Come with me on a little journey. Back into time. Like a few weeks back. How many times over the last few weeks have you read an article on why Black women aren’t married? How about discussion about the world ending in 2012? Global Warming? Healthcare Reform? War? Disease? Etc? Well in the past few days I’ve had to utter the words “Let me give you ten reasons why life is awesome” more than twice. Which is two times too many. So here I am to give the world ten reasons why this is a great time to be alive.

1. There is actually competition in the NBA.

Maybe it’s just me but having a clear leader in the NBA is kind of boring. Sure there is a group of clear leaders such as the Los Angeles Lakers, Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Orlando Magic but it’s not one team that clearly rules the rest. And that’s a good thing.

2. It was 70 degrees today.

Now I realize this is a local thing. I’m currently in DC for Spring Break and it has been a gorgeous week. However, it’s supposed to rain for the rest of the week. The point is you have to grab your joy where you can find it! And even rain, dah well it’s not pretty out. You can stay inside and *gasp* talk to people.

3. I’m on Twitter.

Yup. This counts. Anybody who says they hate twitter has either a) never tried it or b) only follows 20 people, or 200 and  180 of them are celebrities. For the people who have never tried it, I understand completely. I’ve tried to explain it. “It’s like a bunch of status updates” is not very convincing. But get out there! Just don’t become person b who doesn’t follow anybody. Of course Twitter sucks if you have no tweets to read, respond to, and be replied back to. But follow some people you actually know, start talking to random strangers. That’s the beauty of twitter. It tells you to disregard everything your mom ever told you. Talk to strangers!  Take candy from that sketchy guy! Tweet your heart out! Follow me to improve your life. Twitter.com/MichelleHux

4.There are some pretty awesome shows on TV.

Showtime has Dexter, the show about a family man who works for the police who also happens to be a serial killer. Woah. FX has Damages, Archer, The League (a show about guys who center their lives around their fantasy leagues), and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. ABC has Modern Family and Desperate Housewives. Don’t even get me started on NBC Comedy Thursdays! 30 Rock! The Office! CBS is hanging in there with How I Met Your Mother. TVOne shows Martin reruns all the time! And there is always some form of Law and Crime Scene NCIS: Miami Order on some channel.

Love! Crime! Intrigue! Mystery! Comedy! If it’s a rainy day and you can’t go out anyway, you might as well curl up and watch some good TV!

5. The blog world rocks.

A good book is hard to find. Plus, it takes time to commit to a 300-page story. Not that I am in any way suggesting blogs should replace your reading of a tangible book, I’m just sayin’. With such awesome blogs out there like Michelle Huxtable, TheFreshXpress, Cracked, Very Smart Brothas, Black Snob, etc you can always get some quality, intelligent, and entertaining reading done on the go.

6. My team is making major moves.

True, this may or may not affect you right now. But the people I run with are steadily taking over the world. Politics, Music, Blogging, Athletics, Academia. You name it. My people are on it. Knowing that there are fresh faces out there getting ready to take over should brighten your day. They say “Hip Hop is dead”, “Black America is apathetic”, “You can’t trust politicians” and other negative things. Well just take solace in knowing that new and fresh people and ideas are over the horizon and are going to change all of that.

Shout out to all of you.

7. Monique won an Oscar.

That picture will make sense in a minute. This is in no way a shot fired at Monique but let’s be honest. Way back when you used to watch The Parkers you never thought in a million years that Monique aka the definition of a restraining order aka Professor Oglevee’s Stalker would even be nominated for an Oscar. She was thought of as loud, rude, and at the time wasn’t exactly choosing Oscar-worthy roles. Why is this number 7 on the list of why this is an awesome time to be alive? Maybe you’re 40 and just now decided to start that rap career. Who says you can’t do it? [1] Maybe you’ve been a doctor for most of your adult life and then decided, “You know what? Forget healing people. I want to do comedy!” (I’m talking to you Ken Jeong aka Hilarious Asian Dude from The Hangover.)

Yup. Ken Jeong got his medical degree in 1995 from UNC-Chapel Hill. Come 2007 he’s in pretty much every major comedy. Knocked Up, Step Brothers, Pineapple Express, Role Models, and of course his most famous role at the moment, The Hangover. If Monique, who was on NOBODY’s “Future Oscar Nominee” list a few years back can do it, why not you?

8. Life is made of seconds.

Life is made of years, which are made of months, which are made of weeks, which are made of days, which are made of hours, which are made of minutes, which are made of seconds. Why is this great? Think about how long a second is. Think of all that you can get done in a second! Not a lot you say? Well, I beg to differ. If you’re like most people, you probably make an unofficial plan for the day. “I’m going to stop by the grocery store. Write that paper. Try to call my grandparents. Workout. Tell my mom I love her…. etc.” Continuing the thought that you’re like most people, you probably won’t get that done. But, wait! What if you stop and say, “I’m going to spend 60 seconds doing what is on this list!” Gasp. It really seems like you have a lot more time in the day when you look at it that way.

