Comming Back

Obviously I have been gone too long from this blogging thing. It's been a year and a half since my last post. I have been thinking about coming back to what I know and finally decided today would be the day. I need the therapy and release that this blog brings to me. My life is in a static transition and I am hoping that writing again will help me work my way through things and document life for me. My commitment is once a week....we'll see how well I stick to that. Here goes nothing....

Cuts...

I can't believe it's been close to 2 months since I last wrote. The summer has been crazy...workin a lot and working on me. I am always a work in progress and at times its hard working on yourself, because you begin to realize how much you've grown away from people. I've realized that some people aren't worth my time and aren't meant to hold a place in my life and that's a tough pill to swallow...espcially when they mean something to you. Although some people still mean something their time in your life has passed, I'm now realizing that with someone I thought I'd stay close to forever. I now realize that my life is going in a direction that doesn't seem to include him. The way I once felt isn't how I feel anymore. Although I am glad for the time we've spent and what he once meant to me I know in my heart it's time for us to part ways.

It's never easy cutting people out, but sometimes it's what you have to do in order to grow.

My Ode To Summer Time in the Town (PT. 1 I'm sure)

Ok judging by the fact that it's 2:38 am and I'm up, life is about to get a whole lot interesting. I'm calling this "My Ode To Summer Time in the Town", because as much as I hate Seattle at times Summer is, has been and always will be the best time of the year in the Town. Everyone is on vacation and home from school. Now that most of us are done with school, it is more than just summer, it's time for reunions and brinin the good times back. We can't stay young forever, but at least summer time in the Town lets us recount years gone by, friends past and present and relationships that once were that now either make us rant or laugh. It's about the sun bouncing off Lakes Washington and Union and the Puget Sound, as well as the beautiful and majestic Mt. Rainier. It's about "hood heros" comin back if only for short stints to let the "hood" know they haven't been forgotten. It's about forgetting the cold fall and winter months, if only for a short time to remember just how good the warm sun feels on the skin. For me though Summer Time in the Town is about reliving yesteryears and being thankful (and at times not so thankful) to have lived the life I've lived. It's only June 5 and summer has not "officially" begun, but in accordance to the texts, phone calls and pictures from the last 2 weeks...it has for me. So here's to Summer 09 in the Town...already shapping up to be better than 08 and hot damn...I'm single this year!

Budget Cuts Blow

I am 5 days away from earning my degree in Sport Management and 5 days from possibly being one of the last graduationg classes with a degree in Sport Management from Washington State University. In order to fill a budget deficit the University decided they needed to cut jobs and some educational programs...one being Sport Management. I haven't decided if people think the degree/program is a joke or if they honestly felt it was the only way to go in order to save money. What threat is a program that only has 5 professors, 1 part time advisor and 1 sectretary? I guess they figured that they had shafted to program long enough by not allowing them money to hire more teachers, which in turn lead to them forcing students to apply to be certified, leading to only students with 3.0 grade point averages needing to apply and only those with 3.3's and above actually getting admitted, usually only 10-15 a semester out of 170 + applicants. It is down right frustrating, saddening, depressing and all around unfair. Does the university not understand that WSU carries the only undergraduate/graduate accredited dual programs on the West Coast, the only undergrauduate program of it's kind that brings kids from all western states and the western part of Washington?
I fought, cried and sweated to get into the Sport Management program and I'm one of the lucky ones...and at this point...TRULY lucky ones. I have friends who didn't get into the program and know some kids that with the budget cuts won't even get the chance to be denied certification, because they are not certifiying any more students for the major. I am elated to be graduating, but it is with a heavy heart that I see the program that I love so dearly, that allowed my dream come true to be eliminated. Since high school I knew that I wanted a degree in sport management, not just communications, business or management, but I wanted the degree that hung on my wall to say Sport Management and now I'm just 5 days away from seeing those 6 words on a piece of paper that are the culmination of a lot of hardwork and dedication, "Bachelor of Arts in Sport Management".
The program is no joke. Any undergraduate program that requires a 3.0 to even apply to certify, plus experience in the field in you freshman and sophomore years is no joke. Any program that only allows 10-15 students in a semester is no joke. Any program that requires you to plan an event from beginning to end and put it on with risk management plans, contingency plans, sponsorships and the whole 9...is NO JOKE!
The Sport Management program at WSU has made me a better person and shown me just how smart I really am. It has brought be some of the best college friends a girl could ask for, amazing relationships with my professors and allowed one of my many life dreams to come true. The elimination of the program is simply the massacare of all those who weren't quite lucky enough to be born sooner...budget cuts blow!

