Ending the Year Stong

My friend Terrell (who has a blog he's working on) agitated me into working on my blog today. I hadn't really gotten a chance to update my readers on my life since November, and even in my previous updates I really didn't give a proper update.

In November, I went to San Jose, California for a 5 day national community organizing training hosted by the Industrial Areas Foundation. The highlight (or lowlight) was that I missed my first flight and caught the ire of acclaimed Organizer - and my employer - Ernesto Cortez.  I learned a lot about what it takes to build positive relationships and what is needed to challenge leaders to shape and develop our communities.  After the training, I flew back home to work on my first action in Baton Rouge.

Me and my younger brother Aaren during Thanksgiving Break.

Immediately following that action, I finally got to return home to Detroit to see all of my wonderful friends and family. I got to enjoy everything that a Midwestern boy would love to do during a beautiful November weekend.
My alma mater, the University of Michigan played its arch-rival Ohio State in the fall classic and we came away with our first  victory in seven tries. I also got to see my "middle school crew" as we celebrated my friend Shaina's birthday. I even mixed up my friend circle's a bit and brought alone my "best female friend from college", Christina to party with us.


But the highlight of the weekend was the Jay-Z & Kanye West "Watch The Throne" tour stop in Detroit. Me and my friend Terrell lucked out by having floor seats that were literally right in front of the stage. There were a lot of our friends who were at the show and "Watch The Throne" was the hottest ticket in town. Not only was Jay-Z & Kanye's performance electric, but we had better seats than some of the celebs that we saw in attendance. The only things I would say I was disappointed in was that the concert started two hours late, a guy tried to fight me because I asked him to sit down because he was blocking me by standing on the chairs and they did seven encores of "Niggas In Paris" (after hearing a song that many times, I no longer want to hear it on my Ipod or the radio).  Otherwise it was dope.

When I got back to Baton Rouge, it was right back to work. I went to a training seminar in Austin, where the topic of discussion was centered around John Casey's "Pagan Virtues". Our conversations focused on Aristotle's definition of pronesis & practical wisdom and what virtues ultimately make a good leader. While I appreciated the conversation and the opportunity to develop a different theoretical framework to understand leadership development, I must say that I was incredibly intimidated on an intellectual level for the first time.

Our conversations continued in New Orleans this past week, as organizers from across the Southwest got together to talk about what does it take to build political judgement. Unfortunately, I got to this meeting late because of car issues and received more flack from my executive director. The final blow (which could potentially affect me getting home for Christmas) is that the breaks on my car completely blew out and I was forced to spend $900 on new breaks, tires, and the maintenance. :(

Baton Rouge is getting better. I am meeting people and I am starting to have some semblance of fun. All in all, with everything bad and the struggles at figuring out how to be a good organizer, I am excited for the New Year for the first time in a very long time. I look forward to spending it with friends and my loving family.