Spring/Summer Recap

Good people! How ya doin, how ya feelin?! Yes it is me, it has been a minute! Ugh! It seems like it has been so long yet so short at the same time. We were JUST springing forward and now the days are already getting shorter. Summers are starting to move faster than when I was a kid and summer break was actually a thing. I am still longing for a time where I will get a summer break again, but that is another talk for another time. So grab a snack because iI t’s going to be a long one!

What a freaking summer I have had. My summer was not all peaches but I can say it was filled with amazing memories. I entered a new decade back in May, which I’m still processing. Turns out there is no buzzer that sounds at midnight screaming “times up!” which I was so thankful for. I spent my 30^th birthday with some of my favorite people. I went home for the first time in a about a year and I must say it was definitely needed.

The day of my actual birthday was spent mostly with my homie, my mother lol. We had breakfast and visited family. I ended my evening with the two that were celebrating their 30^th anniversary of being parents – mom and dad. We enjoyed an amazing Italian dinner and I went to the casino with my parents for the first time lol. It was actually the most fun I’ve had with my parents as an adult. That evening my sister surprised me by driving home from school to celebrate with me. That really put the bow on my day.

The rest of my trip was spent catching up with friends and family, which will always be my top pick of things to do. Another highlight of my trip was that myself and two of my line sisters were presented the opportunity to be on the radio! I was surrounded by nothing but love and support my entire trip. It definitely kicked off my summer right.

Early summer only got better with my first to Nigeria. This will stand out as one of the top moments of my life. If meant so much for so many reasons. We can start with the opportunity to visit my homeland. As a society, black Americans are more than ever traveling to Africa and it has been amazing to see us embrace our culture and wanting to know about it. There are now so many DNA tests that are out where you can find out and understand where you are from, but for me I don’t have to do that. I know exactly where I am from and this made the trip even more special to me. We were greeted with nothing but “Welcome home” and it was magical.

What made the trip more special was it being my first trip there at the age of thirty – what is deemed a milestone age. I know the first question would be, well what took so freaking long?! Yea this was often my same question growing up. My father had his reasons that were never discussed until recently. But it doesn’t matter why it took so long now, it only matters that it finally happened. To put the cherry on top of this very large delicious cake we surprised my grandmother not only with our arrival but with a blow out celebration for her 80^th birthday. I will add below the reaction video from when we arrived to my grandmother’s house (please ignore my very ugly crying, it was so overwhelming).

The trip was overwhelming in both good and bad ways, but the good outweighed the bad. I met first cousins and an Aunt (my father’s sister) that I have never met before. We were able to get attire custom made for us that actually fit and looked fabulous! (the clothing never fits when my grandmother sends it lol). We tried our hand at eating through as many suya spots as humanly possible, because my father was set that he knew a better place each time than the last each time. My grandmother was insistent on making sure that we were taken care of by her the entire time. The sense of accomplishment that I think my dad felt for finally making this trip come to fruition was priceless.

There were also some very trying times during the trip. Culture is very traditional and this was a heavy topic for me. The fact that age equates to authority, rather right or wrong, and trumps respect – was a hard pill to swallow as it has been for me for a long time. It brought up a lot of feelings with the way I have been raised and the relationship struggles that I have had with my father even as an adult. Then there was the poverty that I witnessed. I literally had a breakdown one day at the sheer sight of seeing children on the street asking for money. I just had never seen anything to that magnitude before. It really hurt my heart and made me feel a sense of guilt for the things that I complain about on a daily basis. It helped to do a self check aand put my life into perspective and made me want to find my purpose and strive to seek joy above everything else. No matter what it is you are going through your joy is something that can’t be taken away. It is not based off material possessions, financial gains or appearances, many things that we all (including myself) obsess over constantly. So my fall will be about regaining my joy because the joy tank is on E. This trip it though was everything that I needed and more.

The rest of my summer has been spent mainly with my friends. It’s crazy to think that this is my second full year here in Texas and my third summer. My first summer was really spent in a haze of realizing that I took probably the first ever risk in my life by moving. Last summer I had met a few friends in my first year but you know how you are still very conservative and hesitant at the beginning of a relationship? Well it is very much the same at the beginning of friendships in my opinion when you are feeling each other out. This year though the two people that I have truly made a connection with are turning out to be the very ones that are helping me through current trying times.

It’s a weird thing making friends as an adult. It is something that I honestly never thought I would be doing. All my friends I have known for many years and have been placed in situations where friendships are almost guaranteed to form. Highschool, sorority, and the first few years after graduating college. I came to Texas, and outside of my best friend and her husband, knew no one. I was scared coming into a new company. I hadn’t been the new girl since I was twenty-two fresh out of college and before then not since 5^th grade when my family moved to a new school district.

But God has a crazy way of working things out because the two women that have become very good friends to me happen to be from St. Louis. That immediately gave me a sense of comfortability. We had many happy hours that turned into full weekends together, pool days and girl’s nights where we spent time cultivating dreams and supporting each other. It’s helping me during a phase where I am seriously home sick. As of this summer they have seen me ugly cry so there is no turning back now lol. I am appreciative that as I am making the turn into the next chapter of my life, I have new friendships to add to my already tried and true connections of the people I’ve known for a very long time.

So there you have it, my very long Spring/Summer recap. Side note: I went on a date with someone I met on a dating app. My first date in a long time and the first ever from an app. Quite interesting to say the least lol. We will see if that is something that will be happening more often or not. I am still trying to open up to this new age dating style. I hope you enjoyed hearing what I have been up to. This catches us up and now we are ready to move full swing into Self Care September. September is one of my favorite months, only coming in second to May. I need the recharge that comes with the changing of time and season. I am officially back and it feels GOOD! Hey besties, I missed y’all!

P.S. My gift to myself was a ticket to the Reunion Tour for B2K. I went with two of my friends and we lived our best flashback fifteen year old lives. Okay I’m done now 😊

What was the highlight of your Spring or Summer? Let know down below!