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