WAOD Reader RhondaCoca Graduates from Columbia University on Wednesday- Any Advice?

Congrats to WAOD reader RhondaCoca, she graduates from Columbia on Wednesday. Though my colloquialisms and frequent typos bely the fact, I am a college graduate. So here are my observations/ advice regarding the transition you are about to experience.

1. Time passes faster. Now that you are not in school, there is no road map. NO schedules. That's good and that's bad. If you have kids, or plants or a calendar-driven job, you will notice the passage of time, but don't be surprised if you look up in January and suddenly realize its October, time seems to pass faster.
2. Keeping up with your friends will take more effort, but it is OH SO WORTH IT! Don't let the rat race make you lose contact. Don't take for granted that you won'tlose contact. A week turns into a month, months turns into years and the next thing you know you are getting an invite to their kid's college graduation. I mean who else is going to remember the time y'all piled five people into a Geo Metro to go on Spring Break? Or the time your home girl involved you some covert operations to check up on some guy who wasn't worth it in the first place, but you kept that to yourself because she was too far gone to reason with.
   
3. Don't live within your means, LIVE WELL BELOW YOUR MEANS. Let me introduce you to a man named Dave Ramsey. If you have an I-pod just go ahead and subscribe to his podcast. Friday's are the best. No matter how much you make or how large those student loans are, set aside something every paycheck for a rainy day. You might not be able to make 10%, start with 5%. If you can't seem to find the money, donate your plasma or recycle aluminum cans. That Ramen noodles foolishness is for the younguns with all of that sodium. Which takes us to your health...
4. Health insurance- Get it, keep it, use it. You will soon learn that STD is something else other than a disease. While you are at it look into LTD. You are not invincible, your body will get older. Remember those all nighters where you could stay up all night studying drinking Mountain Dew cramming for exams and then bounce back the next day...Your body will soon exercise veto power over your choices and in the event of a dispute, your body will win out. Never EVER force your body to get your attention, you will regret it! Know when to quit .... which takes us to the the word "NO."
5. Learn when to say "NO!"- No, N-O, Heck NO, Not in a million years NO, Under no circumstances NO. N to the iz-O, Nah, UH uh, Sorry but NO. When asked to explain your "No." Silence is an appropriate answer along with smiling with your mouth and not your eyes. You don't owe folks an explanation for the NO. Practice with us Nuh OH- NO! School no longer provides structure and boundaries, you have to establish those for yourself.
6. Live the life you were destined to live, not the one you planned or trained for. There may come a time in your life where the Universe will tug you in a direction other than where your training and education would logically lead. Don't be a slave to the college major you chose when you were 18 or 21. Don't be shackled by the expectations of others or yourself. If you find yourself frustrated and hitting a wall. Break the rules. No, don't go get arrested or something crazy like that, but reevaluate all the things you say you MUST do, the things you said you WOULD NOT EVER DO, and the things you thought you COULDN'T DO. You only get one life, this is not a dress rehearsal. Everyday you spend trying to live the life you think someone else thought you should lead as opposed to the one you were destined to lead is lost and gone forever. See #1- Time passes fast.
   
7. Get a bicycle!- These gas prices are no joke!

Y'all got any additional advice for a recent college grad? If you are about to be a college graduate and want to ask other WAOD readers for their advice about the transition, leave it in the comments.

Black Woman to Lead California's General Assembly!

YAY! Some good news courtesy of WAOD reader Cara.

Karen Bass became the first Black woman to lead a state legislative body in the country. She is a former community activist from Los Angeles.

Schwarzenegger praised Bass as an "extraordinary person," and said she earned her post as one of the most powerful politicians in California "the old-fashioned way -- she worked."

He also touched upon the tragedy Bass endured two years ago, when her 23-year-old daughter and son-in-law were killed in a Los Angeles car crash. Bass had recently said that she would give up her political career to spend one more day with her daughter.

"That says everything about you," Schwarzenegger said.