I Don't Want to Miss It...

Lately I've been thinking a lot about where life will take me next. I am less than a month away from my college graduation and at a crossroad with so many important decisions to make. It is at this point that I really must look deep, because it really is time to grow up and get on with my life.
One thing I've given a great deal of thought to besides what I'm going to do with my life, is who will be there to share my life with me. I know obsessing about something so trivial isn't the right thing, but what if the obsession is one that just won't go away? What if you believe that the person you're meant to share you life with is someone God brought in? What if that person has changed your life unknowingly for the better?
I know who he is and it scares me. It scares me because he has been someone that has stood by me since the day he met me never once questioning me. He has listened to me, cried with me, laughed with me and become one of the greatest people I believe I will ever know.
It feels so right...the feeling I have about us, but I guess my mind won't let me really believe in it. More than what scares me about him is the thought of never knowing if it really is a deep as I feel it is. I guess there's only one way to find out...I gotta take that trip. I'd rather take the trip and be disappointed than not take it and spend my life wondering what if...it really could be just what I need and I'm not sure I could live with myself if I miss it.

Be the CHANGE you wish to see in the world

I am a hippie, a radical, an artist and a thinker in my own way. So many people see me as mainstream and shallow, but I see myself quite differently and those closest to me know that I am so much more than what is simply perceived.
It annoys me when people talk about sports not being important. Not just because I am a lover of sports, but because sports is one of them most diverse factions of life. It pisses me off even more when people do not see how sports has changed the world and how so much is left to be changed in the sports world. I majored in sport management, because I too want to make a difference. I want to help change the face of the front office of sports. I want to show that blacks don't have to be the Forty Million dollar slaves...they can be the ones creating opportunity, opening doors and changing the way that people view blacks in relation to sports.
Let us not forget that baseball was one of the first areas to become integrated thanks to Jackie Robinson and so many others, lets not forget the powerful image of United States athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos holding their fists in the air as they received their metals for track and field in the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City, in a sign of protest for Civil Rights in the United States, or how through the years athletes like Muhammed Ali have used their fame to fight against social injustices and issues facing blacks and people of all races alike.
So much is left to be done though, especially in the institutionalized framework of sports. African American coaches on all levels are still fighting for recognition, especially in Division 1-A college football and black athletes at colleges and universities around the country are still being failed and lead astray. Someone must be the voice and call out the injustices in sports.
It is these injustices that still need to be worked out that have caused me to take the path in life that I have chosen in order to make a difference. I love sports and believe that so much good comes from them, but so much is left to be done. It is why I have chosen to be the change I wish to see in sports.

The Friends that Turn into Family

I was blessed to be born into a wonderful family, but even more blessed for the family friends we have. Since I can remember my mom always stressed the importance of family and that there are people that may not be blood, but they too are family all the same. As I've gotten older and have began building my own life I have come to realize the importance and joy that friends that become family can be. When I met my friend Jason just over 2 years ago I never imagined he'd become one of my best friends and that his family would become some of my favorite people. It wasn't until this past Saturday that I had the chance to complete my new family, I finally got to meet the women closest to him...his mom and sister. I had met his brother on several occasions and even spent a great deal of time with him and I had the opportunity to meet his dad last year. When I met his mom and sister it was if my new family was complete. It was when his dad asked my brother and I to join their family in a celebration dinner of UW winning the Pac-10 Championship I knew I had completed a new family.
I love that I am creating my own extended family through friendships and I love and protect them just as if they were blood, nothing could make us closer. With our parting embraces and words Saturday night I knew in my heart that I would love the Pondexter's forever, just as if they were my own family!