I’m Going to Yale.

It was approximately Friday, January 6, 2017, I just got home from a long day at work. I was laying in bed, scrolling Twitter, trying to decompress from the day. I’m already feeling pretty good about myself (which is rare) because a blog post of mine (Selective Outrage) was making its way around the interweb and I was getting a lot of good feedback.

I’m in bed minding my business when I get an e-mail notification. I scroll down my notification bar and I see “Invitation to Yale Bl…”

I immediately go back to Twitter because this is obviously spam. “Ain’t nobody from Yale inviting me anywhere,” I thought. So I go back to minding my business.

After a little while of just chillen, something is telling me to check my e-mail. So I do.

The email that I promptly ignored was from a student board member of the Black Solidarity Conference at Yale University. In my mind, this is still spam. “This could anyone playing a game,” I said to myself.

I continue to read about the conference, what it is, and why exactly they’re contacting me. I get to the very last portion of the email and I read,

I am writing to you on behalf of BSC because we would love the opportunity to have you speak at our conference on a panel. We are extremely interested in your work in your blog, ALotOnMyMind. We believe that your insight will complement our theme beautifully. Please let me know if you are interested in attending the event, and feel free to contact me with any further questions.

I said out loud, “STOP PLAYING WITH ME!”

I’m still in disbelief, so I get on my inspector gadget shit and pull up Google.

I Google the Black Solidary Conference and go through their website. Although it seems legit, I’m still saying to myself “This is not real. This is not real.” I truly believed someone was playing a game with me.

So I Facebook the young lady that sent me the email. She’s a real person. This is all seeming very real at this point, but I’m still saying, now audibly, “THIS. IS. NOT. REAL.”

I’m reading and researching for about 20-30 minutes before I come to the realization that, “Okay, this is real life.”

So I’m going to Yale University to speak on a panel of Black Bloggers at the 22nd Annual Black Solidary Conference!

I will be speaking on a panel alongside Hannah Giorgis of ethiopienne.com and Gabby and Toi of The Reign XY about what it means to be a Black blogger in the digital age. Our session will take place on Saturday, February 18, at 1:30 p.m.

A little bit about the Black Solidary Conference:

The Black Solidarity Conference at Yale is a completely student-run annual conference held in February.  BSC is the largest undergraduate conference held at Yale University and it continues to grow each year! BSC invites over 700 undergraduates of various races, religions, ethnicities, and communities to discuss issues pertaining to the African Diaspora. Through discussions, panels, networking, and social gatherings, students from across the country analyze issues affecting the Black/Afro-Diasporic community and explore solutions that can be implemented on their own college campuses.  In the past, the Conference has hosted Drs. Michael Eric Dyson, Angela Davis, Nikki Giovanni, and Cornel West as keynote speakers. We’ve also hosted artists such as J. Cole, Big Sean, Vic Mensa, and Phony Ppl as concert performers!

(via http://www.blacksolidarityconference.com/about)

I mean, this is the same conference that Damon Young (who is the G.O.A.T, to me, of writing/blogging/content creating) will be speaking at. The same conference that some of the most wonderful people will be speaking at, people’s who work I love, respect, and support. People like, Deray McKesson, Kimberly Foster, April Reign, Vann Newkirk, Feminista Jones, and more. The keynote speaker for this year’s conference is Opal Tometi, co-founder of Black Lives Matter. It’s crazy to think I’ll be at the same conference with people I have looked up to for years. I hope I don’t act like a groupie if I get to meet one of them.

This is my first speaking engagement of this preeminence and it’ll probably be the largest audience I’ve ever spoken in front of. I’m extremely nervous! But also abundantly honored and humbled to be in the presence of such Black excellence for a weekend. Hopefully, I can encourage another young mind to make their path just a little smoother than mine.

I  want to thank any and everyone who has ever read anything I wrote, whether on this site or somewhere else. Anyone who has ever shared my work or supported in any small way, it is all greatly appreciated!

I started blogging because I love to write and I always have A Lot On My Mind (see what I did there?), never would I thought it would lead to something like this.

So Yale University, I’ll see y’all this weekend.

…Damn, what am I gonna wear!?