Celebrate The Little Things

I've been diligently writing 'Much Love, Soul' articles monthly for over a year now. In fact, a total of 18 individual editions so far with my first edition posted on February 28, 2021 entitled Please, Don’t Feel Sorry for Me. Most months the articles averaging about 40 views per edition and I’m grateful for each and every view!

On the 21st of February, 2022, after coming back to my dorm from work, I stopped at our local kiosk machine to check to see if I had any new messages (my usual routine). Fortunate for me, I did have a message, it was from my Aunt Yolanda. We communicate on the regular, so receiving a message from her wasn't surprising. But to receive mail from loved ones brings a person in prison a certain kind of joy that you might not understand; no matter how often or far between. However, this message was unique and came with a few pictures to match. Here's the entire email message in context:

Celebrating a Milestone!! No extra push....yet.

Love YA!!

Auntie

What she's referring to is the accomplishments of one of my most recent articles entitled, You Are Not The Father. For the first time since Much Love, Soul was created, this article was successful in reaching over 100 views in a single edition. The reference to ‘no extra push….yet’ was her saying she hadn't sent any reminders. But neither Aunt Yolanda nor I were surprised by this article receiving more than double the usual views. In fact, we predicted it! She just took it a step further by celebrating the accomplishment.

While I truly appreciated the 100+ views and look forward to that happening more often, I felt like it was kinda "lame" to be celebrating it with pictures that way. Plus, as you can see, she didn’t provide much detail (i.e. views, likes, comments, etc.) like she usually did in previous emails about past articles, which I’m more interested in learning about. So instead of responding to her message and waiting on a reply -- I called her to get the details – ASAP!

She immediately went into celebration mode, congratulating me on reaching 100+ views for which I thanked her of course. But I'm sure she sensed my lack of enthusiasm due to my being somewhat dry during our conversation, so she spent some time sharing the importance of celebrating the little things and it's potential snowball impact on bigger things. 'Energy begets energy', she says. I can appreciate and decided to embrace this philosophy so, I’m going to start off by sharing with you my next “little thing”.

My next little thing was a graduation. Now, I'm sure some would argue that a graduation isn't a little thing at all – for most it’s a really BIG THING - and I get it. But, for the sake of this article, I need you to put yourselves in my shoes for just a minute. I successfully completed high school at West Jefferson High School in 2001 but I didn't go to the graduation. Why? Because I didn't care to go through the ritual of it all. I just wanted to get my diploma and be out. Peace! So imagine me getting excited about a course that I completed almost a year ago. Wasn't going to happen.

The course I completed is the "Internet Core Competency Certification (IC3) Digital Literacy Certification”, which is the worldwide benchmark to gauge a student’s understanding of computer systems like hardware, software, firmware, networking, and computer literacy*. I have to be honest and say this: IC3 wasn't easy for me. When you think about the restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic along with not being on a computer, phone, or any other electronic device for over a decade (besides the kiosk machine where I check for email daily), you soon realize how much life has changed and how much you don't know.

So in honor of turning a new leaf, not long ago I participated in the ceremony that recognized my accomplishment of completing the IC3 Digital Literacy Certification program. I have to say, I am proud of myself for seeing it through and equally proud of myself for considering this ‘little thing’.

P.S. The guy on the picture with me is Warden James Wesley, a deputy warden of the prison. He's also my boss. Don't we look happy. 😁

* IC3 Digital Literacy Certification Overview