How Does It Feel ?

A while back I had a random conversation about life in general with some young brothers in the barbershop. During the conversation, I let it slip that I had went to college and obtained a college degree.
One guy stopped me in the middle of speaking and he said, " Yo, man how does that feel to have one?'
And I replied, " It feels kinda good!"
He told me that he wanted to shake my hand so that some of that luck might rub off on him because he was in school and his financial aid was about to run out.
In that moment it really humbled me because I too remembered that hunger and the struggle that I went through to get it.
The moral of story is this: Never take your accomplishments for granted. Always remember that someone just like you is still fighting to get to where you are in life.
Never forget the bridges that have allowed you to cross over to the promised land.
Special thanks to all of those people that helped me to study/ cram for those exams in college. Most importantly I want to thank my friend that proofread my work and introduced me to those brilliant words and anecdotes that allowed me to fill up those long papers in college as well.
Without you I shudder to think if I would have ever made it out of college. The writing lab really paid off tremendously

Momma Knows Best

When I was 5 years old, my mother remarried. For a long time during my childhood, I thought that she was being unfair to me because she let her husband say cruel things to us as children. When I would complain to her she always would say," It's his house and whatever he says goes!" I didn't understand what those words meant until I became a man. I now know how hard her struggle was to keep the peace in our home. Playing the peacemaker role is never an easy job for someone to play in a household. I am now thankful for her struggle. It is amazing what lessons in life you will come to understand as you age. Thank you mom for your fight to raise me to the man that I am today!

Knowing is Half The Battle

When I was young I saw so many things that happened around my house that I just did not understand until I had the nerve to speak up and ask about them.
When I was around the age of 13, I noticed that my step-father J.C. used to receive 2 subscriptions from Publisher's Clearing House. He just knew that one day, that these people were going to show up at his doorstep with that big old check in their hand.
He used to read Popular Mechanics and Cosmopolitan. I could understand why he would like to read Popular Mechanics because he was a huge fan of the latest in technology.
However, his interest in the Cosmopolitan magazine struck me as being a bit odd because I knew that it was a magazine that was geared towards the interest of women.
One day, I asked him about it. I said, "Dad, why do you read a magazine for women?"
He looked at me with a devilish grin and he replied, " Son, sometimes it is just good to know what the other side is thinking from time to time."
At the time, I was too immature to understand what he had said to me. Years later, it quickly came back to me and I laughed really hard about it.
Sadly, in April of 2010, we lost him to a battle with lung cancer. Up until the time that he died he still read the Cosmopolitan Magazine.
From time to time, I find myself reading that magazine as well just to keep that family tradition going.

Never Let Her Toothbrush Hit The Bathroom Counter

Years ago, when I got my first car, I traveled to see my uncle Mickey Wayne, my father's brother.
My father's brother was an old man that seemed to always keep a new woman around him. 
I even noticed this at the age of 4. Anyways, after years of not seeing him I decided to pay him a visit when I was 21.
On this visit he shared with me some information that would prove to be very valuable in due time. 
He said, "Rickey, I know that right about now, you are really starting to discover your sexual prowess as a young man. You've got our genes. So I already know what you are out there doing.
Keep this in mind. While you are out there spending late nights with a woman are your home, remember that they need to be gone before the sun rises. Never let her toothbrush hit the bathroom counter. If you do, you will start to see other items show up, and before you know it, she will have moved in with you without paying rent !"
I laughed at it when I initially heard him say it. However, I never forgot this lesson. He also told me to invest into a twin mattress, because no woman in her right mind will want to share a bed like that with you for very long and she will have no choice but to retreat back home to her own bed to sleep comfortably. My uncle Mickey Wayne was a wild man in his prime. 
Years later, he would suffer from 2 strokes that would eventually have him end up in a nursing home that would be far away from his family and friends. It is sad for me to think about how he would spend his latter years. 
However, I will always remember the fun times and wild information that he once shared with me.