Waking Up a New Age

Saturday morning I woke up a new age. But it wasn't just any old age: it was 21. As mentioned in my last blog post, my birthday was this past Friday (January 28th for future reference) and I spent my whole weekend with family and close friends. I don't think I could have asked for a better birthday.

When I woke up Saturday morning, I woke up with the utmost optimism. I had this sense that so many doors are opened to me now more than ever before. And not just the club doors, or lounge doors. The opportunity to grow as an adult this year became very attractive to me to say the least. Hell, I even woke up this morning and hopped out of bed (in NYC) to head to New Paltz. I could have been a lazy bitch and said, "I'm staying home, what's missing a few classes going to do?" but I took it upon myself to wake up and get on that good ol' Trailways bus. Maybe it's a placebo effect, but I feel that I'm on the right path of being more focused and handling responsibility better than I have before. As I had discussed with a couple of friends Saturday night, 2011 will be the year to appreciate self. That's not to be taken as being selfish, but more about being aware of who you are in order to grow and prosper in these troubled times. Love yourself a little more, push yourself to do greater things, and above all don't change who you are. These ideals are what I'm strengthening this year for myself.

On another random note, I got my sixth tattoo seen in the picture. It's the glyph for Uranus, the ruling planet of Aquarius in astrology. Below is just a little excerpt of what Uranus means for me as an Aquarian and as a person in general:

Uranus symbolizes unpredictable change, intuition, genius, individualism, independence, freedom, social reform, rebels, inventions, electricity, and the joining of the personal to the collective consciousness and the group mind. In the physical body it rules electrical nerve impulses

-myastrologybook.com

From the Ashes

"The phoenix hope,

can wing her way through the desert skies,

and still defying fortune's spite;

revive from ashes and rise."

-Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

So it's been almost a year since I've written anything on this blog. With Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook (even Facebook has become a rarity to me) occupying my Internet interests, I haven't been writing as much. But I have a good feeling that now's the time to revive my Phoenix Rising blog.

To start off, my birthday's this Friday coming up and guess what age I'll be turning? 21!! It's been a long time coming so it feels. Each year of living on this Earth, I have learned so much about myself and I'm ready to take this age specifically to a whole other level pertaining to displaying who I really am. As many know, I believe in the ideal of Sankofa: learning from the past to make a better future. I have reevaluated my past experiences substantially and I can comfortably say that I have learned from both my mistakes and my accomplishments. This year--more than any other year--a phoenix will be reborn.

Just to update everyone in the blogsphere what's been going on in my life, I'll cover a few key points:

• I changed my major for good this time to Public Relations. I really found my niche in promotions and being able to sufficiently be a liaison to whomever. I'm glad that my dance team, Culture Shock, is what made me come to this realization (seeing that I'm the PR chair) and essentially what I'm doing in my dance team is exactly what I aim to do in the real world. I'll make it work.
• Of course, I'm still dancing. That never left my life, and never will leave my life. With that being said, I attended a dance conference called "The Pulse" this month and it opened my eyes so much. If I wasn't sure about where I wanted to take my dance career before, I definitely am sure now.
• Relationship? None. Am I happy? Yes. To be quite frank, I'm still in love with my last actual significant other and we have been communicating so much better lately, but there is no pressure to be in a relationship with anyone, nor will I make any pressure. The single life actually has opened my mind up so much more when it came to my personal growth. But I'm not opposed to a little flirting here and there ;)
• Last but not least, a list of a few people who have affected my life in one way or another that's help shaped my growth in no particular order (aside from my mother, she'll always be number one):

1. My New Paltz family who are also my family back at home: Miyah, Lori, Chippy, Brittney and Craig. As far as alumni, Angel has been a huge inspiration to me, and--although he doesn't count as alumni--Kris Sanchez.
2. My best friends and companions Matty, Todd, and Ty.
3. Culture Shock Dance Troupe as a whole.
4. My ADTV family Derrick L. Briggs and Matthew Barrett. Spending the summer with them also helped me see myself differently as a person and career-wise.
5. William Carpenter....what more can I say about him? He's been in my life for over 5 years and it's been nothing but an amazing experience knowing him.

I won't do the hood thing and shout out all of my haters and all of that unnecessary jargon, but anyone and everyone--even if not listed above--has shaped and molded me in some form of fashion. For that, I thank each and every one of you. I'm looking forward to blogging more on this thing. In the meantime, you can catch even more of what's been going on with my life on my Tumblr Page.