. But there’s so much more than that.
My brothers and I have always had the greatest conversation when it comes down to the finer points of family value. Sure, I love talking to my Grandma and Mother but I’ve always been close to my little brother, Antonio, and my older brother, Carlton. Those two are the main reason why I have a phone; you know, besides work (begrudging) and other nonsense. But this past week’s conversation was particularly interesting.