So, I am sitting here trying to gather my thoughts behind this episode. This episode opens up with a skit called, “Dating These Ni**as” (handbook is coming soon by the way). This conversation started after celebrating 420 and sipping on some Jose Cuervo in my high rise and boyyyyyyy did it take a turn towards ratchetness and vulgarity lol. I had just started being comfortable with people coming over to my house and I was hosting another small gathering. The conversation started after I probably started complaining about Dating in Atlanta again. Now, I dig more into my relationships and dating life in episode 3 but for those who know me; know that I can get bored quickly. I like adventure and newness and I am a self-proclaimed relationship expert lol. So, part 1 of Dating These Ni**as opens up with naming off what type of dudes there are first. But hold tight….we’ll be breaking them down and how to date them throughout the entire season one of this podcast.
The Conversation…..
So, in this episode, I sit down with the closest person to me, Legendary LaQuita, or better known as my Ying. As in Ying and Yang get it? Lol. So, remember when I said that I was the girl that ate lunch in the bathroom because I didn’t know how to make friends. Well, that isn’t so true now as an adult lol. I have a core group of people who I trust. People who I don’t share online or even expose our relationships online because what the f*ck for? People are nosey as sh*t and I protect my peace. But at 33 and with this new series, I decided to have this conversation openly with her. My Ying!
She has seen me battle with being happy over the last few years, she has been my right hand when producing Black Writers Weekend and the AAMBC Awards over the past few years. She is also the one who got me to start writing Suga Hill when I was lacking motivation.
We talk about Hopes and Dreams in this episode from young Mika’s POVs to my current day POVs. She helped me realize that although I didn’t grow up receiving hugs from my own mother, she showed me affection in other ways. As children, we often don’t see how our parents mold us and love us and it wasn’t until I was perhaps thirty years old when I discovered there are so many ways to show love.
Delphine, my mother, bought me my first keyboard. You hear me playing it in the flashback scenes of young Mika on this series. My mother also bought me my first desk so that I could feel like a real writer. I had told her many years ago that I was going to grow up and be a writer. That I was going to grow up and move to Atlanta and write full time.
Because I was a spiritual child, I used to also see visions of myself writing in a café, sipping on coffee. Now let’s remember what time this was. This was the 90s when I was having these visions. There was no Wi-Fi then, I thought coffee was disgusting then too, and there weren’t any laptops. But there I was. I saw myself sitting in a café writing on something that wasn’t a journal and sipping on coffee.
Fast forward twenty years later……that’s my reality!
Although my mother rarely said the words, I love you and rarely hugged me, she was investing in the core elements of who I was. A creator. I hate that I can’t talk to her now and tell her that I appreciate that. I bet she saw those visions of me too now that I think about it. My mother was more gifted than me in the spiritual realm. You couldn’t even lie to her; she just always knew.
She wasn’t the most emotional and affectionate person and ironically thirty years later I am exactly like her. This is something that I talk about with my own daughter in the coming episodes.
But any who……this is my first open and vulnerable conversation that I have ever had. It’s diving in deep, exposing young Mika, and I had to have it with someone that I trusted. And even though you’ll hear us cracking jokes and talking sh*t, listen to the message that I say about Hopes and Dreams.
I may be harsh in my delivery because I don’t believe in your dreams just staying a dream. I don’t believe in just hoping for greatness. I actually go and try to achieve it. I am a very intentional person because life is short. My own mother died in front of my eyes when I was 20 years old and when you see death when you witness a soul leave, it changes you. So, I have no limits when I am pursuing my happiness because one day it’ll be all over.
I want to hear about your hopes and dreams too. If after you hear this episode you feel compelled to reach out, want some advice, need encouragement, or some tough love; hit me up. After all, I have helped hundreds of creatives dream out loud over the past few years and I am ready to push even more into walking into their purpose.
So let’s dive into episode 2…