Bold and Beautiful

It's important for me to talk about what its like Being BBJB (yeah I came up with this blog before Being Mary Jane came out on BET). Anyway, apart of Being BBJB are talking about some of the not so good things about me. There are two things I've always battled with and that's having short hair and biting my nails. Seems so minor when you write it down but boy have these things had a major impact on my self-confidence.

Having a mother with lovely long hair and a sister with thick voluminous hair, I wondered why I was born with short brittle hair. I would have loved to just have at least one good quality, why did I have to get stuck with hair 2 bad, hair that couldn't grow and then to lose the ones that did!! On top of that I have a terrible habit of biting my nails. Even down to the skin (yeah its a serious habit). For 28 years I have been trying to break this habit. At some points I actually did until I looked down and saw all my nails gone (not cute).  It got so bad that I didn't even know when or where I was doing it. I had gotten out of control.

This all had to stop!! I had to look for ways to believe that I am Bold and Beautiful just the way God made me. Regardless of what I had and the bad habits I had formed. So one by one I found ways to embrace my downfalls and control my own beauty. So how did I start? First I decided that if i was gonna be stuck with short hair that I would rock it out!!!

I got it cut and styled just like I've wanted to but have't had the guts to do. Since the cut a I have gotten nothing but compliments (which is an immediate boost of self-confidence.) This trickled into the way I dressed and developed into the confidence I thought I didn't have.

But I couldn't stop there, I had to come up with a plan for my nails. It certainly wouldn't be cute if you looked good  but had jacked up hands, would it? So I decided it was time to invest (which I never do). I invested in pampering my nails every two weeks. And if I make it two weeks without biting my nails I get to choose a nice color (red, pink, orange or aqua). For those of you that know me, I never have any nails to paint in the first place so this is truly a treat. Here's my progress:

It sometimes can be the simple things in life that can make a person feel Bold & Beautiful. These are just some of mines.

B&B

Queen Beats Tribute

Oh my how time flies. I remember our director, Chris Bartley, drilling us  hard on learning our cadences. An all female drum corp made up of girls with little to no experience on how to play a beat. But with patience we, 15+ learned how to make beats. 4 cymbals, 5 snares, 4 tenors, 3 bass, and 1 quad is all we had to work with. So many girls wanted to be in our drum corp we had auditions one year. Here's our history:

Fall 2002 at an Andrews basketball event a group of guys playing on drums perform at halftime. There was no girls in their group. So a couple of my newly made friends asked if we could join the drum corp. We didn't stand a chance, the guys immediately said NO!!! Although, one person told us he would teach us how to play and then we could start our own group. It took no time for word of mouth to spread and by the time we had our first meeting there was 10 girls ready to learn from the master, Ronneil Harewood. Within a month, we debut at our first performance during halftime at a BSCF (Black Student Christian Forum) Basketball game.

The crowd loved us, BSCF sponsored us, and the students supported us. We just needed a name.......what should we be called? We battled for a few weeks on what we should name ourselves (a group of girls playing drums) until we figured it out......Queen Beats. It suited who we were and what we were doing. How we started.....

White T-Shirts and Dark Blue jeans

Cow Bell: Chaely
Cymbals: Berenice, Monique and Lauren
Snare: Nadia, Amy, and Leilani
Tenors: Candice, Amber, Rachel, Katiana, and Berdene
Quads: Cherise and Roberta
Bass: Famose and Deidre

But like anything else, things change. Years pass, members graduated, the group grew larger, and drums break down. This did not stop us....not at all. We made new members try out, we learned beats, we traveled to perform, we changed positions and we got a uniform. Along with changes, after three years of supporting us we also lost our director. But they say when one door closes another opens and we were introduced to Christopher Bartley, our new director. Mr. Bartley focused on our precision and using his networking connections exposed us to performing at larger events. One that included and invitation by Dr. Joseph Warren a professor from Andrews.  We prepared for this event for months in 2005 and we walked into the Howard Performing Arts Center (HPAC) all blew everyone away.

Check out our performance by clicking on this link http://youtu.be/StmrX_Fs-bY. This was never done before nor has it happened again. We became legends........

From Queen B to all of my Queen Beats. Miss you all!!!!

Practice outtake videos:
http://youtu.be/qohuASop-5k
http://youtu.be/-X-MW8cAe0c

Chasing history

I am always filled with questions when talking to my grandmother (my fathers mother). She sits listens and answers them all.....

What was your mother like?
How old were you when you left home?
How did you feel to lose a child?

But this question session over memorial weekend was different. This time its in the presence of all of her living children, while facing the challenge of stage 4 lung cancer to her husband of 60 years. Can I obtain all my family history in this Q & A? Or will all the characters play their part in this tight family?

This time its different, this time may be the last time they will all be together.  Their five children and spouses, 13 grandchildren,  and 7 great grandchildren were not ready for this. This year I chased my history and wrapped my arms around it never letting go.

My history My legacy

BBJBeckles