Before I say anything of real importance, I feel it’s my duty to inform you that you are doing life allll wrong if you didn’t read the title of this post in the voice of James Earl Jones. Sure, I could have said Morgan Freeman, but between Jones’ new Sprint commercials and the fact that one of my more precocious students claims his internal/reading voice is that of Morgan Freeman, I think I’ll stick with James Earl Jones.

Anyway. Yesterday’s post explained my motivation for writing so I figured I should take a moment and explain the current title and tagline of my blog. “Sister of Complexity” is meaningful to me in a couple ways. Firstly (btw, I’ve never seen “firstly” used so much in writing as I have this school year, and I think it’s rubbing off on me…), I’m a black woman (sister) who often sees herself as complex. When I started this blog last year, I was very unsure of how much would be based on me, so I wanted to incorporate pieces of my identity in any way I could just in case I chose not to write about myself. I drew inspiration for the other meaning of “Sister of Complexity” from a Nas line: “I never sleep, because sleep is the cousin of death.” Actually, it also comes from Cervantes’ Don Quixote when Sancho Panza remarks that “There is only one thing, which somebody once put into my head, that I dislike in sleep; it is, that it resembles death; there is very little difference between a man in his first sleep, and a man in his last sleep.”

The idea of referring to words as having familial-like relationships because of their similarities (as opposed to just calling them synonyms) is interesting to me. In my mind, the “sister” of complexity is complicatedness. Stick with me here. My connotation of complicatedness (it’s a word, I think) is a state of being in which things are sometimes difficult to follow.  My connotation of complexity, however, is a state of being in which things require a regimented thought process in order to achieve resolution. The slight distinction (in my mind) comes into play during the process of completion. A complicated situation typically has a resolution that is quite achievable despite difficulties. A complex situation also has a resolution, but it takes a truly focused effort to achieve said resolution. Most days, I feel complicated just as often as I feel complex; sometimes I’m pretty easy to figure out, and sometimes I’m not.

The story behind my tagline is a bit easier to explain. “Live a little longer” is something I heard a lot from my granny, mom, and dad (usually accompanied by a laugh) growing up. I could be a teeny bit dramatic back then (…) so they would use that phrase to remind me that my issues then probably wouldn’t compare to my future problems. This phrase has grown to signify progress to me, though. As I do “live a little longer,” I find myself using my granny’s terminology, trying to be as selfless as my mom, and twisting my face into my dad’s sometimes humorous and sometimes serious facial expressions. As I continue to live and grow, I find that these people who worked hard to mold me into a caring, conscientious, and Christian young woman were right…about everything.

As you can tell, I most certainly have decided that my life will play a significant role in this blog. I truly look forward to sharing my complicated and often complex experiences as I continue to “live a little longer.”