If I don’t give myself permission, time, and space to set my fingers to the keyboard, to begin again, something inside me is going to rupture. The pit of my stomach is fraught with jumbled nerves. I worry for no reason that someone will misinterpret, misrepresent, or twist my words into a web of confusion and untruths. I can deliver workshops and presentations in another country with less trepidation than I feel writing sometimes. I’ve faced many more fear-filled situations in life than this. Yet, it has taken me two years to type some words for this space and hit publish. I created this space for myself to share part of my world with the world. Yet, there is also an element of embarrassment in this. I feel this because it has taken me over two years to begin again. People have encouraged me to write. But sharing one’s heart and mind on a page is a significant act of vulnerability, fiction or non-fiction. You also have to consider your why behind your decision to be vulnerable in this way. The more I’ve considered this, the more I have talked myself out of starting to write again over and over. But enough is enough. There are so many people out here doing and saying whatever they want to in whatever ways they want to. Why shouldn’t I? I know that I have valuable and maybe even helpful things to share with others. If I continue to keep my thoughts inside, I might block someone else from their blessing. I could rob someone of an opportunity for growth. I could close, rather than open, a space for someone to know they are not alone.

As a person, I recognize that I have a responsibility to represent myself authentically. As an education professional, advocate, and supporter, I fight for what students deserve and what educators need to create equitable, culturally affirming environments for children and families. To accomplish this, it is likely that I will write something that someone deems controversial, offensive, or simply disagreeable. If that is you, I invite you to do one of two things: 1) engage in a respectful commentary, or 2) choose another page to read. Isn’t it beautiful that we have free will to choose? We must exercise that right for as long as we have it. It is clear that the 2024 election this week was a clear example of this.

This day after the election of the 47th president of the United States, I am choosing to begin again. Although I had started writing this post some time ago, I clearly was not ready to begin again. But I left that draft right there. I am grateful that I am CHOOSING to TAKE the time and space to write again. Some of the reason that I chose to do this today is because of my strong feelings regarding the outcome of this election. I am concerned about our country as a whole. I am concerned about blindness that seems to have the caused a collective lack of understanding about our own humanity. I am concerned for our children, our own, those in our schools, especially the ones who don’t look or believe like us. I am concerned for the adults who notice one injustice or vile act and dismiss it for some yet it is egregious for another. We have so much work to continue to do. Our responsibilities are grand. We must refuse to allow those toxins into our consciousness; to maintain hope for those who are come after us; to simply exist as Black, Black & female, Black & male, LGBTQIA+, low Income, middle income, educated & miseducated, and the list goes on. It is heavy, but we’ve already been working so hard for so long. We will continue to work while taking better care of ourselves and families has to be a priority. Black women in particular must, in my opinion, make the time to stop engaging in what Tricia Hersey in Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto terms “grind culture.” So today, and every day moving forward, I will continue to work to the best of my ability in my professional capacity as an educator, (aka the most important industry in the world), as a woman, a Black woman, author, presenter, consultant, mentor, friend, and, certainly not least but definitely my greatest accomplishment, a mother.

To begin again is resilience. To begin again is hope. To begin again is serving others in love. To begin again is authenticity and vulnerability. To begin again is gratitude. To begin again is freedom. To begin again is living, right here, right now, creating joy, finding peace. To begin again is never, ever, giving up.