Monthly Archives: December 2011

2011 – A Year In Review

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I’ve been tossing around the idea of doing a “Year in Review” post for the last couple of weeks, and until recently, I had no idea of how I wanted to write it. Now that I know how to write it, it’s high time I get this thing out and in the open. It’s truly hard to believe that 2011 is winding down to a close. I feel like I was just surrounded by my friends, sipping champagne, and watching the ball drop. Now here I am, in the last week of the year, blessed to have gotten to this point, and amazed at how awesome of a year I had. The best way for me for me to remember my year, and to take you along for the ride with me is to give you the Top 10 (in no particular order) Moments of 2011. Here we go!

10. In April of this year, I decided that I no longer wanted to perm my hair…mostly because it was costing me too much money on a biweekly basis to keep it up. I went to the hair salon one day, asked my stylist to chop all of the perm out, and haven’t looked back since. Having a tiny fro (which then became a medium fro) was such an awesome thing – I gained some self confidence, got to play around with products, got some cool accessories, and really started coming into my own. A little less than a month ago, I decided to start the process of locking my hair, and I’m definitely excited to see where it is by the time I write a post like this in 2012!

9. I left the nest! In September of this year, I did what I had wanted to do since I graduated from college – move out of Mom Dukes’ house. Now, anybody that knows me knows that that wasn’t because we had a bad relationship or because she tried to dictate my life, because she didn’t, but it was time for me to spread my wings. I feel like my relationship with her is now stronger than ever, AND I have two of the best roommates a girl could ask for. Win-win!

8. This July, I took my first trip to Canada and descended on the city of Toronto for its annual Caribbean celebration, Caribana. I had the time. of. my. life. From the epic dinner I had with my friends upon getting into the city, to the parade, to the hype-as-hell Sunday night party, I had a ball up there. I’m sure I’m going back next year.

7. I’m a smaller version of myself than I was a year ago at this time. In December of 2010, I weighed 210 easy. Nowadays, I’m teetering around the 190 pound mark. I haven’t lost a pant size yet, and I need to get back into the gym/back into exercising and revamping my diet, but I’m making progress. 2011 showed me just how important it is to be fit, and to physically feel good about yourself, and that’s something I’m definitely taking into 2012.

6. I thought that 2010 was the year of meeting people from the internet. Nope, 2011 took the crown and took the crown early. From the now infamous Three Deez VSB Weekend in DC in April to the DMV Tweetup Cookout in June and all of the random encounters in between and beyond, I have met a lot of people from Twitter this year. Some of them have turned out to be really great friends, and I’ve shared some amazing experiences with a lot of the people I met this year. If you’re reading this and you were introduced into my life in 2011, I am so glad to have met you and I hope that 2012 tops how awesome this year was for all of the social happenings, and I hope we create even more memories next year.

5. I started this blog this year! I’d had a blog for a while, but I actually sat down and took the time to buy a dot com and start an adjoining Twitter account for my little corner of the internet in 2011. I haven’t posted like I wanted to, but I’m proud of myself for taking a chance on this, and so thankful to each of you reading this right now. You push me to continue honing my craft, and apparently, you care somewhat about what I have to say – that means the world to me.

4. 2011 was the year I got back to my roots, and rediscovered my dormant love and appreciation for photography. From taking photos to editing photos to looking at photos, I love everything about being behind the lens of a camera. 2012 is sure to bring a host of updates and progression in this area of my life, and if you want to follow my challenge to myself to take 1 picture a day for all of 2012, you can do so here.

3. Three words: The Foreign Exchange. If you’ve spent any time with me ever in life, you already know how I feel about them. So it’s only fitting that 2011 was the year that I first saw them in concert (3 times- Falls Church, VA, Baltimore, MD, and Charlotte, NC), and the year that I made it my mission to expose everyone I could to their music. If seeing them in concert and getting to meet them wasn’t awesome enough, they also have a picture I took from the Charlotte show as their Twitter avatar. *squeals* :-)

2. In the vein of music, 2011 was the year that I chose not to deny myself from seeing any and every concert I wanted to see. From Eric Roberson to Sade and John Legend; Jill Scott to The Foreign Exchange; Phonte and 9th Wonder to Rebirth Brass Band; to Jay Z/Kanye West and The Roots this coming Friday, I’ve exposed myself to a wide array of music, and have had experiences that I can’t put a price on. I have to keep that going next year…

1. I turned 25 back in October, and as cliché as it may sound, I really do feel like my life took a drastic change that day. It was that day I decided to cut out toxic people from my life, to focus on honing my God-given talents of writing and photography, to appreciate my family and friends more than I ever had before, to chase my dreams no matter how unrealistic they might currently seem, to open my mind to the idea of new ways of thinking, to take time to treat myself better than ever, and to simply have fun and chase my happiness down no matter what it took.

