CREATE YOUR OWN "YES"

"Baby, when the phone didn't ring, I created my own opportunities."

-Jenifer Lewis (aka my cussin Auntie in my head)

Happy February ya'll. I hope you've completed all of your goals for the month of January. Hell, it was long enough. I have a list of goals for the year that I am still working on but I'm learning to pace myself and do what I can, which has been very hard for me, an over-thinker.

In the past couple of years, I've felt myself going deeper and deeper into panic mode about where my life is going. I've always had what I thought was a straight and narrow path for myself. Meaning, I would put myself in the right positions and things would just fall into place. Well, it hasn't been that cut and dry. Sometimes, the plans that you make for yourself fall through. The positions that you put yourself in, are not for you. The opportunities you thought were yours, weren't meant to be.

Don't you hate when people say that? Like, you be hella sad about something not working out and in mid ugly thug cry, venting to them like, "Why? Why he don't want me man?" (Will Smith on Fresh Prince voice) and they hit you with the, "Ya know, it's okay. IT JUST WASN'T MEANT TO BE." Like, bruh. I need you to say "Because, you too good!" or "Because they stupid". Ya'll get on my nerves.

I've been back in Chicago for 1 year and 4 months. I've been on countless auditions without being cast for a single role. And ya'll, I give them hell each and every time. So much so, that I even get picked for callbacks, but still, no roles. It really started to discourage me. I started to feel that my whole move here in search for more opportunities was in vain.

But then I thought... What if I stopped waiting for someone else to tell me that I was great? What if, instead of knocking on the door all the time, I crip walk through that mug like, "It's Aintbritfunny! What's good?"

(Sn: if your Christmas tree still up like it is in this pic, you triflin')

Look, I was not born with the gift of entrepreneurship. So, I'm not telling ya'll to quit your jobs and start that business. That's not what this is about. Since my auditions don't always work out for me, I'm creating a lane of my own. Every casting director is not going to see my potential. Every agent may not want to represent me. Hell, ya'll might not like every blog post. But that doesn't mean that I'm not hella dope.

The moral of the story is, don't always take no for an answer. Sometimes, your key won't work in the front door so you gotta go around to the back. And if they changed the locks on that, you might have to bust open a window.

At the end of 2017, I declared, via a Facebook status, that 2018 would be a "YES" year. So, If I gotta create my own "YES's", imma make it look sexy. I mean it is Valentine's month. Or as I like to call it Black Love Month.

I declare a "YES" year for all of you reading this!

Peace.

-BRIT