"Are your characters white?" I looked up at my good friend who had just posed the question and who had just read one of my stories. "Why do you ask?" I replied. "Well, they seem white. How they speak, how they seem. I was just curious." I explained that I rarely thought about race in …
Adjoa on a Monday.
This post was originally published on February 16, 2018 and updated today, February 3, 2021. The months are entirely coincidental. Or are they? Read on to learn what my dream job would be and why it remains my dream job, three years later. Ever since my early twenties, coffee shops have been my true love. …
Confessions of an Overachiever.
I was always the last chosen for teams in gym class. Always isn't an exaggeration. It would 100% be between me and a kid somehow slower than me, which was usually baffling because, yeah, I was slow, unathletic, uncoordinated, terrified, all of it. When my high school counselor gave me my Senior year final GPA, …
my own grass.
Photo by Akil Mazumder on Pexels.com I once mentioned to a friend that when I see others engaging in milestones in their lives--babies, marriage, etc.--it fills me with yearning because I long for those things myself. Her response: the grass isn't always greener. You know the cliché/adage. But here's the thing about me, and a …
Headwraps is life.
Wrap it up. Headwraps used to terrify me. For one thing, this African lady didn’t inherit the ability to tie them—to the shame of my mother—so I avoided them. I also wondered how I could pull them off in a professional setting (because, sadly, women of color have to think about these things), so I …
The 2020 Win.
Believe me, I hate to go back to that weird year, but I promised to discuss this awesome development in '20 and never got around to it, so here we are. Here are five awesome things about my promotion at work: Honestly, I'd been praying for and working towards being back in a field where …
Golden Hour.
☀️⌛️ Happy Wednesday.
Do you know what today is?
It’s my naturalversary. Eight years ago today, I drove to a salon in Maryland and told the stylist to commence with le big chop. Best decision ever. Several months before, I had decided that I was done with relaxers and straightening my hair. I’d place my fingers in my roots and feel the thick, coily …
Le Fro: Updates.
Here’s how the Le Fro is doing as of this past weekend, in my continuing efforts to grow out my hair and not eye the ✂️: Frowth. Curls galore, no? We love to see it. And this is actually a two-day wash-and-go courtesy of my stylist and good friend, who provided me with a nice, …
Just No.
Image credit: Instagram Whew. The accuracy. I saw this post on the ‘Gram and felt like discussing. So, although “no” is a complete sentence (just like yes), most people don’t hear it that way. Agree? Most of the time, a “no” is followed by a “why not?” from the hearer or them giving you a …
This Square Peg. 