Fuck the 2000's, I love being a 2010's tween!

Hello all, what a terrible weekend was had. Just permanent depression and uncontrollable melancholy. 

The one other feeling that I was stuck with, was nostalgia.

Usually these days, we Gen-Z, and the others..(Gen-Alpha and Millennials, I'm looking at you) are obsessed with the early 2000's fashion and music but I think we are forgetting the poignant and ever importance that the 2010's had on all of us. 

For this particular post, I want to focus on the music but the 2010's fashion, especially the makeup, was extremely niche and one of a kind. We fall so quickly into nostalgia for the 2000's because of how loud our millennial counterparts are. We think so much about the cartoon's: Avatar, the Last Airbender;  Teen Titans; Code Name: Kid's Next Door, but the shows in the 2010's were just as fun and original. Phineas and Ferb has a theme song that no one can forget, Jessie placed Debby Ryan solidly into our metal midst and the shift in popularity from Cartoon Network to Disney Channel was the beautiful beginning of the end for modern television. 

I could go on and on about the shows of that time period. From the ages of 8-18, I was firmly shaped into the young woman I am now. The thing that really got me, though, this weekend, was hearing an Adele song. Specifically "Chasing Pavements." This led me to listen to my favorite Adele song, "Rumor Has It" and it was downhill from there. The Arctic Monkeys, the Neighborhood, more Adele, Maroon 5, Beyonce! What a time it was! 

It feels almost negligent for us to have moved so fast from the time-period in which the radio was a place to find genuine music that we enjoyed. Well, maybe that's just me. I didn't have a phone until spring of 8th grade, which was 2015/2016 and my relation to music was through the stereo-radio I had in my room and Youtube. 

The ways that that period of music intrinsically shifted my brain-matter, who I am, who we all are, is why it is increasingly difficult for me to relate to Gen Alpha. How would you understand the way hearing "Sweater Weather" for the first time made me understand what my depression, actually, was? How finding The 1975 made me a lifetime fan? The effects of hearing Harry Styles become the star we all knew he was after experiencing the heartbreak of One Direction's split? The effect of Kehlani's debut album SweetSexySavage and Kendrick Lamar's Damn coming out in the same year then Kendrick and SZA's debut as a power musical couple dominating the charts the year after. 

The overwhelm of the 2010s is sinking in the memories of all of us as it is replaced with TikTok music, TikTok jokes, and TikTok takes. The over-simplification of things has forced us to forget the critical thinking that was necessary to fully appreciate the 2010s for what they were: a time of immense, earth shattering change.

We talk of the 2000s like all it was, was partying when it was strewn with war, hatred, and recession. It sparked what made the 2010's so pivotal, so important, so change riddled. Because it wasn't a choice. It was a need. We needed the first Black president and First Lady, we needed to see Black people as people, to be reminded of the problems, we needed music that was relevant to a variety of plights plaguing us all. 

I think the forgetfulness goes hand in hand with why people are struggling with the blatant decline of democracy in this country currently. We have simply erased what was a joyful but difficult time, that was threaded with truly new art, music, shows, fashion, and times. When our rebellion was our joy, how we were all connected to the idea of progress. The difficulties of the 2010s have been forgotten, making it as though we have always been a perfect country, but I'll say more on this in the next post.

My perception could be skewed; those ten years, I was extremely depressed and I found my joy through music on the radio, music videos on Vevo, and later music on Apple music. The music of the 2010s have such a distinct originality that it baffles me that people cannot hear the decline in music's sound in the last five years. Maybe it was the pandemic that lead to this collective amnesia. Maybe it was the intense reliance on social media that placed us there after it. 

I don't know. 

But I just want us to go back to what we listened to in middle school and high school (for those 29-21) and just feel the feels. Then come back to me. 

The 2000s were fun, that's for sure. 

But the 2010s? 

They were magic. Pure, unadulterated magic.

And I am extremely glad to have been a 2010's tween and teen!

xoxo

Who's That Girl? An Easy Guide to the "Hopes and Fears" Author

 Well, well, well, I am back! And it hasn't even been an hour yet! 

This post will be a comprehensive guide to who the hell is talking at y'all from the void. 

Me! Anisa! 

Little general background of the current situation:

I am a not so recent graduate from Harvard College with a degree in History and Literature, and after 4 years of hellish studying, I decided that I needed a couple of gap years before I pursue my PhD. I decided to do a year of service with AmeriCorps serving in Seattle, Washington moving there as in August of 2024.

However, after some convincing from my undergraduate mentor to apply for PhDs now, I applied this past fall to a very meager 4 schools and was denied from not one! not two! not three! But all four schools!

As a Texas/New York native-- it's not as confusing as you think-- giving up isn't necessarily my style, but adjustment sure is. After realizing that maybe I enjoyed teaching a little bit more than I thought; that applying for PhDs takes a little bit more finesse than I thought; and coming to the understanding that I am young, hot and turnt, not dying of old age with shoulda, coulda wouldas, I decided to take a few more years off before applying again. Because unfortunately, I was birthed into this world to be a professor, and a professor I shall be! 

