Childhood
Memories of Marian Anderson
The first memory I would like to talk about is of Marian Anderson. My first-grade teacher wanted to encourage me to do well in school along with the other students. And so she promised me that Marian Anderson would teach me to sing at age 6, if I scored the highest grades. I scored straight A's in elementary, and all I remember is having to dress up in a child's tuxedo to meet Marian Anderson. She came to meet me before we went on camera, she wore one of her famous dresses. She called me by my full name and took my hand from the teacher. She introduced me as her prize student and she talks to the news. In awe of her beauty and talent, I was impressed with seeing her. I remember her coming down to my level and closing her eyes. I touched her cheeks on her face. She acted as if I was wrong then she laughed. And as we performed together she told me to sing every note that she sings. And I didn't think I could do it but I did. She said now you know everything I know. The news questioned and debated about whether I was her child that they called me Marian's Boy, she said she hoped that I become like Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, or Aretha Franklin. Then she grabs me in her arms and ran to the closest classroom. She explained that she was not my mother, however, she could be related because we look alike and she asked the teacher to make sure I was raised as she was raise me. Before that, she asked me if she should sing one more time in Washington D.C. and I told her she should. She asked me to watch and I said I would. I remember getting home from school and my mother watching it on the news. I tried to run but she caught me and told me that she saw everything. She did not punish me but she told my father and grandparents. I remember my father talking with his parents about my meeting with Marian Anderson. I was the only one in my grandparents' house with my father and we were watching the concert. I remember staying up for most of the concert, where they said that she made a million dollars performing. My grandparents were shocked and said that she should do something special for me because I told her to do the concert. Then after some time, I was asked by my oldest sister to perform a church song with my other sisters. I was nervous and scared because it was my first time performing as the lead. I remember going there that Sunday morning and I saw this older woman that looks like Marian Anderson. She watched me closely and carefully as she was in the front of the church's audience. So I sang the song without any problem and I received full house applause. Marian Anderson asked the pastor to meet me after church because she wanted to say her final goodbyes. She came through the door and hug me tight. And she said you are my prize. I wanted to have a child-like you but I couldn't but God gave me a second chance through you. I wanted you to sing like me everywhere. I know you are gonna be great just keep singing. I told her that I miss her and I watched all the concert. She said you liked when I sing America the Beautiful. The pastor asked if she could tell me the singers she would have been like. She replied Shirley Caesar and Aretha Franklin if she was alive today. And she told me that she didn't have long but that she wanted me to laugh. And I remember when I became older looking up Marian Anderson's pictures reminding me of the last time I saw her with white hair down her back and making a funny face that had me rolling laughing.
By Distinguished Honorary Alumni Dr. Matthew Primous4 years ago in Confessions
White Angels
White angels slowly twirled and danced around me. But they would disappear as soon as they gently landed on my purple, outstretched tongue. The ear thumping silence was quenched with the harsh crunch of every staggered step and the harsh drag of my every breath. All was still. All sat perfect, as if ready for presentation with a thick layer of soft white icing for aesthetic. I scanned ahead cracking my stiffly frozen parka from the movement. But only the same, almost staged, perfection of stillness and dancing crystals revealed itself. By now I had long ditched my broken skis. Three and a half years I cared for them and now they had left me. A heartbreak of sorts if you wish. Yet this hurt was more than a heartbreak, as each painful breath didn’t relieve me as I kept foolishly hoping it would. It only further tightened my chest. Suddenly my boots stopped sinking into the snow as much with my every step. The ground below had hardened. It wasn’t rocky though; it was unnaturally flat. Glancing down I could still see the white powder. But as I bent over, knees buckling, and cleared the powder, I saw my own cold reflection. Warped maybe, but still definitely me. I smiled slightly, cracking my blistered lips. “Rivers always lead to people,” as mum always used to say, in case I got lost tobogganing or fishing when I was young. But I never did. Ironic? Maybe, but I listened for once and set off downstream or at least I hoped it was. The even surface was a relief I thought, despite me not being able to feel my lower half.
