Check out this great info graphic as we prepare for a 4:00 p.m. kickoff this Saturday against the TRIBE of William & Mary. Beginning 50 years of Lane Stadium football, this will be the first season in 6 years that I don’t have season tickets – becuase I am no longer a student!!
It’s a bummer but it’s excited to usher in a new era of Hokie football nonetheless, and you know I’ll be in Blacksburg to check out the Hokies in person before the season ends! I’ll be jingling my keys on third down from the middle of the Atlantic ocean. :)
Image borrowed with all credit given to @VT_Football.
Little known fact: W&M was 1 of 5 schools that I applied to as a high school senior. Obviously, VT won out. :) GO HOKIES!
Took a spontaneous road trip to the deep south to celebrate my mother’s birthday this week, so I won’t be around much! But, there was one thing I absolutely needed to share – and that was this video of my little cousin just getting his MOVES on! It’s great…check it out. Let me know if you have any props for him, I’ll be sure to pass them on to little MJ!
Back-to-school season is upon us! In honor of the season, I wanted to share this very interesting info-graphic I recently found on the pages of LinkedIn while perusing a little morning news. It talks about the value of a college education that one might not be able to deduce on paper.
Now, let’s be clear…even though I have a Master’s in Higher Education that does NOT mean that I believe college is for everyone, that it is a black & white indicator of success, or that it is a one-way street to greater achievement. Simply put, I do not. While I believe strongly in higher education for ME, I have met a plethora of people over the years who don’t need a college degree to feel or to be successful, based on however THEY define success.
Nonetheless, I thought the graphic was interesting. Enjoy & let me know what you think of it!
I also want to note that I think the last two sections of the graphic are the most important where it talks about the importance of college with regard to development and learning life skills. Student development for the win!
Last night, I just happened to be going through the backend of the website, cleaning up a few things before I hit the road for a few days. Specifically, I was making an attempt at consolidating a lot of the categories that I formerly used to categorize blog posts as I wrote them. As I’ve revamped the site over the past few weeks and months, many of them just weren’t as relevant. This long, long process took me back to 2011 and reminded me that my blog and brand were originally established for that Homecoming campaign way back when in senior year of college. :) This morning, I was reminded me of that yet again with a message from one of my best friends.
Now, I don’t necessarily think I was robbed per se, but it’s always nice to see a HESONWHEEELS shirt floating around out there in the wild!
Seeing that immediately took me back to a message I received earlier this year from a friend who had been inside a local Goodwill thrift shop. We eventually established the “Ultimate Hokie” bucket list as a result. Ask about THAT, it’s too funny. :)
Chef J. Gravy is making a temporary comeback, y’all! I realize I’ll be traveling a ton over the next few weeks so I wanted to get into the kitchen. I took a stab at three different dishes, each including wonton wrappers as the ingredient of the day. :) More later!
A lot of different ingredients in the mix here tonight!
Even with everything currently going on in Missouri, I’m not one to get into race relations very often. Just as with religion I believe that race is something that can be so automatically divisive, if one allows it to be. And it is my personal belief, that most of us allow just that. Yet, I’ve never understood why we do. When it comes to race, religion, gender, politics, and other sensitive social topics, I am a very open person. I consider myself to be an open person in terms of the fact that I try my best to understand the perspectives of others and not immediately impress my own views upon them.
On that note, I can’t stand it when people say “Oh, I don’t see color,” or “I don’t see your disability.” First of all, let’s face it: it is quite obvious that I am an African-American male with a disability. I think that statements such as “I don’t see color” are pretty absurd. I think that these things (race, gender, ability) are impossible to ignore. In fact, I think it important to see those things in people becuase they inform our perspectives, our ontology, where we’ve been in life, and quite frankly how we’re moving forward as well.
What is important is to NOT JUDGE someone based on those things. You should see those things in others but not let them affect allow you to judge you treat them, especially if you don’t know the individual person.
When it comes to disability advocacy, I always stress the empirically proven importance of person-first language. I.e., I’m not a “disabled person” I am a “person with disability.” There is a stark difference in not only speaking differently but in how it affects your mental perceptions as well. Person-first, identity-first, and identity-centric thinking is so valuable when it comes to interacting with anyone, especially those who may be different than you.
So, when Billy showed me a video excerpt of Morgan Freeman on 60 Minutes, I was taken aback. I had never seen it before but was actually pretty annoyed that I had not. I feel as if this 60-second clip, point blank, is 100% identical to how I feel about the same exact topic. In fact, it extends from race to politics, race, class, ability, gender…the list goes on.
I’ve always respected Mr. Freeman and I do even more now. Check out the interview below.
