When I was younger I was shielded and protected but now I’m older and I watch the news so I have questions, and they race through my mind without breaking or resting.

Like why as a nation are we not progressing but practicing crime like it’s a profession?

Or why a young woman could be getting ready for work but instead she gets ready to go to clubs at night and twerk, but she criticizes the government for being so remote and she’s never even taken the opportunity to vote?

See you, you may not care. But me? I have a problem with it. Does she not know the women’s blood, sweat, and tears behind the 19th amendment?

These unanswered questions who can tell me something?

Because I search the wrong places and I end up with nothing.

With everyone today straining to gain notoriety, it’s easy to become entangled in the twisted webs of society.

Society says, “You’re too dark. Maybe you should lighten it up a notch.” But my beauty is not based on society’s color swatch.

You see society has bashed me for the color of my skin and treated me as if I were less than an equal and often times I ask myself what happened to “We the people”?

And no, I wasn’t born during the civil rights movement but it seems I’m living in the sequel.

Is this the world that I was shielded and protected from? Is this what we want for future generations to come?

7.3 billion people in the world and some just in it for the ride, so it’s easy to get stepped over, moved out the way, or pushed aside.

But never have I ever questioned my intelligence simply because of other’s negligence to see me for who I truly am and admire a queen in their presence.

Because I know the power of a woman and some hate me for that. And I possess an ineluctable intelligence that others wish that they had.

And though they smile in my face, they’ve also prayed for my downfall but quitting has never been the case, I’ve always learned to stand tall.

And if you ask me do others intimidate me I’ll answer… Not at all.

Because when I was born they did not ask my mother, “Ma’am, what would you like to number her?”

No I received a name. Yes, a beautiful appellation. Not a one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine or some little word which I could be defined by.

But something that would empower me to have a beautiful mind so that I could grow up and be a young lady full of ambition that could use her words as bullets and gain knowledge as ammunition.

But then there’s something called giving up or quitting and I’m here to tell you that I don’t fit that description.

 So I would be glad if you were to rip up my resume and throw it away simply because I’m not qualified for that position.

I’ve presented you with questions that are bound to accrue, but now I have only one question for you. As members of today’s society, what will you do? Thank you.