This is for you, you…or whatever Usher said

This space is dedicated to you…

Before I was a lawyer or *insert any other accolade here*, I was just a ghetto girl born in Chicago and raised in inner city Milwaukee.  It wasn’t until this big age that I realized that I was never “just” anything.

My life’s muse and inspiration for this blog was and is girls from the hood just like me who believe that they are “just” something. 

The ones who know all about food stamps and WIC appointments and are well acquainted with hard times. 

The girls that know tragedy that would offend the senses of the “elite.” 

Them ones who grew up playing double dutch and choreographing “drills.”  The ones who don’t have enough privilege to always be politically correct.  Who, based on respectability politics, aren’t respected in many spaces.

These girls are now women. 

Thirty somethings trying to make sense of a world that never welcomed them. 

They are leaders, over comers, Mammas, sisters, TTs, cousins, best friends, wives, girlfriends, and everything else in between, fighting for a sense of self in an ecosystem filled with messages of their inadequacy and lack of value.

They understand me.  They know me.  They see me.

To my fellow ghetto girls, I will always see you, know you and understand you in return. 

This space is sincerely dedicated to you. 

No matter who this world has convinced you that you are, you are not “just” anything. 

Nah baby! 

You are fearfully and wonderfully made. 

While you are bigger than your circumstances, you were not made to be ashamed of where you come from.  There is divine power in your testimony.

Ask yourself what lies got you believing you are not more than a conqueror? 

A finely crafted masterpiece, blessed, chosen, adopted, redeemed, grace-lavished, unconditionally loved and accepted by God? 

You are free and overflowing with light just waiting to be discovered.

That’s all! 

Until next time, I will end each blog post with gratitude. 

Today, I am grateful for Black women and all that they are and have been in my life.

What are you grateful for today?

Freely,

Latiera