2.23 Miles for Ahmaud... & Still Running

​Yesterday, on May 8th, I went on my usual morning jog/walk… but it wasn’t just my average morning jog/walk because I set a goal to make sure I completed 2.23 miles before I even thought about heading back home. See, on May 8th, 1994, Ahmaud Arbery entered this world with the potential and ability to share his greatness and to run as far as he could ever dream but on February 23rd of this year, was stripped of that very potential and ability by men who felt intimidated by the color of the skin he had no choice of being born into. Yesterday, Ahmaud would have been 26 years old, 2 years older than I had just turned 2 days before. Normality must be overrated because I just KNOW that it isn’t normal to go on a morning jog and have to fear for your life. I just know that all of those prior thoughts I had, before I was even aware of the incident, about whether it was possible for someone to shoot me down on the street as I jogged or whether someone would purposely run a stop sign and keep driving just because they viewed the color of my skin as a threat was even probable... I used to ask myself “why do you think like this?” I used to think “wow, I’m so overdramatic.” “Overthinking is all it is”... and then Ahmaud Arbery, a black man dressed in a white t-shirt, was murdered because he looked “suspicious” going on a jog in broad daylight… Sometimes, I wish I was wrong. I wish I was being “overdramatic”. I wish I was “overthinking”. To know that someone can be threatened by me going on a jog, sitting in my own living room, minding my own business, etc. I was born black and that I am proud of for many reasons and wouldn’t change it even if I could. We’re a group of beautiful and phenomenal people who know perseverance beyond belief. In fact, resilience is our very nature... but sometimes, even the things that come natural to us start to get tiring... like sometimes, “bouncing back” becomes too repetitive. We want to move forward without bumping into the same challenges we’ve been facing for centuries. We want to grow without fear of being cut down twice as much as the plants around us. We want to run towards something without feeling like we’re running away from something else... without having to feel like we’re running for our lives. We’re meant to do more than just survive but every single time we try to do just that, there’s someone there to remind us that being unchained doesn’t make you free.