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When I think about this past decade I say to myself man the time has flown but also in the same breath I say where did the time go? 10 years ago I was a sophomore attending Bok Technical High School and just purchased my first cell phone which looked like a cordless, remember the Motorola flip phones? lol! The good, the bad and the ugly happened in the past ten years.
2000-2001 was a good year for the Sixers, A.I. was doing is thing and the city was on fire from the team doing so well...only for us to lose in the playoffs, better luck next year, and the next, you get the picture.
This past decade also endured triumphs and tragedies in Pop culture. August 25, 2001 everybody's favorite Baby Girl Aaliyah died in a plane crash. I cried and knew that her name would carry through my youngest sister and her music would carry on for years to come. September 11,2001 I was in Mr. Brown's Social Science class my senior year of High School as we watched on television the two planes crash into the WTC. I remember being terrified that I couldn't use my phone to call my mom. It was like watching a movie, it didn't seem real to me.
I graduated on 2002 with high hopes of attending Delaware State University that fall, but fell victim to financial woes that would plague me for the remainder of my college career. In January 2003, my college career began. As much as I claimed I couldn't wait to graduate, honestly my time spent at DSU were some of the best years of my life, from the snow storm of 03, people sliding off the cafe roof on lunch trays, 50 Cent's Get Rich Or Die Trying dropped, Clint Saunders was SGA president and Ronnisha Turner was Miss.DSU.
Those years also followed with me being purged out of the system sleeping on my friend's couch in the Vill, hearing Harold's passionate speech during his run as SGA president, becoming a RA, being peppered sprayed at a party, winning the top rated Journalism scholarship in Delaware, writing for the Hornet newspaper and interning for the News Journal to finally receiving my degree. I met so many people from different backgrounds and cultures, and it made me for open minded. Inspite of the untimely death of students on campus and who attended DSU, I wouldn't trade in my experience for anything, and I don't regret attending a Historically Black College/University.
Other tragedies such as the tsunami, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the pointless war in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Bush and multiple plane crashes all over the world. We also lost a Pop icon Michael Jackson,Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, Bernie Mac, Ray Charles, Luther Vandross, Gerald Levert and the list goes on. America also learned that Kanye West is the most outspoken artist of our time lol! Jennifer Lopez or "J Lo" introduced us to the plunging neckline and double sided tape, Lil' Kim's boob, Janet's nipplegate, and Britney Spears' train wreck comeback.
During this decade marriage was no longer viewed as a sacred and holy union, it became an accessory that everyone wanted like the new Louis Vuitton bag. Affairs became the norm as women/men stated that it didn’t matter that their lover was married, that’s their problem no their’s. In this decade people you went to school with will ask do you have kids before they ask are you married, as the single parent population grew tremendously. Being on the down low and coming out of the closet was no longer looked as taboo, and the number cause of death in the African American community amongst women was HIV/AIDS. The music went from good, bad to worse (Gucci Mane and Soulja Boy anyone)? No more music that you could relate to, and you could feel it in your soul, it was replaced by a hot beat with a catchy hook.
I also learned the meaning of tough love and true love, heartaches and heartbreak. I spent a good deal of the latter part of my high school years and early college years chasing after a man who only looked to me being his back pocket chick, someone he can place on the shelf and dust off when he wanted to. Love had to be more than this, or was it mere lust for the finest man to give me a false sense of want, need, desire and affection? Before one can love somebody else, one must love themselves. I became a happy person instead of the Angry Black Woman most people knew me to be, I became more boisterous in my poetry and creative writing. I am me, and can only change for the better. I don't make New Year's resolutions but I declare I'll be a better woman, daughter, sister, niece, cousin, and continue to seek God for guidance and discernment of foolish things in life. As I finish this last line, I scream "2010 I'm ready for you!"
