This is the finale of this edition of going down memory lane. Now this memory is bittersweet. But I can’t ignore what I was able to do and be part of from June 2015-June 2018. Around March (y’all know that month seems to do good for me) 2015 I was part of a Facebook group for Black bloggers in Houston. Prior to that I was part of a few other Houston blogger groups. But this one wasn’t doing much of anything. The person who started it and I were always invited and chosen to do things around town. I mentioned when we covered a special traveling exhibit at the Houston Museum of African American Culture that we need to get other Black bloggers these types of opportunities.
By April and May of 2015 myself along with the creator of the group and another person began to see how this could work. However, by June they were unable to continue and I was given the group. I went to Blogging While Brown that year in Austin and went into heavy recruitment. I also shared with everyone who would listen about what I wanted to do in Houston. Reception was widely appreciated.
Two months later we held our first blog conference specifically for Black bloggers in Houston and we were off to the races. There was no slowing down now. Considering there was no blueprint for this I relied heavily on business conferences, business coaching and business Facebook groups to piece together how to make this a success. None of them were as helpful as I needed but each provided something that allowed me to keep going until I found another successful piece to the puzzle.
Forming a leadership team was possibly the hardest part. So much so that the same team would be the ones to sabotage the progress HAAB was making because they didn’t think of it and couldn’t understand how and why things were going well in their mind for me and not them when it came to blogging.
There were so many lessons I learned over that time. I learned how to be an effective leader. Which will come in handy now that I’m leading the academic team at a language school in Chicago. Yep, I left Texas. More on that later this month.
I also learned that I can’t rely on the potential I see in others especially when they won’t see or use it themselves. I must accept reality and move accordingly. I learned I had to work on myself in the sense that I needed to not diminish who I was or what I was able to accomplish just because other people weren’t there yet or where they wanted to be.
I learned that spiritual warfare is real and I needed to get equipped if I wanted to make it through the rest of my life without falling apart. I learned that betrayal leads to grief and I needed to learn how to mourn then move on. That took quite some time for me to do. But I am doing it.
Most importantly, I learned that no matter what happened I was part of something absolutely phenomenal and I would not trade this experience for anything in the world. I met interesting people, had amazing opportunities, experienced things I didn’t know existed and it was also the catalyst for me to return to church.
So, if nothing else my experience leading the Houston African American Bloggers Association led me back to church. And for that, this bittersweet memory will always hold a cherished place in my heart.
Leave a Reply