So what am I doing in the meantime? (meantime being from now May 2025, until I apply for PhDs in Fall 2029)

Well, I am currently gathering documents to teach English in Korea with the EPIK program. I plan to do that for about 2-3 years. Then after that, I plan to join TFA in North Carolina or RGV, Texas, so I can be close to my family. I kinda want to get the teaching bug out before being forced to be both an educator and an academic.

Why am I in Seattle, or wherever I am at? 

I have always loved to travel. I was that young girl with the huge world poster and thumbtacks in all of the cities and countries I wanted to visit when I got older. I don't really believe in being a tourist, I don't really think there is an ethical way to actively participate in tourism, and I find that lifestyle boring and not really truthful to what a city or country can give you. Soooooo, I move there and live there. I technically did the touristy thing in Amsterdam, New Zealand....but even then I simply walked around, ate fries with mayo, and tripped some insane balls in a park. 

I don't believe that you can truly know a place from a visit, and living there really immerses you into the culture, the norms, and the day to day life of the people. 

I studied abroad in London at QMUL for 5 months, studied Korean at SNU in Seoul for 2 months, and moved to Massachusetts for undergrad from Texas, and immediately to Seattle, Washington after graduating, and now in two months (before I move to Korea) I will be studying Korean at Middlebury's language school for 8 weeks! 

Will I ever settle down? 

Well the 2-3 years in Korea feels a bit settle down like to me, as well as the mandatory 2 years of TFA, but not really. Not until PhD time! And that's a mandatory 7 years, so it's by force.

Are you single, married, widowed?

Heavily single, and planning to be for a while. I'll get more into that in another post!

Girl, what's the actual background info about you?

I was born in Brooklyn, New York to a Jamaican mother and my biological father is Black American. My adoptive father, BIG KEITH, is a Black American from Mississippi and Tennessee. Therefore, I am a funny mix of Southern and West Indian.

I am a cancer and I am 22, soon to turn 23! I lived in Texas from the age of 9-18, and lived in Georgia before that.

I graduated from Harvard and my specific focus is in comparatively evaluating and analyzing Black American literature and theory to Asian/Asian American literature and theory; I perceive heavy ties between the two communities even though they are always placed at crossroads with one another. 

I started learning Korean because Japanese and Chinese was supposedly "too hard" for an older beginner, as told to me by my Chinese speaking friend, and because I find it extremely disrespectful to engage in another's culture without actually knowing it. So it started out as respect, but over time I genuinely love the language and the culture, and I find knowing it to have allowed my sense of self to be expansive as well.

My mother passed suddenly in January 2024, and truthfully, I haven't allowed myself to grieve it. I needed to graduate so I forced myself into studying (I submitted a high honors thesis!!), then into roles where I don't really have time to think (as a city year, I have to get 1700 hours to receive the Education Segal award) 

I was a varsity basketball player and then covid happened and I gained weight. I've been on a wellness journey that honestly was extremely skewed, but now I've balanced it, I'd like to think!

What do you care about, what can we expect from you?

I think I'll make posts reviewing skincare products (I love skincare!!), talking about my "wellness" journey (girl, I'm just working out and eating well ain't nuffin serious), my outfits or search for my style, my travels across the world and back, my relationships/lack thereof, my intellectual thoughts, I'll be giving y'all the whole nine-yards!!

All of my interests will be from the lens of my identities, as all things are. I will always be inherently biased towards all things Black and womanly and femme and queer. It's just who I am!

What do you stand for?

Free Palestine

Protecting Trans Women, Men and Kids

Free Rights to Abortion

Fuck Anti-Blackness

Immigrants are not Aliens, they are people

Gay People deserve Rights

Intellectualism is not just a class issue, it is necessary for democracy's survival

etc. etc.! 

I'll freely update this as things progress, or I remember things that are relevant that you may need to know! 

Until next time, 

xoxo hehe 

My Very First Post

 Well, hello there! 

I've never read or written a blog and I am extremely excited to go on this journey! 

I've started this blog in my last few weeks working at City Year in Seattle, Washington in the midst of SBAC, or Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium testing, and because I am neither a student or teacher, I have nothing else to really do. That combined with new ADHD medications... well, let's just say that I've taken multiple practice LSATs and GRE tests and leave it at that.

I went onto my close friends story on instagram begging for something to do--as all young women do-- and start my own website or blog was an option, then with further supplementation from a coworker, this has come to life! 

Do I know what I'm doing? No. 

Have I ever done this before? No. 

Will I even be consistent on this thing? Also, probably no.

But I have wanted to express myself on the deep dark net and this is the easiest and least embarrassing way to do so. Maybe only my 5-10 closest friends will ever see what goes on the blog. Maybe a future employer who has googled my name looking for my misdeeds will see this blog and shudder with mild embarrassment. Who knows! What I do know is that I'm currently in my 20-somethings, 22, I'm a Black woman, and I have hopes and fears that I think everyone should know about.

In this blog I will be sharing anything I find worthwhile, thoughts and feelings that I believe need a greater platform than just my close friends or my spam account. 

I plan to make this blog a traveler's diary, foodie blog, dating advice platform, and overall a very public diary for a very private person. 

Maybe this will reach someone, maybe it won't but let's just have a little fun, shall we? 

What's that song by Cyndi Lauper?  

GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUNNNNNNN!!!!