The Three Things That I Want To Accomplish Being A Writer

Back when I attended Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina, I was on the fence about the direction that I wanted to go in life. On one hand, I wanted to be a respected educator. My experience with the Boys and Girls Club kind of shaped me to be in a position helping mold the youth. I figured the world could use another leader in the classroom. But after misunderstanding the seriousness of the Praxis exam and failing miserably, I was forced to choose another major.

I had no other options. I didn’t think my college offered any other courses that I would be interested in until I sat down with my advisor. She pretty much told me that me being the talkative person that I can be with valid points to offer during any discussion, Mass Communication would be the perfect fit. Without hesitation, I changed majors that day and it was one of the turning points in my life.

From then I took a series of courses and met a few people that would soon be the birthplace to an idea that led us to this very sentence. I had one professor, Mrs. Piper, that always challenged me to express my words by typing them out. When she assigned a paper that was one page for the class, she always made me do two. She pushed me to explore my thoughts and formulate ideas that where articulate and to the point. Those extra papers definitely where a headache but it instilled the skill in me that I still possess to this day.

Fast forward to my Junior/Senior year, I will admit, I was introduced to good ol’ Mary Jane and boy did she make every class interesting. I will also admit that the day that I came up with the idea of starting the blog, I went to class completely blazed. Literally in class feeling like Bobby Z from the Goofy Movie and the teacher mentioned how easy it was to start a blog. The light bulb in my mind clicked and I quickly interrupted her and asked her the domain she was talking about, then downloaded it to my iPhone. From there it’s been a dream to have a respected movement online that has millions of readers. It’s also driven me to another point that I will discuss shortly.

Fast forward one more time to post graduation, I stumbled upon the Tumblr community. I began to share my thoughts from Tumblr via Facebook and I met the guy who introduced my very first articles to the internet. PeeJay went to Benedict but he graduated right before the start of my freshman year. Through mutual friends we linked up online and he offered me a spot to write for his blog. I’m not sure if the blog is still online but the mission has always been the same. #iBLAH. I Believe Laughter Always Heals. It’s been a key ingredient to majority of my posts. It’s the third and most important thing that I keep in mind when I write. (Also shoutout to Schweinbeck for pushing me with my music blog. That’s a topic for another day.)

The Three Things That I Want To Accomplish As A Writer:

1. Use my ideas in a way that can be understood by people of all ages. The skill that Mrs. Piper taught me was to express my ideas that anybody could read them but mature enough to get the point across.
2. Provide content that is useful and will emancipate the minds of those that read. Although my love for Mary Jane is stronger than ever, I still have the same desire to have a platform to both inspire everyone to chase their dreams and provide a great life for my family. Not everyone has a supportive group in their corner and I want everyone who reads my art to understand that I believe in their gifts.
3. Allow my story as both the laugh we both know you need but a lesson that you can carry with as an example to push through hard times. By no means is my life all peaches and cream, nor do I want to give off the image that I am perfect and haven’t made mistakes. Because I am human. Nonetheless, I want to use the lessons that I’ve learned as a method of replenishing your soul with positive energy and a plea to learn from my mistakes by taking a better path.

I started this movement to tie together my passion for being a leader and my ability to be a force in the writing/podcast industry. Every decision I’ve made in the past 10 years since I started this campaign, was to get to this very moment. The moment to where my dreams are extremely close to coming true. I want to tell my story as it unfolds and hope it inspires whoever reading it that the impossible is possible. If you made it to this point,

• SB