Life has shown me that growth is rarely loud or glamorous. Sometimes growth looks like taking one small step when life has drained your energy. Other times it looks like trying again after disappointment, rejection, heartbreak, or failure. Challenging yourself is much like exercising a muscle. If you never stretch it, never work it, and never place resistance against it, it will eventually weaken. The same applies to our minds, faith, discipline, goals, and personal development.
Browsing: Ain’t That A VHIT
At 46 years old, I am learning that one of the hardest realities to accept in life is that
Because when you begin to see your scars as trophies, you shift from surviving your story to owning it. And in that ownership, there is power.
I’ve been doing quite a bit of traveling lately, and this thought came to me shortly after takeoff. There’s always that moment of excitement, the plane lifts, you ascend into higher heights, and your focus shifts to the destination. But even in that excitement, there’s a quiet awareness… you’re still going to have to land. And you don’t always know if that landing will be smooth, a little bumpy, or, in the worst case, unsettling.
Picture a Sunday pot roast in the crockpot, seasoned just right, slow cooking for hours. By the time it’s done, it’s tender, rich, and full of flavor. Every ingredient has settled in. Nothing is rushed, and you can taste the difference.
I once heard a quote on the Rickey Smiley Morning Show that stayed with me longer than I expected: “Sometimes your light is too bright in a dark room.” At first, it felt like a clever saying, something you hear, nod to, and keep moving. But the more I reflected on it, the more I realized it wasn’t just clever, it was clarifying.
Every day it feels like something shifts, economically, socially, professionally, even personally. One moment you think you have clarity, and the next, something changes that makes you question everything you thought you understood. Plans pivot. Expectations collapse. Stability feels uncertain.
A Different World did both. It gave us one of our first real glimpses into life at an HBCU, where Black excellence, growth, struggle, and purpose all lived in the same space. It wasn’t just entertainment; it was a vision. It showed us that college wasn’t just possible, it was ours.
As a Black man, there are moments in life where you learn, sometimes without anyone directly telling you, that it’s easier to keep certain feelings to yourself. Over time, I’ve realized that many of the situations that hurt me most were the ones I never addressed. Not because they didn’t matter, but because I convinced myself it was better to move on than to risk being misunderstood.
The Divine Nine are nine historically Black Greek-letter fraternities and sororities founded in the early 1900s during a time when Black students were excluded from white organizations on college campuses. Many of their founders were shaped by church, scripture, and Christian values. These organizations were not formed to replace faith. They were formed to cultivate scholarship, character, service, and community uplift.