Conscious Queens

Dress: Ann Taylor (currently 40% off!), Handbag: old, (similar here), Heels: Steve Madden, Bracelet: J. Crew Factory, Sunnies: Ray-Ban

Hi everyone! Happy Thursday! I hope you've all been having a great week. I am still riding off the high that was this past weekend. Y'all it was just wonderful. As some of you may know I created this list earlier this year and let's say it's turned into my major to-do list. In honor of turning 27 I made a list of 27 things I wanted to do this year. One of those things was to do a public speaking event. I have always been terrified of public speaking. I never took a public speaking course in college and anytime I had to present in front of the class, I'd beg my professor to let me do a paper instead. They always obliged. So here I was 6 years post college and still hadn't done a public speaking event.

My dear friend Samiah of The First Generationers so graciously asked me to speak at her Conscious Queens event this past Saturday in Brooklyn. I was so excited nervous to speak but I agreed and immediately started panicking. I asked her what she wanted me to talk about and she said "Talk about whatever you want, it just has to be 10-15 minutes." I was like WHAT, OMG NO. What did I sign up for? So I came up with ideas and every single one I threw away. Until finally I thought here's an event for women of color, they are sharing their talents and ideas with us, maybe I should just speak from the heart.

So I did.

I started to write out my story, how I came to be where I am today, what my background was, how I started the blog. Then I began to practice my speech and every time I stumbled and mumbled my words, the fear just grew inside of me and I was still 1 week away from actually giving the speech. So the night before I facetimed my friend and practiced with her, I practiced with my boyfriend, I practiced in the mirror while holding a screwdriver pretending it was a microphone. I reached the point where I realized there was no point in reciting my speech from paper, I was just going to have a conversation with the audience and I just spoke from the heart.

Saturday came and we found out we had sold all the tickets for the event! We were at capacity and nerves started to get the best of me, but it was wonderful as more and more people came in the door, I felt relieved. For many of us it was our first time sharing our stories, talents, secret hobbies and it was so inspiring. We were all nervous, vulnerable yet we all felt so supported. We cried telling our stories, we cheered, we clapped. I left feeling so proud to be a woman, to be a woman of color, to be me!

The amazing Samiah from The First Generationers

 Imani Thompson of @ithompsonftw - absolutely incredible poet!

 Nagla Bedir of @teachingwhilemuslim

 The super talented Cece from @cecefayce

 The hilarious and fabulous ladies from @twogrown

 My boyfriend Tom came to support!

Thanks so much for reading today's post!

Let me know if you'd like to hear more about the event or if you want me to share my speech!

xo,

Maia