Bass held no elected office before winning an Assembly seat in 2004 to represent a district that includes West Los Angeles, Culver City and Baldwin Hills. A physician assistant raised by a homemaker and mail carrier in the Venice-Fairfax area, Bass sought in the early 1990s to find solutions to drug addiction, gun violence and other social ills she witnessed treating emergency room patients. LA TIMES

See, she did not come out of the cradle wanting to be the most powerful Black woman in the state legislature. She started down this path out of righteous indignation caused by what she saw in her workplace. Ordinary people can make a difference. You just have to care about somethign enough to act.

I'm loving it. Send me more good news. You can send the bad too, but variety is a good thing!

WAOD GOOD NEWS: Who Would You Be If You Weren't Busy Trying to Be Who You Thought Folks Think You Are Edition.

Ah yes, more good news. It ain't as popular as the bad, but it will do.
Britney Spear's 16 year-old sister Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant by her 19 year-old-boyfriend. Gina, how is that good news? Well first, it is good news because it wasn't Raven Symone, Kayla Pratt, or Keke Palmer. Mothers, please don't let your 16 year old daughter live with her 19 year-old boyfriend, things like this tend to happen.
No really, on to the good news.

Laura's Good News

Hi,
I wanted to add an amazing woman to your 'good news' posts: Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic University. She is one of my personal heroes, and if your readership doesn't know about her, they should! She was the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from MIT, and served as the chairperson of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency under Pres. Clinton. Now she is being lauded for her innovative leadership at RPI. Here's a link to a story about her in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Charles' Good News
Charles wants us to know that Black don't crack. He sent in this piece from ESSENCE online with beautiful Black women of a certain age. They look wonderful and they are giving their tips on how to stay and look young.

Tami's Good News

NOW NYC is on Viacom's case. It's always a good thing when women speak up for themselves.

Tami I just wish they would target a couple of Viacom's advertisers. You can't really boycott a cable station, they get paid whether you watch or not, but it is a good start who knows what the next step will be.

Latonya's Good News

How are you? Here's one more piece of 'good news' about an African American woman handling business. Please see the attached article about Dr. Connie Calloway, the new superintendent of Detroit Public Schools. DPS schools have been a problem for a long time and it looks like she's kicking butt and taking names. I hope she's able to keep the momentum moving forward.

Yes, y'all pray for Dr. Calloway AND Detroit.

Sakinah's Good News – Venus Williams
Venus Williams got a degree in fashion design.

Unlike many sports stars, it looks like she is planning for her future
beyond tennis.

Carla's Good News

Here's a link to a story about how a 7 year old girl in Vallejo, CA saved her family and all the other residents of her building when she woke up and realized the house was on fire. She'd just learned about fire safety in school and I guess the lesson really stuck with her.

Karen's Good News

My God daughter is a third year student at Northeastern University majoring in Architecture and just got accepted into an internship to study architecture in Rome next semester!

My son is a third year student at Howard University, my Alma Mater majoring in communications and doing very well. In addition to that he is working with a Hip-Hop website interviewing many artists and entertainers. I am an Educator, an African American single mom who is extremely proud of him. Give it up for the young folks! When our young people do good, that's good news for all of us!

AJ's Good News

The international services and social change volunteer organization, The One World Foundation, will be sending Black American and other youths of color to India this Summer 2008 to work on humanitarian, health, women, and human rights projects. Why is this good news? The One World Foundation was started by two African American Women and is one of the first NGO's of its kind to independently send volunteers of color to countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. If you want, you can read about them here: www.theoneworldfoundation.org.
BTW, the two ladies that founded The One World Foundation are Dana Olds and Tiffany Gardner - just thought I should put that out there. Good work, ladies! Black women affecting global change!

Linda's Good News

NPR : Maverick Science Teacher Wins Big Prize. Good news about a Black women who wins an award. Who says we dont understand science!!!

I am loving it! Folks keep it coming and keep the good news “post-ready”- I'm not doing much editing on these and that saves me time and increases the likelihood your good news will make the cut. Good news indeed!

Who Would You Be If You Weren't Trying to Be Who You Thought Other Folks Think You Are?

