Dont Waste Your GloUp

in late 2019

a social media challenge took the

internet by storm

dove the decade challenge the objective

was to post a picture of yourself from

2009

and a corresponding picture from 2019 to

show the difference that a decade can

make

different entities and individuals began

to flood social media with pictures and

hashtag

them decade challenge

apple decided it would hop on al gore’s

internet to show these android users

just who really be running the cell

phone game

fans got to show their loyalty to their

favorite artists as they charted their

meteoric rise to celebrity

on screen you’ll see the one and only

jermaine cole better known as j

cole first of his name long may he reign

the greatest rapper of all time don’t at

me because i’m right on this one

and those who had found the fountain of

youth were able to show

that 10 years really doesn’t make much

of a difference for them

and so inspired by these entries i

decided that would also make a

submission

into the decade challenge and this was

my grand submission

he’s a beauty isn’t he true or false

this man would be your 2009 sexiest man

alive

the answer that she is giving is false

you’re a hater but don’t worry you’re

not by yourself

because my entire instagram are haters

too because my followers proceeded to

make me the butt of jokes

for 48 hours straight my favorite one

though was when one of my friends said

my guy

you look like you’re about to transform

into your final form

of sid from monsters inc

and then one of my friends who i believe

was trying to give me a compliment

said my guy it doesn’t matter because

you really hit a glow up didn’t you

now this is objectively false

but it’s also the most backhanded

compliment i’ve ever gotten in my entire

life

because i’m not ugly here okay everybody

keep your answers especially you

but it got me thinking about the glow up

and its prevalence

of the idea in the zeitgeist and i

decided that i had to understand it

so i did what any self-respecting

researcher would do

and i got my twitter fingers ready and i

started to scroll

and here’s what i found for many of us

the achieving of our glow up is our

biggest dream

and we see its importance in that it

enables us to be noticed

and known by others two of our most

valued yet

seemingly non-renewable resources we

have in our society today

and as an educator i continually see my

students incessant desire

to accumulate more and more affirmations

accolades

and achievements hoping to manufacture

for themselves

a glow-up because the way that we define

it

the globe is one’s external presentation

that leads one to be seen

savored and sought after and maybe the

most important question that we ask

ourselves

is what do i do with my glo once i get

it

and the answer that we will give is i

gotta shine on them i gotta flex on them

because inherently the glow-up is only

given to the lucky amongst us

and if the globe gods gave me my glow-up

but didn’t give you yours

then what’s wrong with you but my

research would also suggest

that even as we ascribe to this

understanding of the glow up

we do feel a dissonance and author

elaine walteroff states this as she says

that young people are looking for

something

real craving authenticity

but if we take a critical glance at our

understanding of the globe we realize

that

it don’t quite pass the vibe check

because if you look at mine

it would seem that i was once 15 and

then some magic happened in the middle

and then i materialized as this

beautiful human who you see before you

today

but then we’re just doing what maya

angelou would describe

as delighting in the beauty of the

butterfly but not understanding or

seeing the work that it took for it to

achieve that beauty

and this has led me to believe that we

have sequestered the glow up

to a box too shallow to house its full

depth

and worse yet if we don’t expand our

view

we’re at risk of wasting our glow ups

or at least the effort that we put into

them

and so i’d like to refine and refocus

our understanding

because i see it a little bit

differently now

you see the glow-up is not our ticket to

being noticed and known by others

but instead our ticket to notice and

know our self

it’s a product of a chain reaction that

happens on the inside

first a chain reaction that is brought

about and this kinetic energy

is drawn from the asking and answering

of three simple

yet deceivingly complex questions

who am i what is my purpose

and how do i impact those who around me

who am i what is my purpose

and how do i impact those who are around

me

no really who am i and what is my

purpose

and how do i impact those who are around

me

and the asking and answering of one

question will lead to the asking and

answering of another which will lead

to the asking and answering of another

question a metamorphic practice the

result of which is the growing

up into yourself and that’s the glow up

the ever evolving process of finding

your voice

reaching your potential and living in

your purpose

now it’s not lost on me that even as

we’re trying on this new philosophy that

some things are going to stay the same

for many of us the achieving of our

glow-ups

will be our biggest dream and we’ll

continue to ask ourselves the most

important question of what do i do with

my globe once i get it

and as i’ve been pondering this myself

i’ve stumbled upon two our authors

who i believe give us the keys

poet cleo wade asks us if all of your

dreams came true

will they change just you or would they

change the world

and admonishes us to dream bigger loved

ones

bigger and further and wider

and deeper and what could this big and

far and wide and deep dream entail

well tony morrison says remember

that it is your job if you are free

to free somebody else if you have some

power your job is to empower

somebody else and so taken together and

extrapolated into our conversation the

dream

is that your glow up begins to ignite

the

glow up in somebody else

now by way of demonstration want

everybody to take out your cell phones

what you’re going to need the feature

you will need is the flashlight

but don’t turn it on quite yet huh guy

jan

and i was talking to a young lady before

the event her name is as he francis as

here are you in the house

thank you so much for being here you’re

gonna ignite the glow up

in everybody in this room and here’s how

we’re gonna do it

i’m gonna count you down three two one

and then you’re gonna turn on your

flashlight

your job will be to hold your light for

everybody else

you are enabled to turn on your

flashlight only after

seeing somebody else’s flashlight on so

once you see somebody’s flashlight on

whether it is aziz or anybody else in

the house

then you can turn your flashlight on

then i would suggest

that you shine yours towards somebody

who doesn’t have theirs on quite yet

now i’m feeling the vibe i like the crew

we have in the room and if we are ready

as zee

three two one let’s light this place up

really cool for me to be able to see the

chain reaction happen

on stage and for you all to model how it

is that you

pass your glow up on you’re modeling the

asking and answering of

the questions the sharing your answers

with others

and the sharing of the process that you

use

everybody can go ahead and put your

lights down

i believe that it is this process

sharing your answers

answering for yourself and sharing the

process that you used to get those

answers

i believe that’s what greta thundberg

has done to shift and shape the

conversation around climate change

i believe this is what alicia garza opal

tometi and patrice coolers use to give

the diaspora a rallying cry

i believe that this is what you can do

to make the most of your glow up

and so i’ll leave you with this in 10

years

there will be another decade challenge

we will rifle

through our photo streams hoping to find

a picture from 2020

and a corresponding picture from 2030 to

show the difference

that a decade can make my challenge to

you

is to live in such a way now that when

you look at those pictures

you’ll be able to say yeah i hit my glow

up but also

my glow up started the chain reaction

that ignited the glow up

in somebody else don’t waste yours

thank you

you