Let’s say it takes about 30 seconds to dial and connect to the person you’re trying to call. Another 30 for the guilt trip speech about how you don’t call enough catching up on your life. If you really have to go, you could spend a minimum of 3 minutes on the phone. Cross that off your list. Imagine how many 3 minute phone calls you could make! I’m not recommending you call someone with your phone in one hand and a stopwatch in another. I’m just saying we tend to exaggerate how long it takes to do something. Fortunately for us, life is made of seconds.

9. Nature vs Nurture and Free Will

Yeah. So first, Nature versus Nurture. It’s the primary question in Developmental Psychology. Why do people act the way they do? Why do some people learn faster than others? Why did one twin grow up to be the greatest player of NBA Live on PS3 ever and the other one merely went on to be a nuclear physicist? We can’t all be great. Was it nature or nurture? Is it in their genes or was the environment to blame? The answer? Both. Neither. No one knows! And that’s awesome. It’s pretty much where the idea of “beating the odds” comes from.

My parents are probably sick of me using them as talking points but dah well. They’re from Compton, California. Yeah. Like “City of Compton. We keep it rockin’!” Most people who know me don’t believe it because I guess they don’t fit the stereotype. No criminal records, great careers, pursuing higher degrees as we speak, etc. Did they “beat the odds”? That would imply that the odds were against them and that their environment matters more than what is innately inside of them. My parents have drive, ambition, fortitude, and other cliche positive terms. That’s why they are who they are. I think Free Will comes into play here. They could have chosen to internalize the “odds” and say, “Well this is what people expect of me. Let me just aim low and avoid disappointment.” But nope. They chose to be better, and they are.

10. Superpowers

Stay with me. Life is awesome because we don’t have superpowers. Kids think superpowers make the world more awesome and fun! False! Could you imagine how boring life would be if we had superpowers? I know what you’re thinking. Flying to work would be dope right? No traffic? There would just be air traffic. And because of a little incident known as 9/11, Air Traffic Control is stricter than undercover cops on I-95 when the HOV lane is about to open up. [2]

“Ok, Ms. Huxtable. You think you have an answer for everything? What about reading people’s minds?!” Wooh. This is an easy one. Reading people’s minds is stupid. It’s the insecure super power. Why do you want to know what other people are thinking about 24/7? Anyway. For the people who wouldn’t have this power, life would suck for them. They can’t lie to cops about speeding, tell their girlfriend that the dinner she spend hours cooking tasted like vomit melted over garbage, tell their teacher that they definitely emailed the paper and the server must have been down but they will resend it, etc. Life. Would. Suck. With. Superpowers. Trust me. Because of this life is awesome! Because we don’t have superpowers!

So there you have it. 11 reasons why this is an awesome time to be alive. Don’t let the news, blogs, negative friends, or whoever, let you think life sucks right now. Yeah there is crime. Yeah there’s racism. Yeah there’s a lack of eligible bachelors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We don’t have to let that consume our lives. We can still enjoy it. People get enjoying life confused with being complacent with the way things are. They aren’t the same thing. This is a great time to be alive and we should embrace that! The sun is shining, the twitter bird is chirping, TV is good because writers aren’t on strike, and many other reasons.

What are your reasons to why life is so awesome right now?

[1] I strongly advise against doing this.

[2] I apologize to my non-metro-area readers who may not get this reference.

So, I apologize in advance. That title came to me while I was sitting on my couch with writer’s block and it sounded awesome. Unfortunately, this isn’t about them at all. Drake’s track “Over” is dope however.  People are going to hate on it, abuse the song and quote it in every Facebook status and text message signature, but it is propelling Drake to superstar status (officially when that album actually drops).  Kobe Bryant is the best player in the NBA. And this is the best blog ever. My mom said so. Actually, I just found a way to tie this all together!

People are going to love or hate both Kobe and Drake. Today the Lakers were down by 2 in a match against the Orlando Magic. Laker ball. Kobe dribbles up court with 9 seconds. Does his usual juke, gets an open shot, and like numerous times before he was about to make the buzzer beater to tie the game up. Unfortunately he missed the shot. We lost the game. But you know what? He’s still the greatest. He’s still Kobe. He’s still going to go back out there next game and be the top team in the West. Win or lose. Game winning buzzer or fouling out. He’s Kobe.

And Drake? Like his new song says,

“What am I doing? What am I doing? Oh yeah that’s right, I’m doing me. I’m doing me. I’m living life right now and this is what Ima do til it’s over.”

That’s really what this unusually short post is about. I have some exciting things going on this week in DC which means I didn’t really have time to write a more meaningful post. But alas, as always, there is still a message. Don’t get too caught up in your online life, your blog, how many twitter followers you can get, how many people ‘like’ your Facebook status, etc. Remember that your online persona does not often translate into real world success. So in order to further my real world success I had to handle business in our nation’s capital. My online life will be fine with a week off.

Get outside and enjoy your life! It’s supposed to be a relatively beautiful week if you’re in DC this week.