Tag Archives: Benjamin E. Banneker High School

Posted on

When Death Befalls…(My Tribute to the Class of 1992)

Hello World,

Some of the graduates from the class of 1992, and our very own version of Joe Clark, Mr. Gunn, our loveable but strict principal...Remember that huge pencil he carried with him?

 

I would rather not write about this topic this morning, but I feel that I ought to do so – simply because it is a part of life although I would like to avoid it…

This week via Facebook I found out a high school classmate passed away. I was shocked and saddened to hear the news. I guess I was shocked because the last time I remember seeing her was in high school, and I remember how easily she smiled and how loudly she laughed. She was not a shy person at all. She was full of life as we all were back then…I think the very first funeral I went to was in high school. A high school classmate had committed suicide. As sorrowful as I was at that time, the fact that this classmate chose to take his own life seemed more acceptable in my mind than someone in my age group dying for a cause outside of his or her control…But as we get older, that seems to be the case more and more…and I hate it…I really do…

 I also found out via Facebook that the the viewing of her body and funeral would be nearly down the street from me, and I knew I had to go although I really didn’t want to…but I knew I had to pay homage to the girl that she was when I knew her and the woman that she became…I decided to attend the viewing…I was surprised to see how calm and even jovial her husband was at the viewing until he explained why he was determined to not be melancholy although it would be justified.  He told us  in the chapel that he was glad to see her pain and suffering end although he was sad for their two daughters that no longer have a mother…

As I said, I had not seen my high school classmate in years, and the body that I saw on Friday did not look like the vivacious person that I remembered. And I don’t want to remember her that way. That’s why I was relieved when a video of pictures from her life were shown. In all of the pictures, her easy smile was the centerpiece. And then her husband and friends shared story after story of her apparent  mischievousness. I always knew there was more to her than what I saw in the halls of Benjamin E. Banneker High School. I was reunited with a few of my high school classmates and childhood friends at the viewing, and it brought back memories of the blissfully ignorant days of childhood when the world was only as big as your block and the most evil you experienced was getting into a fight on the bus…

Yesterday, as I was driving to a more happy event, a bridal shower, I saw some kids in my neighborhood riding bikes and jumping up and down on the asphalt like they were on invisible pogo sticks. One little girl was so oblivious to the outside world that she was riding her bike with her eyes closed. I said a silent prayer for her as she whizzed by my car, and I contemplated stopping to tell her it was dangerous to ride her bike on the street out in the open with her eyes closed…But the image of her did capture my world circa the ’80s and the ’90s…I thank God and my parents that I had a really wonderful childhood…My childhood brings to mind this verse…

Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth,
Before the difficult days come,
And the years draw near when you say,  “ I have no pleasure in them.” Ecclesiastes 12:1

I don’t know why God permits death or why evil befalls us time to time, and I would prefer not to think about all of that any further this morning…This morning I want to reflect on 1992 and the years before “difficult days”  came to be…Excuse me while I open my time capsule of memories…(I wish I would have actually buried one somewhere…)

Two other trends from the '90s - fingerwaves and school boy glasses...thank God I got better with time, but you gotta love that thick and lustrous black hair...

 
    • Movies that came out in 1992 – Basic Instinct (I went out on a double date to see that movie), Wayne’s World, Sister Act, The Bodyguard (The soundtrack to this movie can stand alone), Lethal Weapon 3…
    • Songs that came out in 1992 – Baby, Baby, Baby by TLC, Jump by Kris Kross, Achy Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus (1992 was a really good year for Billy Ray, as his daughter Miley was born in 1992 as well. Can we say meal ticket? I know that was wrong…sorry…), Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana, Baby Got Back by Six Mix-A-Lot (This song made me feel pretty good that I had something to show for my love of red beans and rice..
    • Remember these slang words from the ’90s -” Boo Ya!, ” “Talk To The Hand,” “Save the drama for your mama!,” “Peace Out,” “Not!”

    Anyway, I could go on, but I won’t…Even though the class of 1992 is sure to continue dwindling as the years pass by, I promise to always remember the good times…R.I.P.  S.P.J…

Any thoughts?

This is probably my favorite song from 1992 and seems apropos right now…

Posted on

37…

Hello World!!! 

