Victory Lap

It’s 7am in the morning and of course I slept through the highly anticipated Super Bowl half time show. Luckily, the internet is right there to help me out. I avoid Instagram , Tik Tok and everything that could give me any kinds of spoilers and go straight to YouTube. Disregarding my rule of no phone and screen time thirty minutes after I wake up. Today there’s an exception to the rule. I rub the sleep off my eyes because I want to see clearly, volume on high because I don’t want to miss a single beat and lyric…wait is that Samuel L. Jackson?? Here we go.

Being fueled by hate is not it. But hear me out: there’s a drive that you have when people say you can’t do it. And you know in your heart, that you absolutely can. That you not only have the potential, but the ability, the talent, the wisdom and the creativity to not only plan but to execute and excel. When people belittle you and smirk at what you do, like you can’t be taken seriously..I would love to sometimes  wipe the smug off their face, if I’m being completely honest. Whether they’re implementing reverse psychology or being a bully or an insecure little b.. being  trying to project their own short comings on you or whether maybe they’re the devil himself; it unlocks a new level of drive and ambition to prove not necessarily to them (okay maybe a little bit) but mostly to ourselves that we can. And we absolutely will and we will do it exceedingly, abundantly and above all that they can think or imagine (Ephesians 3,20).

It’s sunshine after the rain, it’s spring after a cold, dark, tiring winter, it’s the caterpillar before turning into a butterfly. It’s the phoenix rising from the ashes. It’s stepping on necks.

Insert the Kendrick smile (you know which one).

Sometimes people will doubt you and I’m holding your hand and patting it gently while I tell you this: It will not always be your arch nemesis, who sneak disses you every chance they get but it will be people around you whether it’s your parents with uncalled for comments and comparisons to someone they saw on the news. Or friends that don’t believe in your dreams and talk them down. On that note: get new friends! There’s a difference between genuine, heartfelt out of a good place constructive criticism and encouragement and dismissing and devaluing your worth or laughing at you and making you the butt of their joke. No friend should make you feel like that, ever. Or maybe it’s family members, people you grew up with who have let familiarity cloud their judgement and decide to judge you because they “know” you, the you you left behind ten years ago by the way. It’s okay, don’t let that stop you. Let that fuel you instead.

Let it drive you to keep on going. I have found that it’s those moments that truly show what you’re made of. Not the you that is fabricated in people’s minds and not the you you’ve been telling yourself that you are. But the real you. The talented you, the ambitious you, the intelligent you, the innovative you, the disciplined you, the consistent you (you get the gist).

Most of the time those things are put in our way to stop us in our tracks to make us go back to the timid, quiet, barely visible shadow self. And no, I won’t allow it, won’t allow you and won’t allow me to do that. I can only repeat myself time and time again: stand in your light. Stand in it. There are people that can’t stand your light and forcibly try to cast a dark shadow and fail horribly everytime they try (like seriously: just give it up already, find a hobby, get a life). I used to allow people to hold that power over me, completely oblivious to the power that I held within me. And I hope it won’t take you as long as it took me but even if it does, it is never too late.

Take a moment and do something with me: put your hand on your chest and feel your heartbeat, feel the proof of life, the sound of life, now go out there and be alive. In your craft, in your art, in your day to day life, in every single thing that you do.

If Kendrick’s victory lap has taught us anything it’s : do not mess with the quiet ones. And most importantly: Adversary can bring out greatness. But also: sometimes you gotta pop out and show n***s I mean, people. Sometimes you gotta pop out and show people.

Love,

Maame