Girl let me tell you….
So, my boyfriend is a straight up nerd…. I am talking, action figures, superhero’s, anime, Pokémon, comic books all out NERD. He tricked me, cause I thought he was real cool, then he pulled out a stack of Yu Gi Oh cards (true story), and I just about fainted…. What the hell was this grown black man doing with these things… Then he had the nerve to tell me he was going to a place where they battled the cards…… Girl I just about lost it.. I honestly thought that the only people that liked that type of stuff were the kids who yell at their parents for taking away their Xbox... You know exactly what type of people I am referencing....
He told me that he thought I would like some of the anime shows he watched and I was thinking of nice ways to say “get the hell out my face, I am not watching that crap”…. He told me for months that he thought I would like Dragon Ball Super and that I needed to give it a try….
Well he was right, even though I hate to admit it. Turns out deep down I am a Dragon Ball Super, Kuroko No Basket, Star Wars, and Marvel Universe loving nerd my damn self. I watched the Dragon Ball Super Tournament of Power (which was not well written and they did my mans Piccolo GREEZY) and I was HOOKED. Frieza, Andorid 17, Piccolo, my mans Gohan (even though they played him too) make for a good overall story and that Dragon Ball Super (specifically the tournament of power arc) intro song might as well be my ringtone cause it is FIRE. Watching this also opened my eyes to other things I might have been too insecure to try before and now I feel so liberated.
I cried watching Kuroko No Baskets finale (that anime is sheer genius), I have multiple Marvel T-shirts and have opening night tickets to see Infinity War (this movie looks SO good), and I have a Chewbacca key chain and pop figure. I am legit excited when it comes time to watch these things or when I hear a new movie is coming out… But I had to ask myself why I never gave it a chance in the first place.
See, liking this type of stuff places you as an ‘outlier’. What type of black woman spends her late Saturday nights on CrunchyRoll watching the new stream of Dragon Ball Super? What type of reputation do you think I would obtain trying to get people to watch Naruto? Even now as an adult, you think people want to talk about Ultra Instinct at Brunch? You think people want to debate whether Aomine or Kagami was truly a better Ace over shots of Tequila? Like come on….
In life it is so much easier to just go with the flow… It is so much easier to act like you know the cast of Love and Hip Hop than to say, honestly that show is complete trash, and borderline horrid for the culture, and the Marvel cinematic universe is dominating!
Well, whether it is something as trivial as your taste in entertainment or your actual beliefs on issues.. Let me be very clear: you need to do what you enjoy and not care what other people think about it! I think one of the reasons Cardi B is so refreshing is that she unapologetically is herself and most of us do not have the true courage to be just that. We want to fit the mold and we want to ride the latest trends, but to be honest it is all just a setup. It is a setup to strip you of your individuality and the unique things that you bring to this world. You deserve to live your life boldly out loud. Now, you can’t be into no dumb shit that is hurtful, culturally offensive, or endangering to others, but for all other things enjoy YOUR life for what it should be, yours!
Watch that unpopular tv show, eat that weird food, travel to that not glamorous place, or go to that Comicon dressed like Grut because you can. Apart of coming into your own is being wise enough to be true to yourself! We only get one life to live, and that life should be spent doing exactly what we love and enjoy doing.
We can do it sis, just trust the journey.