As of yesterday, I am 37 years old…Maybe that’s not a big deal if you’re 73….but if you’re me, 37 is three years away from 40…Wow! I mean it’s all good…I’m here…I’m still alive…I’m healthy as far as I know…I’m cute…but I think every year that you are alive, you should grow in wisdom and grow more into the person that God created you to be…I think I’m growing in wisdom and I have been striving to be all that God created me to be so I feel like I am making progress…But it’s just amazing that I can remember turning 13 and now I am 37…Oh yeah, maybe I am going somewhere with this post and maybe I’m not…Here’s a thought…If I could go back and tell my 13-year-old self some wisdom and some revelations about myself, below is what I would say…

1. You are enough…If the kids around you think you’re ugly or lame or lacking in any way, ignore them because you are enough…

2. Hang around some of the kids that rap and sing and maybe don’t go to class in high school because Ludacris, Bone Crusher, Tiny from Xscape better known as T.I.’s girlfriend, Mike Crooms aka DJ Smurf aka Mr. Collipark and the original DJ from OutKast went to Banneker…and maybe you could have been in their crew or a video or gotten a free album or something…

3. You will meet some of the nicest guys you will ever meet in high school…You may meet guys who have more money or  who are more sophisticated after high school but pay attention to the nice guys because you will always want be in the presence of one…

4. Having parents who have a ton of rules is actually really cool…You won’t get pregnant in high school, be tired of clubbing at age 20 or have reached your peak at age 16…

5.  Treasure your friends. No one lives forever, but the young die too…Rest in peace Shakita and Shonda…

6. That girl who threatened to “kick your heart in” in homeroom ended up on Divorce Court (yes the television show) years later looking unkempt, hefty and just plain ghetto…karma, ha!

7. Never tell a female associate about your good man because she may just take him…Shout out to N…I guess I really can’t be mad at you since you married him and everything after high school…Guess it was meant to be…But I still learned the lesson…

8. You are a writer…(Still affirming that truth…)

9. Slow down girl…Don’t believe the hype…

10. Keep journaling…It’s therapeutic and a good way to hear from God and yourself…

11. Continue to be unflinchingly polite…You will be surprised how many people don’t bother to say please, excuse me, thank you, etc. anymore…but being polite makes you feel good about yourself even if others think you’re corny…

12. Every goodbye ain’t gone, every shut eye ain’t closed and every adult ain’t grown…

13. Exercise actually feels good…

What would you tell you’re 13-year-old self if you could go back and do so?

Any thoughts?

Posted on

Post Thanksgiving Ruminations…

Check the huge red glasses and the white shoes...such a geek...My grandma, who is now deceased, and my aunt in the background...

Hello World,

I know that according to Wal-Mart and other chain super retailers, we are now officially in the Christmas season…but for me, the Christian season doesn’t actually begin until Dec. 1.

So what’s to do in those days that follow Thanksgiving leading up til the big day? Well, I decided to clean my refrigerator…I’m ashamed to say I found various sauces, condiments, salt fish, chicken etc. that probably have been there since 2008…As I type, I know my ability-to-be-a-wife quotient is probably lessening with each word…And let me add for emphasis, the reason that I finally decided to clean out my fridge is that I started to smell the fumes of something that even the nearly air tight doors could no longer keep in…(If my mom, who is super neat, read this post, she would not be happy…oh well)

So back to my gross fridge, as I was emptying the contents of my fridge into several trash bags, I decided to watch a movie…I happened upon the movie “Little Miss Sunshine.” I’ve seen it before, but it’s worth watching again…Of all of the funny yet poignant things that happened in the movie, this quote stands out…indulge me and read it…I swear I’m going somewhere…

Dwayne: I wish I could just sleep until I was eighteen and skip all this crap-high school and everything-just skip it.
Frank: Do you know who Marcel Proust is?
Dwayne: He’s the guy you teach.
Frank: Yeah. French writer. Total loser. Never had a real job. Unrequited love affairs. Gay. Spent 20 years writing a book almost no one reads. But he’s also probably the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Anyway, he uh… he gets down to the end of his life, and he looks back and decides that all those years he suffered, Those were the best years of his life, ’cause they made him who he was. All those years he was happy? You know, total waste. Didn’t learn a thing. So, if you sleep until you’re 18… Ah, think of the suffering you’re gonna miss. I mean high school? High school-those are your prime suffering years. You don’t get better suffering than that.

