Maintaining Professionalism While Wounded

I often joke and say being an adult is Ghetto. Why? Well, because it is. It’s the only “hood” that no one told us not to drive through. It’s the only hood that always has its hand out for something and its the only hood that kicks you when you are down because it just doesn’t care about you.

I remember when I was a kid my mom would always say I couldn’t have the freedom I wanted because I wasn’t “Grown”. I remember thinking “Dang, I can’t wait until I’m Grown, then I can do what I want”. What she didn’t warn me about was the fact that in order to maintain the lifestyle she exposed me to, I would need to work, and WORK HARD. So, yeah I can do what I want, but at what cost.

I say all this to say that the biggest thing about adulthood is you must work to sustain any level of life. In order to do that you have to work everyday despite what may be going on in your life. Any other day or week I am okay with that reality, as thats just what we have to do as strong adults. Between returning to work through a pandemic and navigating through an emotional “Social Unrest”, as the world is calling it, it’s a lot for one person to handle.

In my line of work, I work with business owners who often aren’t exposed to real live black people. So with that comes great responsibility on my part to answer their questions, share my opinion and hold them accountable where necessary. It is extremely hard to do all that and remain professional but I’ve been doing it everyday since this whole thing started. What does it mean to be professional? According to Merriam-Webster, professionalism means to conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession. In my opinion, this means to communicate with tact. This is easy for us all to do, right? Who cares that we are in the midst of a global pandemic or people are being killed on video, right? Can you complete your deliverables in time, though? That’s the only thing that seems to be important. While disheartening, this was the reality I was faced with. Naturally, this says that something needs to change within the workplace as it relates to human compassion and interaction, but I digress.

These past couple weeks have challenged me emotionally and helped me to realize something that has become a bit of an expectation for black people. That realization is this, WE ARE STRONG, yeah I know you already knew that. But really, we are stronger than we ever have been. How many people can be dying on the inside from systemic racism/racism in general and still push through? Not many, but because of who we are and what we have been through, for the sake of being our ancestors wildest dreams we get things done. Why? Because we have to. Even though you are wounded you still have the ability to maintain your professionalism, whatever that means lol. Point is, you’ve got this. The world is changing for the better and its all because of you. Never mind the fact that you may be asked how you are doing, and my not even have the words to describe your true emotional state. Regardless of being wounded you are powerful and you are worthy! In the words of the iconic Martin Lawerence, “YOU, Go, girl!!”