WAOD GOOD NEWS: Who Would You Be If You Weren't Busy Trying to Be Who You Thought Folks Think You Are Edition.

Ah yes, more good news. It ain't as popular as the bad, but it will do.
Britney Spear's 16 year-old sister Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant by her 19 year-old-boyfriend. Gina, how is that good news? Well first, it is good news because it wasn't Raven Symone, Kayla Pratt, or Keke Palmer. Mothers, please don't let your 16 year old daughter live with her 19 year-old boyfriend, things like this tend to happen.
No really, on to the good news.

Laura's Good News

Hi,
I wanted to add an amazing woman to your 'good news' posts: Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic University. She is one of my personal heroes, and if your readership doesn't know about her, they should! She was the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from MIT, and served as the chairperson of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency under Pres. Clinton. Now she is being lauded for her innovative leadership at RPI. Here's a link to a story about her in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Charles' Good News
Charles wants us to know that Black don't crack. He sent in this piece from ESSENCE online with beautiful Black women of a certain age. They look wonderful and they are giving their tips on how to stay and look young.

Tami's Good News

NOW NYC is on Viacom's case. It's always a good thing when women speak up for themselves.

Tami I just wish they would target a couple of Viacom's advertisers. You can't really boycott a cable station, they get paid whether you watch or not, but it is a good start who knows what the next step will be.

Latonya's Good News

How are you? Here's one more piece of 'good news' about an African American woman handling business. Please see the attached article about Dr. Connie Calloway, the new superintendent of Detroit Public Schools. DPS schools have been a problem for a long time and it looks like she's kicking butt and taking names. I hope she's able to keep the momentum moving forward.

Yes, y'all pray for Dr. Calloway AND Detroit.

Sakinah's Good News – Venus Williams
Venus Williams got a degree in fashion design.

Unlike many sports stars, it looks like she is planning for her future
beyond tennis.

Carla's Good News

Here's a link to a story about how a 7 year old girl in Vallejo, CA saved her family and all the other residents of her building when she woke up and realized the house was on fire. She'd just learned about fire safety in school and I guess the lesson really stuck with her.

Karen's Good News

My God daughter is a third year student at Northeastern University majoring in Architecture and just got accepted into an internship to study architecture in Rome next semester!

My son is a third year student at Howard University, my Alma Mater majoring in communications and doing very well. In addition to that he is working with a Hip-Hop website interviewing many artists and entertainers. I am an Educator, an African American single mom who is extremely proud of him. Give it up for the young folks! When our young people do good, that's good news for all of us!

AJ's Good News

The international services and social change volunteer organization, The One World Foundation, will be sending Black American and other youths of color to India this Summer 2008 to work on humanitarian, health, women, and human rights projects. Why is this good news? The One World Foundation was started by two African American Women and is one of the first NGO's of its kind to independently send volunteers of color to countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. If you want, you can read about them here: www.theoneworldfoundation.org.
BTW, the two ladies that founded The One World Foundation are Dana Olds and Tiffany Gardner - just thought I should put that out there. Good work, ladies! Black women affecting global change!

Linda's Good News

NPR : Maverick Science Teacher Wins Big Prize. Good news about a Black women who wins an award. Who says we dont understand science!!!

I am loving it! Folks keep it coming and keep the good news “post-ready”- I'm not doing much editing on these and that saves me time and increases the likelihood your good news will make the cut. Good news indeed!

Who Would You Be If You Weren't Trying to Be Who You Thought Other Folks Think You Are?

Can you believe that there are actually people who are criticizing WAOD for running good news? BAWHAH. The good news is that it is now confirmed I can officially say whatever in the heck I want to because no matter what I write about, some folks will have a negative reaction. I could say nothing at all and folks would have something negative to say. The benefit of routinely catching it from all sides is that you eventually become liberated from the fear criticism. It still sucks, but not as much as it would have a year ago.

What does that have to do with you? There are a lot of you out there who are stuck. You're stuck financially. You're stuck professionally. You're stuck in a relationship you don't want to be stuck in. You're stuck playing a role you don't want to play.

You're stuck because in order to get unstuck, you would have to make radical decisions and changes in your life that the people around you may not understand, support or agree with. I'm a living witness that if you change your mind, you can and will change your life. All of those opinions you are worried about are going to be there whether you stay stuck in a life that is not yours or are daring enough to make the leaps of faith necessary to live the life you were destined to live. Who would you be if you weren't trying to be who you thought folks thought your were? (confusing yet profound-think about it).

So the good news is that all you have to do to change your life is to change your mind. Once you start doing that, the Universe starts making a way. I don't understand it. I just know it. Just leap from your life. You'll figure out how to land on the way down...OR NOT!

Comments

[Melinda]

Your words resonated with me because I made the decision to leave my "comfortable" job with benefits to start my own business doing what I love. It's been three years and the road is still slow but I've never been happier.

To my surprise, I either got made hate for leaving my job or I had the pretenders who surrounded me but who hoped and prayed for my quick demise. At first the hate affected me; because I myself didn't believe that I was capable of going after my joy. But with the support of my loving husband and developing faith in things unseen I have gotten stronger.

I'm glad that I chose life because had I not I would not have realized that I had a lot of dead weight around me. You know...those people who are just happy to see you live a mediocre life; cause that's what they are living

Thanks for mentioning the stuckness of our people. It's a culmination of self-hate, jealousy, envy, anger, poor choices, lack of spiritual connection and truth, conditioning, and the good ole conflicting place of how your gonna make your ends in this capitalistic society.

[Wrlddiva]

You are so right about this! I have professed that I am claiming 2008 as my LEAP YEAR. Not because of anything to do with the month of February but because it's time for me to make the radical changes necessary for me to see a difference in my professional life most especially.
So I am LEAPING beginning a few months ago actually to stand firm and tall, move through the fear, work while scared of the unknown and trust my instincts.
And just figure out how to stand up in it in the meantime.

[Randi523]

A lot of people think that since I smile a lot, have a positive and upbeat attitude, that everything is all well with me. I am indeed flattered that they think so highly of me, and most of the time, life is good, but not all of the time. So I decided to set up some professional therapy sessions to "get my mind right" literally. I think that doing so will make me an even happier person than I am in 2008.

[Miriam]

i'm so curious as to what "problem" folks saw in your publishing good news.

[Tiffany]

AJ, thanks for the shout-out. This has been a labor of love for Dana and me. Please spread the word: One World will be having international service projects to Cambodia, India and Senegal this summer. Applications are available at www.theoneworldfoundation.org. The application deadline in March 1st. We really need more of our youth - individuals from directly impacted communities - involved on global issues of social justice and social change. Hopefully One World can help facilitate that.