The Anthony Reeves Experience

  Being born in 1969, I often refer to my generation (or Generation X or MTV Generation) as the ‘Children of the Civil Rights Movement’.   If you are in my generation, most of our parents not only grew up and lived through Jim Crow but they also experienced all aspects of the ‘Civil Rights Movement’ from the Nation of Islam and Black Panthers to Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.   For the Baby Boomers, their worldview would change right before their very eyes.  As such, their world would change from an oppressive segregationist culture to a more inclusive culture.  This experience was truly an exercise of seeing the world change in ‘real time’.    However, what I realized early on in my early years was that I had no idea of what my loved ones had faced.  I had seen documentaries like “Eyes on the Prize” and TV series like “Roots”.  I had access to publications like ‘Jet’ and ‘Ebony’....

  Look at where you are in your life and ask yourself this question:   “Did you get to there in the way you thought you would get there?”   Ask yourself another question:   “Did you expect to be where you are in the first place?”   We are meant for great things and we are constantly striving to try and get to the next level of our lives.  However, we often have, in our minds, this imaginary path we believe we have to travel in order to get there.   What’s even worse is we will either 1) beat ourselves up or 2) feel sad if we think we didn’t get to where we are meant to be in the path we THINK we should take.   I am often asked, ‘when you used to work for the State of Florida as a State Employee, did you ever think, in the future, you would be a Naval Officer, an attorney, business owner, college professor, or a judge’ and I say ‘No’.   People are often surprised when I tell them that I never thought I would be in any ...