Ubiquitous Writer

Last Friday I went to the Black Business Leaders Luncheon held at the Rusty Pelican restaurant. Even though it was Casual Friday, I wore my blue striped shirt with my grey pantsuit and glasses. I was feeling so good that I had my co-workers take a picture of me before I went.

I was so excited to go to this luncheon because I knew that I would be representing my company and possibly meeting most of the Black business leaders in my city.

My company VP and I arrived a bit early and when we walked in everyone was still mingling. I saw my old highschool activities director and went over to say Hi to her and my co-worker disappeared into the crowd to speak to whoever she knew.

I stook there by myself for a minute, put on my best face and looked around. “Ok, whoever is standing by themselves is going to talk to me.” I told myself.

To my left a guy was standing there with a smug expression on his face and his hands in his pocket. I walked over to him and introduced myself. He engaged me in coversation for a while. I teased him about being all alone and he told me that he didn’t really want to come but that his company told him to come so that they could fill up the table they had sponsored. He looked at his watch and shook his head. “UM (University of Miami) is playing right now and I planned to use my lunch break to watch the game, but I’m here instead.”

I laughed at him. He laughed too. “Poor baby,” I told him. I then explained to him how happy I am about my life right now and how exciting my future was. I was in an extremely great mood and all my cheerful banter came tumbling out as we stood side by side in the lobby.

After a momentay pause in conversation, he told me that he was going to find his table and that he hoped we’d keep in touch. He handed me his business card, I dropped it into my bag and walked off to meet the next person standing alone.

OH MY GOSH! I met so many people that day! I met commissioners, judges, doctors, business men and women! I met Mayors and assistants and lawyers too! The great thing about being introduced under my company’s name is the fact that my company president has a STELLAR reputation and being attached to that is great for me!

One judge said to me, “Welcome to the family,” referring to the Miami Business Leaders family. Our former commissioner spoke and she said something to the effect of the future of the city of Miami lies in the hands of our young leaders who are rising up to take the city to a new level. I felt chills when she said that. I knew she meant me.

mental note: Meet her.

Now with all of this networking and card swapping I only had one reservation.

1) I need to get some dental work done BADLY! ughhh! I have horrible teeth! I don’t even feel comfortable having a conversation because my teeth are too through! Everyone has a physical flaw and for me, it’s my teeth. Never had braces, chip toothed, stained, you name it. ~sigh~

My first goal is to get a dental makeover. I once wrote Oprah asking for help but she never got back to me. Oh well, we’ll see.

I got cussed out at work again today.

When I say cussed out, I just mean, corrected. Ofcourse I didn’t mind at all. You know I LOVE correction/direction.

DAMN THOSE PRESS RELEASES!

I can’t get one right to save my life! And I’m constantly holding up projects because of it. Today our company prez just said that she didn’t have time to teach me so she would do it herself. I felt kinda bad about it. I have done research on writing press releases and have lots of examples but when I sit down to write it, man, it’s so technical. It’s so structured. It’s definately a challenge for me. I want to master it but I realize that I can’t be great at EVERYTHING so I’ll continue to try my best which is all I can do.

I just wish she’d say, “Hey Tee, you don’t have to do those releases anymore. Go ahead and focus on script writing and feature writing which is what you’re good at .” ~sigh~ But she won’t. I’m going to be a very well rounded writer by the time this is done.

Ahhh… It feels so good to be caught up with my freelance work. I sold an artist bio on Friday! Yay! He liked it a lot. Good! Cuz I didn’t feel like doing it again. I also got a response from a certain Hip Hop magazine I was stalking.

EDITOR: Sorry, your idea is good, but your writing style is not to our taste. We’re looking for someone edgier.

Ahh… That’s okay. Hip Hop writing is wearing me down. I really want to stick to inspirational writing and feature stories. I just figured that I’d try something different and this is way more difficult than I thought it would be due to my extremely limited knowledge of the industry. Hey, you can only write what you know. Others who fake it, don’t make it far.

Now let me go work on my next story….

Whatever it is that is in your heart to do. Don’t wait, do it! You never know what a life change it could be.