Category: My Life

Birthday Musings “…But Such As I Have Give I Thee”

Tracey A Wisdom2 Comments

I’ve always dreaded my birthdays. Of the 33 that I’ve been blessed to mark as of today, 3/4 of them have been completely unremarkable. A couple of them—milestone birthdays at that—have been downright awful. So I was down in the doldrums from around the first of November and the closer it got to B-day, the more unsettled I became. Last week, I was just plain stressed. After the year I’ve had, I honestly wasn’t looking forward to the day. Then around Thursday, I saw a quote on my Twitter timeline that said something along the lines of, “the best way to get over a problem is to do something good for others.” (Don’t remember who said it and I can’t find anything like it in the Googles, so maybe it was from a Twitter philosopher. 🤷)

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9 Things I’m Thankful For On Thanksgiving Day 2017

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I know we don’t observe Thanksgiving Day in Jamaica, and I also know it has a dodgy history in the States, but I believe in gratefulness as a principle, so that’s what I’m focusing on today. Studies have shown that there are many great benefits of gratitude, from improving your self esteem to helping you sleep better. And who can’t use some good sleep in these stressful times? The Bible is also replete with verses about giving thanks, even in the midst of discouraging circumstances, and as a Christian, gratitude should be my very nature.

Except it’s not always my default. Sorry, God.

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Cantu’s Coconut Curling Cream Is The Best Thing To Happen To My Hair Since My First Big Chop

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Disclaimer: Cantu isn’t paying me for this post, although they totally should. I just like to share my truth.

Hair bae!! 😍😍😍😘😘😘

I’m going to start at the beginning. Or as close to it as possible. If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you must know by now that I like to take my time to tell a story. If you’re new, I’m hella long-winded on here, but hang in there with me. It’ll be worth it. Here we go:

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Running and Tripping: A Year (And Six Days) In Review

Tracey A Wisdom4 Comments

Last year, on Friday, April 29, at around 6:30PM, I walked out of the offices of my job at the island’s oldest and largest media company and took my last ride on the staff bus. I had officially handed in my resignation letter a month before, but in truth, I had emotionally quit the job several months before. Many people see my decision to leave a stable job at a reputable company as the most irresponsible of acts. How could I do such a thing, in this economic climate?! Don’t I see that there are hundreds—maybe even thousands—of people who would kill to have that job?! Versions of those questions have certainly been voiced to me by concerned relatives and friends, and by HR representatives and would-be bosses in the interviews I’ve done over the past 371 days. Only one interviewer has understood my answer and motivation, and agreed with me. In fact, she had a quote on her wall that expressed the very same sentiment: 

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On Social Media Breaks And Self Care In The Age Of Trump And Incessant Angst And Anger

Tracey A Wisdom2 Comments

Hi! Happy new year! I know January’s gone and we’re, like, halfway through February already, but I can still say that because this is my first post of 2017. Besides, it’s my blog; I can do whatever I want 😛.

Deal.

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Tales From My IWP Writers Workshop – It Is Finished!

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Finished. Done. Finito. Acabado. Terminé. Fertig. Ti pari. Päättynyt. (That last one is apparently ‘finished’ in Finnish, according to Google Translate. I’m hilarious. Hahaha!) My writing course, the University of Iowa’s How Writers Write Fiction 2016: Storied Women, ended on Tuesday at 12:59AM, and I made it out alive! After three weeks of zero ideas and sucky drafts that had to be sent to the electronic version of ‘file 13,’ I was concerned that I’d end up punking out of the five-week course after only submitting three assignments. But I powered through the last 36 hours and wrote not one, but two stories—a total of 4,457 words. I wrote five stories over the course of five weeks, y’all! That’s 12,540 words—the most I’ve written since I was in third form and attempting to write the next best thing in teen romance, Sweet Valley High style. I #didthat! And then I slept practically all day Tuesday.

splat
Course closed @ 12:59AM. Me @ 1:00AM.

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Tales From My IWP Writers Workshop – On Delinquency, Or When Your Muse Goes MIA

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I’m now officially three weeks behind in my writing for the University of Iowa’s How Writers Write Fiction 2016: Storied Women course. I’ve spent the past two weeks cycling through various stages of panic, as the final ‘lecture’ will be posted this week, then the course closes on the 21st at midnight. Which means I have one week to churn out three assignments. Well, two, since I’m now waist deep into assignment three, finally.

nerves
HELP ME!!!!

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Tales From My IWP Writers Workshop – On My Character’s Desire And My Insecurity

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I’m now officially three weeks into the University of Iowa’s How Writers Write Fiction 2016: Storied Women course, but I’m a few days behind as I just submitted my second assignment this morning. The focus of week two was desire and point of view. The task was to establish a female character who experiences a strong desire, who acts on said desire, but may or may not get what she wants. The point of view used in the narration should be picked based on which one best articulates the character’s desire, and the things she thinks/feels/experiences in acting on it.

My Desire is to not look like this every time I have to write something. #writersblock
My Desire is to not look like this every time I have to write something. #writersblock

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Tales From My IWP Writers Workshop – In Search Of My Inner Child

Tracey A Wisdom5 Comments

I recently signed up for a free online creative writing workshop being offered by the University of Iowa called How Writers Write Fiction 2016: Storied Women. (It started on October 11 and ends November 21, but you can still sign up and see what you can accomplish.) The University of Iowa has one of the top rated creative writing MFA programmes in North America, so when my friend Janeth tagged me on their Facebook page, I signed up so fast my fingers were smoking.

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Live footage of me signing up for the workshop

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Tracey And The Couture Allure Clinic’s Laser Hair Removal Rip-Off

Tracey A Wisdom13 Comments

There’s a saying that if something appears too good to be true, it probably is. It’s an adage I used to live by, before I decided that I was an optimist and I would stop looking for the bogeyman around every corner. Well, as it turns out, I shoulda gone with good ol’ pessimism in the case I’m about to relate to you, because this newfound “glass half full” foolishness cost me almost J$10,000.

Yu know how much food mi coulda buy wid dat money? Smh!
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