By Greg Dolgopolov4 years ago in Confessions
The Self Therapy Diaries
In the effort to save money and save my soul, I have officially decided that instead of holding everything in my head, I'm going to turn to writing out whats in there and no go to a therapist, because that's the healthy alternative to a broke b*tch who wants to get it all out there. I just want to publish these on this website and never promote them, and whoever stumbles upon them - congrats I'm welcoming you in to my crazy brain.
By Mackenzie Coberley4 years ago in Confessions
Memories
On a small farm, as small kid growing up in the Ozark mountains of Arkansas the pond would freeze over every winter. That pond was frozen taking over my depressive emotions. All I could think about was my swimming hole was gone. I was a kid so grey skies and ice meant gone forever to me back then.
By Anthony Watts4 years ago in Confessions
Glory Days
Dancing the last dance at the party for our graduation was emotionally mixed. Exciting, yes, however, I knew that this would be the last time I would see many of the people I shared high school with. I had been asked by a couple of friends to go with them to the graduation party, but the fun had just begun. In my small community, everyone knew everyone, especially each of us from the four high schools in the area. We would get together at our part-time jobs, our lunches, and at our house parties. We had initiations in grade nine, but now that would be called 'bullying'. The important thing is that we at every age, stage, and grade got along and supported each other. Through our personal trials, public speeches, air bands such as Janet Jackson, Gun's and Roses, the Rolling Stones, and fashion shows... and our relationships with our teachers, we could derive heart and soul. Whether in a physics class or amassing at a local diner with our math teacher playing guitar, we didn't know how special those days were because we had to grow up.
By Erin Liley 5 years ago in Confessions
A King's Disturbance
As humans we tend to have a thought process of everything is going to be alright which it will be, but not how we want it to be. We get ahead of ourselves when we see something that others owned that we wanted. Well I am one of those people and I am also and over thinker. It isn't good to let people know your weakness, but recently I decided to just get up. Not out of emotion, but out of disturbance. My peace was finally broken after releasing coast to coast and things started clicking. So the saying stay down till you come up only applies to the normal people reading this, for reasons being since I have been five years old my plan has been working. I just had to really grow into Darius, let me explain that better. The name Darius has been around before you guys even thought about becoming successful or the idea of changing the world, basically any idea before the world actually started to expanded on goods,services and social media. I am moving in the right direction and explaining living a few years away from my thirty's is where I want to be. There a lot of hidden talents but hard work always beats talent and that is why I still work so much. I work so much I push people out of my life because I never sleep and that's because a King sits on his throne and waits to make his moves. As a King I have been waiting to make my move since Kindergarten, because the King discovered his purpose at that age, but since I was a prince and my Dad was sailing around the world, he was learning his story. So yes the name and the story is real, this isn't dramatized either you guys just talk too much you can't see that I've been getting mine. Like I said I have hidden talents, I quit the chess club at the age of six. I know how to play its just better when the world is your chess board. I can't remember exactly what age but I know I got invited to this studio to audition for Disney Channel and my mom all of sudden forgot all the delinquent activities I did. I ended up getting in but we turned it down because its still a business and everyone is required at least a year of acting school. I had no agent either so I just took the skill and started using it to lay low til my thrown is ready.
By Darius Cherry5 years ago in Confessions
My Native Village
When it comes the matter of my native village, I can't refrain from speaking high of it because it is so in all respects. From the lush green agricultural lands to orchards, from irrigation canals to the Government Farms, from a Govt. Primary School to a College and Primary Health Centers, it has everything in its vicinity. O My God! I got swayed away with emotions and forgot to tell you the name of my village. Yes, it's Chhoti Tengraila under Naubatpur Police Station in Patna District.
By Nira Kumari5 years ago in Confessions
Forgot your PE kit again?
Those days of Physical Exercise. A light hearted look at PE in schools of the sixties. Two years ago I broke my big toe by dropping a cupboard door on it, it snapped in two and I was off work for a while, (about 8 weeks), now that toe has come back with a vengeance, I seem to have a touch of Arthritis in it which when throbbing is almost the same as gout.
By Eric Harvey5 years ago in Confessions
