Now in My Twenties

These past few days have been the hardest days of our lives. The world has turned upside down; yet, it hasn’t. We’ve known all along that racism, sexism, and bigotry in all forms still exists. The two things that have changed is that (1) our so-called president-elect, “future leader of our nation,” is a blatantly outspoken racist, permitting and encouraging hatred to fuel our nation, and (2) racists everywhere now feel it is within their rights to “put us in our place.” It breaks my heart to see images of hate on the news—but it also fuels my own anger at this injustice, as it should fuel yours too. The time of lamentation is over. The time of action and perseverance has begun. I’m proud of my fellow minority brothers and sisters and white ally friends who have wasted no time in taking action. They fight in the name of love and justice, accepting the consequences that comes with it. I’m especially speaking to my teachers, parents, and mentors of students here:   we should all ...

Looks like it is my unpopular belief that candy is one of the worst motivators in teaching. Let’s just think about this for a bit. Candy, literally pure SUGAR, is a common method teachers use to motivate students to work. Forget the fact that candy is a direct way to harm a child’s health; candy is no different than any other type of currency for children. You are paying them to be students. Teachers using the candy-motivation strategy are failing their students. They are sending the wrong message. If your goal is to help students motivate themselves, it won’t be accomplished by throwing candy their way. It is such a short-term effect that using it in the classroom won’t make any difference in student motivation. If, in fact, student motivation is your goal, then you need to create an atmosphere of positive learning. If you want students to care, if you want students to motivate themselves, the motivators you offer them as a teacher should not be extrinsic, but rather intrinsi...

Though I am a true writer, I think it is important I say this: writing is not fun. I doubt it ever will be. It is lonesome, frustrating, difficult and all-consuming. So why do I do it? Why do I spend hours of my time miserably trying to write down those perfect words? Why do I put myself through something that gives me total unrest? Because my dear, sweet reader, I will suffer all the more if I do not. Writing, in any way, shape or form, forces us to face our thoughts. That is the purpose. Our thoughts are born in our head, pushed down our neck, sliver down the arm, onto the fingers, through the pen and finally onto paper. Once there, we cannot escape them. We cannot deny them. Whether good or bad, smart or dumb, those words are our thoughts. No one else can think them but us. The good news is that writing our thoughts is an immediate release of pressure. Almost like they were trying to escape our heads in the first place. I cannot sit idly by while these bionic, superchar...

So there I was. All dressed up and in my car, following the voice of my GPS, making turn after turn. I had made a wrong turn sometime earlier, making my GPS go into overdrive trying to steer me back the right way. She insisted I go back to the main road (I programmed my GPS to have a female voice; no way would my pride be able to take another man’s voice telling me what to do.) Turn right, turn left, left again, she said. But, of course, to no avail. Finally, I accepted the undeniable truth; I would not get to my destination tonight. My destination was a restaurant in a very business-y section of downtown Fort Worth. A local group was meeting there tonight for after-hours drinks and networking. I hadn't been to these meetings in almost a year. Not quite sure how I felt about going back. But the voices of all the no-nonsense career experts kept talking in my head, “It’s not what you know, but who you know.” As usual, I listened and did as I was told. But I have to admit, th...

This post is a little late in timing. I know graduation was back in May—and to all those who graduated, congratulations! It wasn’t easy. Hell, it was really hard. But that’s okay because you did it and no one can ever take that away from you. But now that it’s been a few months; now that you’ve had a chance to settle in; now that you’ve seen a little bit of The Real World, I’m sure you have found yourself questioning at some point or other, “Is this it?” and maybe even “what now?” I know because I am still asking myself those questions too. Now, I might be wrong. You could be doing exactly what it was that you had set out to do after graduation. You could be making the big bucks; travelling the world; finding the love of your life; moving to New York, et cetera, et cetera. Or you could be at a grayish cubicle day in and day out with a nondescript job title earning little more than $15 an hour. For many of us, this is our reality. But let me be very clear, this is not a...