My 2023, A Year That Well Tested Me But Was Well Needed
To say that 2023 was quite a year for me overall would slight the significance of my maturation into my adulthood as a twenty-nine-year-old man. Faced with the death of somebody who I’ve known my whole life to have my car totaled by a drunk driver, I can say I’m proud of myself for not giving up. My career being a publicist has skyrocketed into something very fruitful and has me excited for 2024. I took a break from journalism because an outlet I was associated with had a leader who was not only sexually indecent in public but also childish. 2023 for the first time I chose me, and like Kendrick Lamar, I am not sorry at all.
I’ve worked on every aspect of my life from my Muslim faith, dating women seriously and being mindful of their time, cutting people off who fed into my negative habits, and learning how to take accountability. I know it sounds crazy saying this when next year, I’ll be thirty but hey better now than later on in life. This was the year I grew, and still growing into a more complete version of myself.
In my early twenties right now on a Saturday, I would be drinking my life away in a club surrounded by pretty women and indecent people. I would’ve been having sex with women who don’t want what is best for me in life and depressed after because I desire love more than just random sex as a natural lover. I wasn’t holding myself accountable for appreciating myself and was insecure in my manhood. I thought that sex and getting super drunk would take away the pain I felt as a kid getting sexually abused by my grandfather’s coworker. However, I have learned to get therapy and to love myself by building better habits in dealing with grief.
I also learned that not everyone in the music and entertainment business is my friend. The majority of people I encounter just want something out of me so I had to adjust my naturally kind nature and learn how to be stern without being rude. Boy, it was a process, but it was well needed. Our society has become so dependent on using each other that we tend to forget that we as people all have something more to give to the world than just using each other. We need to build each other, and I refuse to age ungracefully as I write this playing Barry White.
Finally, I learned that sometimes in life people change for the worse and that you can’t help them. The old PR firm I worked with Playbook Media Group, I will forever love them because they saved me from being homeless in the second half of 2019 and mistreated their former employees Aniyah, Danisha, Jada, and Mike. I can’t hold my tongue anymore because my judgment is trust and they deserve so much better than to be treated like tools instead of people who are looking to improve their lives. I hope Playbook learns to treat people better though I’m rooting for them.
2023 was a year of change so in the upcoming years, I have hope in it becoming years of solitude. I appreciate everyone who has been in my corner. A few shoutouts include Loe, Liz, Kalisha, Ghost, the Allmasterminds team, Mike Deblazio, Coach Q, Dominque, Richard, Pvper, Anthony, Flex, Andrea & Erika, Andrea aka Griselda Blanco, the Audible Treats team, Greg Garvin from One RPM, the One37PM staff, the On The Radar staff, Scrillz, Southside Films, Calvin, Mikey Polo, big Myja not the little one, Kierra frm Republic Records, Mikala from Sheen Magazine, Bri from Columbia Records, Jahylin, Krissy, Craig, the TRSH staff, Kamey Gomez, the Unbraider staff, my amazing clients, Briana who is inconsistent with texts, the journalists who covered my clients, and everyone else who has been apart of my journey this year.
Happy holidays everyone, and Godspeed.
