This post is inspired by Disney's 'KC Undercover' Season 2 Episode 16 titled The Legend Of Bad, Bad Cleo Brown
I hope this post reminds you to never give up, even if not for yourself but for those who will celebrate you more than you realize you need to be celebrated and for those who will refuse to forget you. When nobody knows your name, everybody gets the chance to know you by name.
Bad, Bad Cleo Brown shows that we may often have to endure the work and times we don't like to make the changes and moves we wish to see. We may have to endure the times to finally experience the joy we have waited so long to have.
Somewhere on earth and possibly in some generation unborn I want you to know that there is a child who has a fire like yours, an interest like yours, a burning desire in them to do better and to see better times. That child, that teenager, that man or woman wants to go beyond what is usually done, within them is someone who wants to break the silence and give a voice to those who have been silenced for too long. Someone has to fight so that respect is given where it has too long been deserved, just because you have waited so long to get respect and you let it slide each time it is not given.. does not mean you have shut the portal for its entry. The respect will be given eventually and when it is given the side that humiliated you for so long will have to come out in the open with every mistake made.
Everybody doesn't start out as Cleo Brown they may start out as the other programmed hons in the agency, they may be like her two friends. When you start out like Cleo's friends you know deep down that something needs to change but you don't know what to do, the size of the task ahead overwhelms you and fear puts the task in a light that magnifies it as something that is waaay above you. Often you are the person who doesn't have the strength if you are left to make those steps on your own, you are afraid that if others don't join you in making this stand you may be wiped out mid race with nobody to account for where you stopped so that another generation can pick up the baton from that point and continue the race. Let this be your permission in the midst of your fears to make those steps anyway !
In the midst of this change, a rattling of society's comfort and the rise of bold individuals to drive this change I probably don't have to repeat the lines there is someone who ALWAYS opposes the efforts made, the person who says "don't make no trouble, aren't you thinking of the consequences this will have on the rest of us". The "I beg you, please stop trying to be a hero" folk who are actually making a call to keep you average under the pretence of only 'cautioning' you. There are also the "just because MayaAngelaBettyCorrettaElaine and them did it, so you think you a MayaAngelaBettyCorettaElaine now, who can stand up and change something". They will usually factor in things like race, age, gender, social class, appearance and anything they feel should be decided as your stumbling block. Guess what though?!
Little do people know that some of the things that make you different, which CANNOT be seen are the things that will work in you favor and with that added to a drive like yours.. Things Can Happen. Funny enough when you have proven your point and are almost about to give the credit of YOUR work to somebody else, those who discouraged you may be part of those who encourage you to finish what you started. After all seeing the end of a matter is the reward you owe to yourself.
Completion is key! Day by day complete what you start, don't fight your battles stopping halfway beat your opponent until they can't stand up and step to you ever again. Educate yourself on the journey you are taking what do you have available to you and what can you do with it. When your resources meet a limitation is there any way you can creatively overcome that limit, challenge your thinking and those around you. What did those who came before you do and learn, and what can you learn from their lessons to reach your new height in life. What will you leave as a challenge for others to overcome and exceed?
Cleo Brown made it more and more difficult for those she had to work under, to keep her invisible. You don't have to go to work everyday thinking "Hmm I wonder if I will make a superwoman move today that will make my grandkids remember me" but you do need to think about this; are you allowing yourself to sit silent on a board where your knowledge is necessary. Will you do something today that the woman you will be in 5 years will look back on and curse everything from the moon to the hay in the barn or will you do something that makes her thankful for the sacrifices she had to make. If you awaken the best YOU each morning for yourself first, undoubtedly you will enable her to meet people who she will impact. And that version of you is the one that cannot be forgotten, remember that.
" Settling on the possibility of an opportunity doesn't hinder just you but the generations who are birthed after. The actions you refuse to take and those you take both have an impact on what those after you can and cannot do, what they will have to fight for and what they will have a right to, freely."
- Pebble$
I want to publish a book, it will be a collective of my work from the start of my journey at 8 years old til Summer 2015. Hold me to it !
