Musings about The Mecca.

On showing gratitude to my beloved, Howard University and the many gifts I've received.

I rode past my alma mater last week to get to an event in the city. Each time I go, I’m reminded of just how much my beloved Howard University has changed in the almost ten years since I was a student there. Some areas are outright unrecognizable. Old dorms are now luxury apartments that most students can’t afford and there was a noticeable lack of melanated patrons jogging through the reservoir.

Next year will make ten years since I graduated from Howard University.

Wow. Where has the time gone? It feels like Accepted Students Day was just last week and I was chatting it up with strangers-turned-instant-friends from our Facebook group. Most of whom I didn’t keep in consistent contact with past that day.

I just searched "Howard" in my phone and these were some of the options. There's no way to capture the essence of my Howard experience in just a few photos but I love these.

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Many of my most cherished connections were formed at Howard. I met my daughter’s godparents, two of my best friends, there. I experienced my first real romantic heartbreak and learned to love myself there. And, I felt prepared to enter rooms where I would be the only, or one of few, who looked like me because of Howard.

I fell in love with my blackness, and the blackness of others because of Howard.

There were definitely times that I didn’t feel happy to be there. Times of injustice, and outright disdain because of the Mecca. Times I felt othered or like I was not fit to be there. And times when I considered leaving. But I always found my way back to a feeling of overwhelming gratitude. 

I had no idea just how much I’d be gifted by attending the Mecca, and I am forever grateful that it continues to give.

I love wearing one of my many Howard crewnecks while traveling, knowing I’m going to get an “H-U!” or an “Okay Bison!” And in my pre-graduation days, a handshake with a $20 bill, or two, enclosed from an alumni. And then being the alumni who slides a twenty, or two, to a current student.

Last week I was reminded of how much has changed, but so much is still the same. Like the sense of love and freedom you feel sitting on the yard on the first day of warm spring weather after winter. Or the wave of nostalgia that hits when you walk into the lobby of your school or Cramton Auditorium. Or the feeling of pride when you loudly answer “YOU KNOW!”

More of the "Howard" pictures in my phone. So much love.

I’m so glad, I went to Howard U. I’m so glad.