The Reason I Like Chocolate

I never planned on becoming a writer. Like most things in my life, it found me. When I was a sophomore in high school I went away to an all girls boarding school in Middleburg Virginia, Foxcroft. I was given a full ride scholarship. I came from a lower middle class existence from a filthy little steel town just outside of Pittsburgh. One could create and entire universe from what I didn’t know when I left Pittsburgh. Foxcroft opened so many doors to me. I learned who I was, what I was, where I came from. Foxcroft taught me of what titanium fabric that it is I am made.

I always had a love of reading from as long as I was able to search out letters. Mom said I would remove every label from the tin cans in the cupboard. Often she would open a can not knowing what was inside because of me. I would read her horoscope to her when I was in kindergarten. I remember her telling me to sound out the words that I didn’t yet know. I read everything that I could get my hands on for as long as I can remember. Any genre, any authors, anything at all. But what changed me. What changed by entire mindset and my life‘s direction was reading my first poem by Nikki Giovanni

When I read “Ego Trippin’ There May Be A Reason Why” it resonated to me through my soul. I saw myself for the very first time. I knew exactly where I came from and where it was I needed to go. Mind you, I had no idea how I was going to get there but I knew I needed to go! From the first time reading that poem I was starving for more. I found a book of her poetry in our school library. I read the poem for our school poetry reading contest. I didn’t win the contest but I felt a sense of empowerment reading the words aloud. I felt like a queen. I felt regal.

In college I found more works of hers. I became obsessed. Many years later, I was walking through the annual Three Rivers Arts Festival in my hometown of Pittsburgh, I found a multimedia piece of art featuring a pencil drawing of a gorgeous African queen, kente cloth and an abbreviated version of Ego Trippin’. I bought it immediately and had it framed. It’s now hanging in the hallway at the top of the stairs of our Pittsburgh home. I read the poem often. It still has the same profound effect on me as it did from the very first time that I read it. I share it with people often. If you haven’t read it, please do.

The poem “The Reason I Like Chocolate” inspired me to write a children’s book series The Adventures of Maxine and Beanie. I was required to keep a journal in high school. It is a habit that I still support. Something that I still do almost daily. I never thought I would publish any thing that I wrote, but here I am, a published writer.

If I ever have the pleasure of meeting Nikki Giovanni I would be ecstatic with delight. I would give anything to sit down with her for a conversation. I would love to be able to tell her how she changed my life. Indirectly she is the reason that I write. I have no delusions of writing the way that she does, but her journey, her story, inspires me to this very day. She deserves much more praise than she receives, although she was the first recipient of the Rosa Parks Women of Courage award, and so many more such accolade. Perhaps someday I can tell her how much she changed my life. She is my shero.