Have you been to my office? If
you have then you know there is a large paper medal on the wall because I got
the MVP of Student Staff Training #Spring2015…and
what else? A bunch of thank you cards and other pieces of celebratory paper.
The piece(s) of
paper(s)
you
expect to see aren’t there.
Yup. There are no degrees on
my wall in my office. And in the span of my full-time professional career,
they’ve never been on my wall because…
…them joints is fake, yo.
Let me explain *in my
Kevin hart voice* …
In 2000 and 3 I graduated from
the University of California at Los Angeles. Just in time to NOT have the
terminator’s name on my degree #BlessGodInThisBuildingSaints. It
was an exciting time. Let’s go back to Ackerman…
I was so happy! I called home.
Well, prior to the exciting call home, I made a huge scene in Ackerman buying
the diploma frame. Yea, I want that
one at the top. Very top. Yes, the best one you got. I just graduated homey…you
better believe this piece of paper is hanging in style. Hello…this is me? I
need better than your best.
Then he rang it up. I didn’t
have money for three weeks. Daddie actually had to send money from Texas for
California groceries…because hungry. I was embarrassed that I even needed money
for food – until that time, I was able to take care of all my financial needs
that financial aid didn’t cover #BraidingHair.
Anyway, as I wasn’t saying, I
called him. Mom answered. She was sooo happy for me. So much so, that she
stated that I should Go to Kinko’s… Yeah, Make a copy… Yeah,
Then send
the original… *ummm…where
is this going* …to her in Texas. That,
if I ever wanted to come home ever again, I would need to do this. I obeyed.
But she got the coldest side eye ever given in the game though…through the
phone. Because I wanted to go home, because fried cabbage yall. Both degrees
are on the wall in their home. And a whole heap of other awards and such. I
know because this past week (or so) I hung them there #TheyMoved.
Have you seen the color copy
version of your degree/seal on your degree from Kinkos? It's orange... It's not even the same orange all over the seal. Because the photocopier, and the lights, and physics! Bro, this joint is as
believable as the current sitting united states president. Like, we know it’s
real, but it looks fake AF. Exactly.
Why would I put this on my
wall at work? So I haven’t. It’s just not a thing. And, of course, this is all
my mother’s fault. What does she want with it anyway?
But, as time deals with most
things I made my peace with it. As a new professional, I began to realize that
though I work with many people, some of which have many degrees, they are quite
dumb. AF, homey…dumb AF. I started to take solace in the empty walls. My brain
isn’t empty, and I use coherent sentences. I have the innate ability to swirl the
king’s English with slang and contemporary vernacular, that honestly…the degree
didn’t teach me to do. My intellect is more than what that piece of paper says
I know. So…I’m good.
But I wasn’t. At a student
leadership retreat, I had to share a piece of me…because vulnerability can be
an important part of your leadership. Yes, all those aforementioned reasons are
the reasons why my degrees are on bookshelf in my office. I know that I am
smart, but I don’t always occupy that space. I am sometimes very insecure about
what I know, to the point that I probably give the appearance that I don’t know
anything. Like this guy last week told me how the Plan B pill works. Aside from
the fact that this is something as a woman I would probably know because
vagina, I was a Physiological Sciences major. Though I don’t work in my major,
I LOVE science, because three swirls, remember? But nobody would know that was
my major, because bookshelf.
I regularly get the feeling
that I didn’t earn my degrees. Because, Daddie. Dude is smart as heaven…and a
little hell – he ever tell you what he did to that cat? He would be an awesome
person to have on a trivia team because he knows about the oddest, craziest
things, usually from personal experience. He remembers dates like you wouldn’t
believe. Why do I know that I was born at 10:16pm on a Tuesday? One year he
called me at exactly my birthday. To the minute, yall. He even factored in the time zones because that was CST that I was born in, but it was PST he was calling to...so he called...twice, so it was 8:16pm PST, then again at 10:16pm PST. Everything I know is
because of him. What he didn’t teach me, he prepared me to learn. And every bit
of knowledge I engaged him in, he expanded upon – for my good – for my name to
be on those pieces of paper. How can I take credit for everything that HE did. Doesn’t
really seem fair at all.
As we were driving around in
my Daddie’s truck, I was talking to that lady about degrees hanging from the
wall. How I sent the originals, but all my sisters punked out and sent copies.
But why they get to come home when you told me I couldn’t? Sure, I get the
wealthiest portion of the fried cabbage, but nothing else for my obedience!!!!!
She said, your Father
wanted that degree. I just passed the message. Then
she looked at me and shrugged like, so you mad or nah? I leaned over the
driver’s seat in amazement. All of these years those degrees have been on the
wall, he never revealed this. And because, although hard-headed, she is a good
wife, she kept his secret. She kept it until I needed to know it.
Today, this very day, there
are two odd looking degrees on the wall in my office. I am more proud of them
than you could imagine.
I have exactly what I earned
on my wall.
...and Daddie has exactly what he
earned on his.
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