Category: The Journey
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Keep Nkemjika in mind, whether you succeed or fail!
One of the first priorities I learnt early on in academia was survival. Armed with the determination that my career and journey would have shape, I enlisted the support of other women and men too. Maybe it’s the fact that they were women, mothers themselves, women or men of color, I knew they would lay…
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Keep Isioma or knowing one’s destiny!
My middle name is Isioma. It’s what I am called within my inner circle and family. It’s from my Igbo language. ‘Isi’ literally means head, symbolic of one’s aura and destiny, while ‘oma’ means good. Isioma, then put together means- one with good head on their shoulders and a good destiny. I have always wondered…
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Keep Jazmond Dixon and her love for baking in mind!
She loved to bake. I imagine her cake would have been moist and fluffy or her cookies, golden brown and warm, all of them as delicious as her smile. Her baking business would be crowded too, maybe decorated with hints of purple, with lavender flowers all over like her eyeglasses. None of this would ever…
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Keep Nkolika or recalling with mothering!
Have you ever thought of stories you would want to read? Stories often not captured in mainstream writing. I suppose they say that’s what writers in most cases seek to do. To put in words, language they would have preferred that they read first. In the absence of such language, they picked up their pen…
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Keep the distinctive culture-bearing power of grandmothers!
I grew up in a family dominated by authoritative and assertive women. I remember my grandmother, a no-nonsense woman, who would bathe you, feed you, or love and hug you with one arm, and spank you with the other if you misbehaved. Women like my grandmother were never afraid to speak their mind. She was…
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Keep stories of the dead of COVID-19 in mind.
We all called him Jacob. He was a gentle soul, a true gentleman. He also loved his birth country Ghana, hypertension research and golf. When the news of Tiger Woods accident was shown all over the news yesterday, Jacob came to mind. He fiercely loved Tiger Woods and would have given anything I am sure…
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Keep stories, like sustainability, in mind!
One of my favorite aspects of the novel Anthills of the Savannah’s by Chinua Achebe is the focus on the power of the story and the storyteller. In it Achebe reminds us of ‘stories being our escorts, and our guides’ through life. Some people, the novel notes, have been given the gift of leadership, summoning…
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Keep persisting with mothering love!
I have got three bright sons, one barely 7 months old, the other 4 years of age, and my first, 6 years old. Like most mothers raising black boys in America, I fear always, like I am raising targets. No amount of my education, my gender or even class, can protect my sons from the…
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Keep being an instrument of Peace!
Can one become an instrument of Peace? The prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi insists it is possible. So does the late Dr. Howard Thurman, the former spiritual mentor of the late Dr. Martin Luther King. That we can pray to become an instrument of Peace, was something he described ‘as the most insistent conditions…
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Keep knowing who you are!
‘Do you know who you are without what you do?’ These words were spoken often during my doctoral studies at Penn State University by my doctoral advisor, Dr. Collins Airhihenbuwa. To him, our research identities, often influenced the research we conducted. If all you see is what you do, he would go on to say,…
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Keep telling stories!
I have been reading lately about stories. About the story of stories. About the importance of telling stories. Those you pass on and those you don’t. Those told about you, and those you tell. Those that provide opportunities to be and become the Other. Those that are our guide, those that direct us, for without…
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Keep knowing how lucky you are!
In the middle of a very chaotic day, with my house literally in shambles, a stranger knocked at my door. He plowed snow for other homeowners in our village and wanted to know if we needed help plowing our snow. He noted that he used to plow for the previous owner and he would love…
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Writing with Juliet Iwelunmor 