10000 Days
Your boy has existed for 10,000 Days. Time for a few shout outs.
I woke up this morning.
Smiled at the rising sun.
Three little notifications…
were on my Samsung.
Singing songs.
A melody pure and attention-grabbing.
Saying “this is my message to you-ooh-ooh”
Foremost, if it weren’t already clear, this is a tongue-in-cheek celebration. To shout out another earth pirouette is not to diminish the very real implications of seeing that you’re not supposed to make it past 25 in major media outlets from a young age. I never believed I was that kid, because of the home and family I was blessed into, and in many ways I am scratching the surface of appreciating with the gained perspective of 27 years. I couldn’t “thank” or “shout out” everyone I’m grateful for from the past 365, let alone 10000 days, though I do take vitality less for granted.
With that out of the way, holy hell am I glad I set that notification! If you are under 27, particularly if you are a person of color, and you want to sporadically make your goddam day at a future point, please head to convertunits.com and then hit up Google Calendar.
10,000 days ago, I was born at St. Michael’s hospital in Newark, New Jersey. Renovations to the area feature a major performing arts center, two nearby law schools, two train-stations with direct/next-stop service to NYC, business and engineering schools, and the largest player in the $2.8 billion dollar audiobook space within walking distance. 27 years may seem a drop in the bucket considering the city’s 1666 founding, but a few things have changed since 1990.
Back then, Newark’s own Sharpe James won re-election unopposed, making 20 years of African-American mayorship in the city that continues to this day. EPMD hadn’t introduced the world to Reggie Noble quite yet, nor had O.P.P. taken over the national charts, but “Ladies First” was already giving the people what they wanted and needed from what I gather.
It’s hard to wax nostalgic over a time and place where I focused on breathing and taking first steps. I know what it meant for my grandmother to move back from Spain as a toddler, but I don’t recall the world immediately before it. I remember wading through a campus — a land of perpetual autumn — but it would take a few years before I could process that that wasn’t the typical sibling situation for kids in my neighborhood.
When I think of hard times and high points, 8, 10, 18, 23, it is fun to conger all the moments that once seemed so significant now faded in the annuls. In another 10000 days, hours, or minutes, this article may seem so trivial.
Nonetheless, for those who’ve supported and shared these 10000 days with me, especially my Folks, thank you.