This is a conversation between the angst-ridden high schooler who discovers he’s color blind thereby obliterating his dream to go to flight school and his gay uncle who survived a suicide attempt. By the way, Steve Carrell plays the uncle…he is perhaps the funniest white guy ever…next to Jim Carrey…

So my question for this post is: What has suffering taught you? What are some things that pain taught you that may have not learned otherwise?  I know, I know, somewhat of a morose post after eating yummy food, reconnecting with the fam and thanking God from whom all blessings flow and what not…

Since high school suffering was mentioned in the movie, I gotta say most of the people that were hella popular in high school probably should have suffered just a little bit…it would have given them something to aim for…as it stands now, a majority of the people that seemed to be on top then don’t seem to be too interesting now…and some of them look practically ancient…guess if you start clubbin’, boozin’ and wilin’ out at 15, you’re bound to look old in your mid ’30s. 

High school Jackie went through some suffering…She couldn’t go to parties…She wore big red classes that covered more than half of her face…She could date when she was 16, but wasn’t asked out until she was 17…She was not asked to be in any of the cliques…She frequently spent time an inch away from the mirror analyzing her eyebrows…She was accused of smelling like fish because she had a penchant for eating salmon croquettes before football games…and on and on…

(Yes, I was referring to myself in the third person…) Truthfully, I was in the low B maybe High C crowd…definitely not an A lister. Well, what did it all teach me? Well for one, I wasn’t drinkin’ and clubbin’.  I’m sure that my youthful glow is due, in part, to my delayed entry into the club scene…Also, I was forced to develop friendships with people based on personality rather than popularity…And as result, some of those people are still my friends today…And it made me yearn for something better…i.e. college…I was convinced I was going to be The Truth just beyond the “insipidia” (made up word) commonly referred to as high school… Sidebar: I must say though many of the rappers that hail from the A or their wives graced the halls of Benjamin E. Banneker High School, and many of them were kinda popular even back then…oh well…but I do believe they are the exception rather than the rule…

Since I decided to become a Christian, I have suffered through trials due to my stance on certain issues…It has not been pretty. As people say, Jesus won’t bear the cross by Himself. If you believe in Him, at some point, you have to suffer…no I have not been persecuted like what is described in the Bible, but I have been ridiculed by people for my beliefs…I wrote an article on “The Prayer of Jabez” frenzy…remember that…So I met the author of the book, Bruce Wilkinson, at a rally, and I wrote about him and the rally…So my editor had to read the article before it was published…Below is a snippet of the conversation that took place during the editing process…

Ogre boss reclines in her easy chair. Her office door is ajar so she can conveniently bark orders at random to cringing staff in the newsroom.

Ogre boss: Hey Jackie!

Jackie: (Holding her arms around herself to somehow visibly shield herself from the verbal assault sure to ignite…) Yes…

Ogre boss: When you pray “The Prayer of Jabez,” do you pray for a new boss?

She cackles and snorts similar to the Wicked Witch of the West in “The Wizard of Oz.”

I say nothing…what was there to say…I know what I felt like saying…I won’t say because some of y’all think it’s not appropriate for Christians to curse…(Good thing, you’re not with me 24/7.)

Six months later, she fired me…Good riddance I say….And I moved on to a better situation in every way…suffering taught me that God can protect me – even from people who don’t like me because I’m a Christian, cuter, younger and even more talented – bitter, you say?…naw…really though, it’s all good…

And the truth is, the best writers have suffered through some thing…. How else can you write something that moves people? I could go on, but eh, I don’t feel like it…

So what has suffering taught you? Marinate on that…AND post comments on that..please…

I will add this…my absolute fave verse in the Bible…

All things (GOOD & BAD things that happen) work together for GOOD for THOSE who love Him and are called according to HIS purpose. Romans 8:28

God can bring good out of suffering…

P.S. I’m sure that Nelson Mandela suffered terribly while he was in jail for 27 years, but I’m sure that the same internal fortitude he developed in jail as a result led him to being the first elected president of South Africa…Yes, I plan to see the new movie “Invictus.”