Saturday I caught a glimpse of the good life.
After the kid’s gymnastics class, my mother and I went to look at a house. Not a house we were intending to buy, but a house that’s being rehabbed by my former boss (and my mom’s current boss), the principal of the school where I previously taught.
Although the house was cool, it still needed quite a bit of work. But that wasn’t the best part. After we saw the house, the principal invited us over to her place for a drink. As we drove through Windsor Hills, an affluent/upper-middle class Black neighborhood adjacent to Baldwin Hills, I took in the view.
Many times, while I was growing up in South-Central, I would dream about living in that area. The houses were large, the yards sprawling and green, and the neighbors still looked liked me, but had more money. Even though I’ve been out of “the hood” for many years now, a part of me still would love to live in “Black Beverly Hills.”
The principal’s house is AMAZING. Marble floors, steam showers, a custom kitchen, a pool with a waterfall Jacuzzi. My breath literally caught in my throat. It. Was. Beautiful. All while we were there I could picture myself living in a house like that. Having enough space to entertain, my son having enough space to run and play, and just having a place to LIVE, truly live and have a wonderful life.
The principal works hard. Not only has she been with the district for over 30 years, she owns and manages property, she’s a dental hygienist, and about a million other things. I need to sit and take lessons, because this sista is the QUEEN of lucrative side-hustles! But she has created the life that she wants and it reaffirmed in me that in order to have the life that I want, I have to go out and work for it. No one else is going to go out to grab it for me.
This year is all about growth. Not just because I’m turning 30, but also because I don’t want to waste any more time spinning my wheels. I don’t want to look back on another year and think it was wasted, or that I didn’t move closer to my goals. So I am energized. I know what I want, and I know that only I can get myself there.
This feeling of…being in control of your own shit is scary. But it’s also very liberating. At the end of the year, I pray I will look back and be happy at how far I’ve come.
Ashe.
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Where do you want to be at the end of 2010?
Have you caught a glimpse of the life you want?
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