When I Grow Up…

When I grow up…I want to make my dent in the universe and inspire others to live by living

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. “

- Steve Jobs, Stanford University commencement, 2005.

Rest in our admiration, Mr. Jobs.

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I’ve met, I know and I’m learning about some incredible folks. Inspired by all of them, I’ve decided to create a “Living On Dreams” category to share who they are, what they’re doing and how they’re able to turn their dreams into a reality.

Meet Issa Rae. Clutch Magazine introduced me to her online series “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl”, and I’ve been hooked and cracking up ever since.

Name: Issa Rae

Home: Los Angeles, CA

The dream I’m working on: I want to be a producer for film and television; for me, that includes writing and directing. I want to expand the concept of “Black film & TV” to include more than, what I feel, is a limited range of content. I love quirky humor and coming-of-age stories and I want to contribute my own voice to “Black Entertainment”. And that’s NOT to say that I just want to produce content for black people. I don’t. I just want to be responsible for creating more diverse roles for us.

My biggest projects right now are a web series called, “FLY GUYS present The ‘F’ Word”, a mockumentary about an independent hip-hop trio, and “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl”, a semi-autobiographical but exaggerated account of my own awkward experiences in life. I’m writing and coming up with new ideas all of the time, but those are my current dream projects.

Inspired by: Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball), Donald Glover (Community) and Mindy Khaling (The Office) all inspire me for different reasons, and for the same reason: each of them writes and produces his/her own content.

I’m also super inspired by my family. There are seven of us in my immediate family and we all pretty much have the same humor. I find them all hilarious and if I ever needed an understudy for “Awkward Black Girl”, any of my four siblings could easily replace me … and probably be funnier.

Recommended resource for other dream believers: I find all my inspiration in the stories of others. I’m a people watcher. I love talking to random people to hear about their successes, their failures, their lives. And the great thing is, I don’t even have to seek out people. EVERY SINGLE DAMN DAY, someone random will just start talking to me, no matter what I’m doing (working, eating, sitting in silence, reading). I don’t know what it is. It used to annoy me because I’m too polite to say, “Oh, I’m sorry I’m trying to work” or, “Hey, I don’t want to listen to you. Thanks.” But now, I welcome it, because it gives me characters, story ideas … and I actually genuinely enjoy hearing about other people’s exciting/dramatic lives.

So, my resource for other dream believers is other people, I guess. Sorry, if that doesn’t help you, dreamers.

Mantra: “The only thing stopping me is ME.”/”Things could always be worse.”

Check out what dreams I’m breathing life into via: Twitter and my website

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Having parents that worked a lot of hours, television played a large part in keeping us occupied. In 4th and 5th grade, I would let myself in from school, fix a snack and watch my shows until my Mom or Dad came home. Back then, PBS was the most watched channel in our household.

With programming that included Shining Time Station, Ghostwriter, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego and Square One, PBS offered hours of educational and entertaining parental approved television. People like Bob Villa, Julia Childs, Bob Ross and Mister Rogers became part of our family.

I’m shocked to find out about the House of Representatives passing a bill that eliminates funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a non-profit organization that financially supports both PBS and NPR. The Senate is now working on their version of the bill. Without this funding, many public radio and television stations across the country will be forced to go off the air.

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