Dear Wordies,
We’ve been knowing each other for half a decade now, friends! Five years of kmworded. Five years of growth. Five years of continued support. Five years of commitment. Five years of YOU reading, reaching out, commenting, sharing with your friends, and giving me the energy to keep going with kmworded even when I’ve taken a long step away.
You know when I was in dance class when I was kid, you got a trophy after five years of dance service. My mom wouldn’t let me leave until I hit the five year mark. During my last year, I counted the days until the recital so I could finally quit. I was the only Black girl, and I was beginning to notice it. The fifth year came, I got my beautiful trophy, and I said hasta la vista. Well, don’t worry because I won’t be quitting kmworded.
Yesterday I watched The Social Network for the first time. It was always something I meant to watch wayback when you could watch movies On-Demand on cable, before streaming became as popular as it did. Anyways, it had me thinking a lot about origins. Facebook started as a more advanced hot-or-not website and as an algorithm on a window (based on the movie at least). I’m not comparing this blog to Facebook, but rather stunting on Facebook because kmworded’s origin story is much better.
Kmworded started on the left side of my mattress on January 18th, 2020 in my bedroom, my favorite place on Earth. I was going into the second half of my junior year of highschool. All throughout high school, I notoriously posted literal essays onto my private story talking about whatever thoughts I had on the world at that time. I decided that rather than subject my private story to essays they’d have to tap through, why not create a space where I could still yap and people could choose to partake if they desired? And kmworded was born.
To this day I cannot manage to answer the question: what do you write about? I always say I don’t know because everything I’ve ever written about falls out of my head. I write about everything. Think of this blog as a commentary channel, but in written format (which is how most commentators create their videos anyways). I write about my life. I write about things that I feel could be explained with a little more context. One could argue that kmworded is an anthropological blog (I am the one, lol). Maybe that will be my answer now. We’ll workshop it. Anyways.
I love writing because I love reading. I saw a quote on Pinterest that said if reading is breathing in, writing is breathing out. To be a great writer (and a good comedian, fun fact) you must read. Writing is rhythmic. Even before I have the words of a post, I understand that it must hit a certain rhythm. And I understand that because luckily my school provided me with a good reading foundation.
In elementary school we had a chant that went like this:
You gotta read baby read (say what?)
You gotta read baby read (say what?)
The more I read the more I know
The more I know
The smarter I grow
The smarter I grow the stronger my voice
When speaking my mind or making my choice
You gotta read baby read (say what?)
You gotta read baby read (say what?)
Reading informs how we later go on to express ourselves. No wonder they’re banning books (and apps rip Tik Tok) because, in part, they’re banning our abilities to express ourselves. I took a class called Urban Education last semester, and for my project I focused on how English classrooms/literature can be utilized to transform how we treat Black women in our society*. Literature is our entryway to understanding how to empathize with people, we learn such through empathizing with the characters we read about.
Unfortunately, as books get banned, and the humanities continue to get undervalued, our society (men especially) are losing the ability to empathize. And more generally to exist among other people. We cannot read therefore we physically and emotionally cannot understand each other.
I hope that if kmworded inspires you to do anything, that it encourages you to try writing. To always incorporate a story into whatever you’re sharing. James Baldwin once said that our world is held together by the love of a very few people. And to build on that, I believe that our world is held together by the stories of many people who dare to share them.
Growth is a goal, but it’s not the main one. If my audience froze at where it is right now, I’d be happy. I am happy! So, thank you very much for reading.
*I am attaching the pdf of my assignment on this. It’s not my best work (not even being coy, I really didn’t know what I was doing), but it’ll give you the idea.
Love,
Kayla
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