Salty Cheerios

Sep 14

I plan my blog posts for the month a month in advance. I had already known what I was going to publish for the month of September. It’s a strategy I’ve learned to use so that the process to publish and stay consistent is a little easier. With all of that said, this piece was not on the schedule to be published until a short while ago. On the schedule were things that didn’t feel appropriate for the times nor my current mood. And, when I tried to force myself to stay on schedule, I hit severe writer’s block.

Maybe about a week ago, in the morning, I was trying to get a few homework assignments done. In my attempt to stay focused, I had mentally put everything I was going through aside, trying to keep focused on end goal of maintaining my GPA. I had taken a break from the homework because I wasn’t making any progress and decided to make a bowl of cereal before continuing. When I did decide to continue, there was still no productive progress. On this online assignment, everytime you get an answer wrong, the program makes a sound similar to the loss of your last life on a video game. That sound was driving me further than crazy and I wanted to launch my laptop!

Before I knew it, my elbows were on my desk, head in my hands, and tears in my cheerios.

It was at that moment that I was remembering how bad I felt that I couldn’t go to my grandmother's house to braid her hair because I was afraid I would make her sick, she’s 93. It was at that moment that I was infuriated with the people who refuse to understand the true context of the Black Lives Matter movement. How can people under the same “roof” view things so drastically different? It was at that moment that I needed and wanted to be with my husband. It was just, all at that moment…

I wanted to run away! If you’re a regular here, you probably guessed that my first thought was to head to a beach somewhere. You’re right! And my nicotine cleanse would be over too!

He tells me “Tough times don’t last, tough people do.” Yes Dad, I know, but when will this be over? How much more can we take? Challenges and trials are starting to fill my plate and I hope that the light at the end of the tunnel that we see isn’t a train.

Fantasizing about the future, I don’t think any of us would have imagined this, definitely nothing as dramatic and life changing as this is! One thing the year 20/20 will do, if it hasn’t already (because you know, some people ain’t phased by this), is make things extremely clear for you. And clear doesn’t mean perfect, my friends.

Art and literature are creative reflections of the time in which they are created. I would be wrong to deprive the people of the future of an honest and accurate picture of the past.