When the Me Too movement became a national story, my first thought was, “have I done anything that could get me caught up in this?” I admit, it was more of a sarcastic response than a fearful one. There was a part of me that felt the movement was an attack on men for just being men. I mean if I’m drunk at a party and a woman is drunk at the same party and we hook up; why are my drunk actions held more accountable than hers?
One day, when I was about 14 years old I was parading around the mall with some of my friends. I remember seeing an interracial couple and commenting how I could never date the opposite race. At that time, I hadn’t ever had a real girlfriend so what did I even know? But what was it about seeing an interracial couple – which was a very common thing growing up in the D.C. area – that made me feel this way?
“When you have a problem see it as an opportunity to grow.”
– Anonymous
That is pretty much how my podcast began. I had a problem, a problem of not being productive with my downtime. Actually, it was worse than that. During my downtime, all I was doing was partying and drinking and that’s not good – especially when you’re an alcoholic. So I wasn’t just not productive but I was destroying everything around me including my family, relationships, jobs and myself. So, at the encouragement of my therapist I decided to get a hobby. That hobby was the Normalized Podcast.
One of the best sayings I’ve ever heard was, “expectations are future resentments.” To some this may appear as a very cynical. Think about it, if you don’t expect anything from people then you don’t have to worry about being hurt or let down by them. On its face, I’d agree it is very cynical; however, if you dig a little deeper i believe it’s more about accepting life on life’s terms. It’s never good when you allow others to control your emotions.
I’ll never forget how I went to bed the night of November 8, 2016. My wife and I had allowed our five-year-old daughter to stay up with us to watch the first woman to ever be elected President of the United States.
I knew my daughter wouldn’t understand how significant the accomplishment was, but I knew it would be important for her to see it nonetheless. I wanted her to watch it with my wife and for them to hold each other as history was made.
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