Can you believe that there are actually people who are criticizing WAOD for running good news? BAWHAH. The good news is that it is now confirmed I can officially say whatever in the heck I want to because no matter what I write about, some folks will have a negative reaction. I could say nothing at all and folks would have something negative to say. The benefit of routinely catching it from all sides is that you eventually become liberated from the fear criticism. It still sucks, but not as much as it would have a year ago.

What does that have to do with you? There are a lot of you out there who are stuck. You're stuck financially. You're stuck professionally. You're stuck in a relationship you don't want to be stuck in. You're stuck playing a role you don't want to play.

You're stuck because in order to get unstuck, you would have to make radical decisions and changes in your life that the people around you may not understand, support or agree with. I'm a living witness that if you change your mind, you can and will change your life. All of those opinions you are worried about are going to be there whether you stay stuck in a life that is not yours or are daring enough to make the leaps of faith necessary to live the life you were destined to live. Who would you be if you weren't trying to be who you thought folks thought your were? (confusing yet profound-think about it).

So the good news is that all you have to do to change your life is to change your mind. Once you start doing that, the Universe starts making a way. I don't understand it. I just know it. Just leap from your life. You'll figure out how to land on the way down...OR NOT!

GOOD NEWS FROM WAOD: The Whole World Ain't Going to Hell in a Handbasket Edition

Whew Chile'. Y'all had moi worried that folks were having trouble with reading comprehension. Either that or we are so gloomy and doomy round' heya that people can't differentiate good news from bad news anymore. Secondly, they have difficulty differentiating when the good news is about Black women and girls vs. somebody else. I've been handing out rejections, but folks were undaunted, some folks came back again and again until finally, the good news started flowing. There is hope!I am particularly proud of my beloved LURKERS, those who read and never comment- the vast majority of WAOD readership, they have been on the ball. And now for some good news...

Michelle's Good News

Ruth Simmons, president of Brown University, is very popular among students and is one of Glamour's women of the year.

YAY! Ruth Simmons! Michelle also wanted to pass on this good news:

My friend, Nuala Cabral's documentary about women and hip-hop, "Who's That Girl" was aired on Rhode Island PBS.

Yay Nuala!

Charles' Good News

After his first effort, his subsequent good news submissions were rejected, but undaunted, Charles kept coming back with story ideas and he finally hit the jackpot. Yes, it deals with violent crime, but it is about something we complained about, the lack of coverage of Alexis Goggin's story, well the Alexis Goggins story has finally hit a national wire service. Yahoo News is carrying the story out of the Detroit bureau of the Associated Press. They are about TWO WEEKS late, but they got around to it. Read about what Alexis' classmates are doing while she is out recuperating.

In Alexis' special education classroom at Campbell Elementary School, her classmates have named a stuffed toy with pink ears "Hero.""We didn't want Alexis' spot to be vacant, so she's got a sweet bear to sit in her place until she comes back," said her teacher, Angela Lang. SOURCE

Yay Alexis and Yay Charles for their resilience. Y'all pray for both of them.

Latonya's Good News

Y'all give a round of applause to WAOD reader Latonya she just got some sheepskin and her daughter, Sarah is intellectually curious:

I just wanted to say that this past Saturday I completed my final class for my BA in Health Services Administration! I'm a returning student (took me more than 10 years to do it) and with a full-time job, husband, and 8 year old daughter, it wasn't easy. And, I've been accepted to grad school starting in August! Thank you for giving me a forum to shout this from the rooftops. lol.

My 8 year old daughter Sarah, has a very strong interest in math and science. Her favorite thing to do in math is story problems (I guess because no has told her that most people hate them and think they are hard) and she loves to do experiments (if you can't find the lotion, soap, salt, etc, it's because she's probably tried mixing them together to make a new potion - she knows the household cleaning products are off limits). Oh yeah, she loves sparkly dresses, makeup, and wigs. She signed herself up for Academic Games at her school and is doing pretty well. Her dad and I are so proud of her and do what we can to encourage her. Her goal in life is to be an orthodontist.

