Happy New Year! I figured that this year would be one of the most significant years of my life. Not only am I graduating high school, but I am also turning eighteen. Those are two really great accomplishments, taking into consideration the way this cold world is going right now. I have heard so many young black males not making it to eighteen or graduation due to violence and lack of structure or discipline. So, I decided to make a pretty big decision on the first Saturday of this year. I cut my hair. I had the same hairstyle for roughly seven years.
The number one reason I had to let the hair go was that so much came with that hair. Not even taking into consideration the upkeep of the hair. The constant washing, moisturizing, and shaping of it. There was a bit of trauma and disaster that came along with it. Though it was beautiful, it was damaged, and so was I. At the time, I felt the best thing I could do was cut it all off. It took a bit of a tole on me, and still sort of is, but that is only because of the length of time I kept it.
I always said that I was ready to make a change in my life, but how can I make a change if I have been looking at the same person for a number of years. In order for me to change positively, I had to cut some things out of my life. The hair just happened to be a part of the things I had to change. I am growing it back, but that will take months. I am allowing myself those months to heal from the things that dismantled any unstable components of my life.
This year, a lot is changing in my life. I will be considered a legal adult soon, I will be leaving a school that I consider home, and I will be starting a higher education process at a new school. There is no possible way I will allow myself to carry the burdens and baggage of the version of me from months and in some cases, even years ago.
At this stage of my life, I just plan to take the lessons I have learned and apply them into my everyday life so that I can achieve so many exceptional things in this lifetime. Then, take those same lessons and pass them down to those behind me and hopefully make a change in this world.