If you’ve made it this far, you’ll see that 2011 was a year of great change, great triumph, amazing discoveries, and life-changing experiences. Yes, there were negative experiences throughout the year, but they don’t really have a place in this post. The last year has taught me many valuable lessons about myself, and I am grateful for every experience I’ve had, whether it was viewed as positive or negative at the time. I hope that 2012 is an even better year for me, and equally as amazing for you, my readers. I appreciate you all, and Happy New Year!

Looking to the Left…

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I was laying here in the bed trying to figure out what on Earth I was going to write about tonight. I kept telling myself that I need to do better with updating my blog; keeping myself in the habit of writing is my true goal in all of this. I was coming up at a loss on what to write about when I remembered that earlier today, Slim Jackson of SBM and I got into a dialogue about an article that he linked from Marc and Angel entitled “30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself.” I told him that I planned to print it out and put it on my “Wall of Inspiration” in my room, and he asked if I had written on how I had come up with that.

Well, whaddya know? I hadn’t! So here it is: short, sweet, and to the point. I went to do a favor for my friend Greer, and in her room, she had a list of the things that she wanted to accomplish on a posterboard in the direct line of vision from her bed. That got the wheels inside my head turning. I’m a person that likes to plan things – whether it be my grocery list, what I’m wearing this weekend even though it’s the beginning of the week, or a vacation, I feel like part of my destiny is wrapped up in the ability to plan things. Therefore, I thought it would be apt to come up with a plan for how I wanted the next year to go. Based on Greer’s example, I decided to break my life down into categories, and give myself goals/tasks in each category. Some of the goals/tasks are date specific, and others are lifestyle changes that I hope to implement starting now and transferring them into the new year and beyond. I also decided to take things a step further, and ask my friends for their favorite quotes to add to a forthcoming quote board. I finished that on Monday evening, and it is proudly displayed next to my plans for 2012. All I need is a few pictures, a new vision board, and a couple of other articles/items and my wall will be complete!

The title of this post comes from the fact that I have to look up and to the left when I’m laying in my bed to see these lists I’ve created. I sleep facing the lists, so they will now be one of the last things I see before I go to bed at night, and one of the first things I see when I wake up in the morning. I am confident that both of these will serve as guides to seeing my goals come to fruition and watching my dreams come true.

So, here’s your turn to share with me. Is there anything in your room or in your home that serves as inspiration to you? If so, what is it? If not, do you think that something like this could help you out? Let’s talk about it – something you see here may help you out! :-)

A New Journey…

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Over the last year and a half, I’ve made many transformations. I’ve introduced logic into my way of thinking (long story), I’ve rediscovered my wit, I’ve lost 20+ pounds, I went from driving a Saturn to a Honda…all important, all visible, all worth it.  One of the most unexpected changes I’ve made over the last year, however, is all about my hair. If you remember, I blogged about my decision to cut all of the perm out of my hair and go natural back in April. At the time, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I hadn’t seen my hair without a perm in it since I was a little girl, and wasn’t sure of how I would adjust to having just a little bit of hair on my head.  Needless to say, I got used to it really fast. I went out and bought a lot of Shea Moisture and Oyin Handmade products because my hair LOVES the stuff, and experimented with a lot of different accessories, from headbands to flowers, and got some new jewelry and makeup to accent my face. I sort of went through a transformation when I cut my hair, and it’s been all for the good.

Well, as of Saturday, December 3, 2011, I’ve started a new little hair journey.

my hair is so long! :-)

That’s right folks, those are comb coils in my hair! Meaning, I’ve started the process of locking my hair! *the crowd goes wild* I’m really thoroughly excited about starting this process. Ever since my sister got Sisterlocks back in 2004, I’d always entertained the thought of locking my hair. I think they’re gorgeous, and since I have this newfound freedom with my hair (with the overarching thought being it’s just hair…), what better time than the present to try something new? I know there will be days I don’t like my hair, and days where I’m totally in love with it – this happened when I had a perm, it happened when I cut my hair short, it happened when I went natural, so I fully expect it to happen as my hair grows and does things I’ve never seen it do before.

I’ll pause here so you can see what my hair now looks like:

 

the top of my head! :-)

 

side shot!

 

the sepia view.

 

I’m so excited to be starting this journey, and I’ll be sure to take you all on the ride with me! :-)