All you who keep emailing me about how much education you DON'T have, look at Latoya, it took her a decade to get it done and now she is signing up for more by going to grad school. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Get ta' steppin'. If you want a degree and go get it. On your terms, not on anybody else's

Miriam's Good News

Miriam, who lives in Israel, reports that Israel is opening its arms to Sudanese refugees.

Shecode's Good News

Proctor & Gamble's 'My Black is beautiful' campaign is definitely good news for black women and girls everywhere.

"My Black is Beautiful" is a celebration of African American beauty in all of its manifestations. Although conceived by Procter & Gamble (P&G), it is a national conversation-hosted by African American women-about how they define and promote their own beauty standards.

P&G celebrates African American women and challenge the sometimes difficult ways in which that beauty is reflected in popular media. As the leading manufacturer of beauty products for African American women—including Pantene Relaxed & Natural, CoverGirl Queen, Olay Definity, Tampax and Always—P&G believes it is, now more than ever, important to ignite and lead a celebration of and national discussion surrounding African American beauty.Let's acknowledge, support and celebrate corporations that acknowledge, support and celebrate us!

Yes, now if they could only stop handing over hundreds of millions to Viacom to put on the Trilogy of Tawdriness and stop aiding and abetting BET, P&G would be good in my book. Y'all know P&G is one of the BIGGEST advertisers out there. We gon' need to have a conversation with them in 2008. You can't sell me health and beauty products and then use my money to help destroy me and future generations of Black girls... But yes, it is a step in the right direction. Yay My Black Is Beautiful, now if only we could get them to adopt advertising guidelines which prohibit subsidizing the Misogyny Industrial Complex. Baby steps!

AJ's Good News

I originally panned this good news because yet again, it was about a Black man, but my Black male focus group, chimed in that all of these crimes we are depressed and angry about are committed by predatory Black men so it is good news when a Black man appears to be supportive, loving and caring. Who say's I don't listen...

I know Good News is not just about Hollywood entertainers, but I felt that this should be acknowledged. We always hear and see so much bad news about how Black men have stopped even trying to relate to us as Black women or are purposefully trying to denigrate us, but I give Will Smith his props for remembering what it means to be a real man - in particular, a real Black man. His words about the women in his life are inspirational.
-AJ

Will Smith believes he always has to be at his best, otherwise wife Jada Pinkett might leave him like his first love did. The actor reveals he cannot live unless Jada acknowledges him as the greatest man alive. This makes him work towards perfection as a father, husband and businessman. "My grandmother just thought that I was just the greatest... There was a look of pride that my grandmother had in her eyes that became the fuel that I need for life.

“I need my woman, my mother, my daughter and women in general to look at me with that look that my grandmother had. I was about 15 years old when my first girlfriend cheated on me and it so destroyed my concept of myself that I wasn’t good enough. I remember lying in my bed and making a decision that I would never not be good enough again.

“I may have gone a little overboard with it in my mind but every single day Jada must have the look. I can’t function if she doesn’t have that look in her eyes. That means in my movies, as a father, as a husband. I have to educate myself to the place that I can contend as the best on earth and that’s the only way to keep my woman from leaving me.” Contact Music

Ain't that just beautiful! Somebody write me a screen play about that! Write me some lyrics about that right there!

Alfred's Good News

Here is my first submission for the good news train are actually two women: Patricia Dugas and Wiande Moore. Dugas is the mother and Moore the fiance' of injured football player Kevin Everett. Kevin Everett, a player for the Buffalo Bills, was seriously injured making a tackle during a play during the first play of the season. He spine was paralyzed and he nearly died. But thanks to the love, dedication and prayers of these two women in addition to family, friends and the doctor who operated on him, Everett is walking again. The faith and love these two women exhibit is heartwarming and you can read the article, courtesy of Sports Illustrated online.

