Living in A Different World

In one of my frequent phone conversations with my good friend Kofi, I heard a familiar sound in the background. “I know which episode of A Different World that is!” I remarked. I was wrong and Kofi reveled in it with a rib at my expense. “You know what, you’re right. It is the telethon […]

How Love Story and its Sequel Mirrored My Life

This essay contains quite a bit of adult language, and by adult language, I mean the words “shit, fuck, and bullshit” fly throughout this piece. I watched Oliver’s Story, the 1978 sequel to Love Story, a film often considered one of the most romantic movies of all time. For years, I put off the hour […]

My Complicated Relationship With Discernment

Merriam Webster defined discernment as 1: the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure: skill in discerning. 2: an act of perceiving or discerning something. Google defines it as (in Christian contexts) perception in the absence of judgment with a view to obtaining spiritual guidance and understanding. Perhaps some of my complication with my gift of discernment […]

Life Lessons I Learned From Boxing

Listen along while you read: Read It Because I Wrote It Podcast “You’ve got to make people respect your jab! You’re big and strong and your [right handed] straight [punch] will put someone to sleep. But if you don’t extend your [left] arm and throw more than just a decoy jab, no one will respect […]

Getting High and Watching Yo Gabba Gabba!

For almost three years, I have had a standing date night with my daughter, “Pit Stop Fridays.” We kick our weekends off at a nearby eatery in Merrick called The Pit Stop, order the same food, go home, and watch Netflix until we pass out. It is a rare occasion for one of us to […]

The Origin Story of “Read It Because I Wrote It”

Somewhere between 2013 and 2014, shortly after my first professional gig as a writer, I clicked the share button for one of my articles to promote myself on social media. With little thought, on my phone, I typed “Read It Because I Wrote It” and put it on the internet. I didn’t put much thought […]

My Ode to Self-Care 48: “Rich is Gangsta”

“Last night, I had a dream about you. You were older. You were driving home from work, in a very nice car, to your very nice house. The sun was setting and you were able to look back at everything you’d been through and say to yourself “I made it.’” Timile Brown told me this […]

My Ode to Self-Care 47: “Friend Zone”

This essay was the fourth on my playlist and was supposed to be written in June. However, I could not find the words and vowed to come back when the muse hits me. Forty-two essays and three left after this one, today is the day (Editor’s note: I wrote the first two sentences on November […]

My Ode to Self-Care 46: “Perfect Timing”

This is another one of these where I am simply writing whatever comes to mind, how it comes to me… One of the idiosyncrasies I have picked up from my experiences is hyperawareness of time. I view almost everything through a lens of everything is finite. I could be having the greatest experience in the […]

My Ode to Self-Care 45: “Here I Come”

In the spirit of vulnerability, I’m not editing this piece at all… There is always a girl story. Amongst my friends and I, the previous sentence is a common expression because in all honesty, there is always a story about some girl and me. It never fails and has become a running joke. If you […]