Yay Patricia and Wiande! Love- It's a beautiful thing

Great! Great! Wonderful Wonderful! Let's keep up the good work. Keep your submissions post-ready and include the links. I am so proud of my LURKERS for stepping out there. See, it was the lurkers that came through with the good news when moi needed it. How will the frequent comment-ors aka, “My Problem Children” respond?

Don't forget you can call in to the Black Women's Roundtable to share your good news live with the entire WORLD. Want to propose to your fiance'? Do it on the podcast and download it to her I-pod. Give a shout out to the kids. That this Thursday at 8:00PM CST on the Black Women's Roundtable Radio Show. Streaming live and downloadable on Itunes

Subscribe in itunes

Good News:WAOD Readers Share Theirs (At Least they Tried )

Well I have to give folks credit for trying. This wasn't quite what I had in mind when I asked for good news, but I am going to post it anyway. Folks I am looking for good news about Black women and girls to counteract all the BAD. It does not have to come from a news article. Maybe you had some good news in you life this year that you want to share.

Our first Good News post in our season of holiday delusion:


Charles' Good News
Charles' good news is that Jackson State beat Grambling to win the SWAC football championship. Good news for Jackson State fans. Not so sure Grambling fans would feel the same, but hey it's good news to somebody!

Also courtesy of Charles, the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND) is having a toy give away in Los Angeles...with Dog the Bounty Hunter. It's a toy give away. That's good news, unless the toys were manufactured in China which means that they probably contain high doses of lead and toxins, but it's a toy give away at Christmas. Great first effort Charles.


Sharon's Good News
Sharon wants y'all to know that she thinks Will Smith's latest movie is good news:

This film and its wonderful ending, not only recalls the Blackness of Christ, but shows a brilliant wonderful military (admittedly on the wrong side for this muslim, but OK) scientific brother. Will Smith is a BLACK MAN who should be praised.
Kudos

Stop Hair Loss' Good News
Stop Hair Loss wants y'all to know that they think that Barack Obama is good news:

Good news, Gina,

Barack Obama is running for president! For all of yall who are still mystified by Obama's campaign and his message, please visit his site http://www.barackobama.com/issues/ and gain some clarity on exactly what he stands for and what legislation he has and is planning to pass that is specific to the black community.

I hear black people say all the time, why he don't talk about race?, what he gonna do for black women? I strongly urge you to visit his site, do some research, whatever--you're a smart woman. The issues that he addresses are intrinsically issues that affect black people disproportionately. Yes, Obama and his campaign should do a better job at promoting his platform but we who support him can do our part and make others aware of Obama's track record as a senator and presidential plans. But actually I attended the Obama/Oprah rally in Columbia on 12/9. He did touch on his presidential plans--education, healthcare, families, minimum wage, cooperate reform, war, etc.

Do we need to hear him say I support black people or this is what I'm going to do for black folk. Is his not tackling all of the aforementioned issues, social concerns specific to the black community. We would rather have sounding brass tinkling cymbal commitments from other candidates (by others I mean Billary) about what they're going to do for black people. Hillary's entertainment of going to war with Iran should alone knock her out of the box for prospective candidates that black people support. Whatever she's aiming to do as president, she wont be able because wars cost money and divert money from homeland policies. Whatever she's aiming to do as president, she wont be able because cooperations have grossly contributed to her senatorial career and too many people own her. Please spread the love; repackage this email and post it to your blog.

Peace and Blessings,
stophairloss

Yeah, that good news just left me all warm and fuzzy. Note to readers, as you can imagine this blog keeps me extremely busy so sending me an email instructing me to do more work, no matter how minor is a drag. So um that's a NO on repackaging an email and conducting additional research. If you send it, send it post- ready. You have been warned.


Now Let's Try This Again.
OOOOkay, well that was a start. At least I got emails about something other than rapes, murders and kidnappings of Black women and children. None of these were about Black women or girls, but hopefully that will change in the coming days. So WAOD wants to hear good news about Black women and girls. Let me repeat...Black women and girls. Not because we don't care about everybody else's good news, but because this blog is called What About Our Daughters? Not, What About Everybody Else BUT Black Women and Girls?


Great First Effort Folks!