Be the Wave

April, 1993 – July 4 2014. God rest the young man Waverly “WAVE” Roberts. He impacted people in so many innovative and positive ways that I’m only just beginning to understand. #TowsonTiger for life. Rest in perfect peace and power buddy. Glad I got to know you if only for a little while.

Its taken me a month to write this and now I am finally sharing it. Rest assured my Dad and I have talked about it and to my friends who have been affected my thoughts aren’t new. On July 4th of this year, a college friend of mine passed away. I believe that he was 22 years old and a senior at Towson University. His name was Waverly “WAVE” Roberts. I don’t know the causes. I did want to know when the news broke; we’re usually like that initially. But as the days wore on and after I had the privilege of sharing touching moments at his open funeral service, i realized I don’t want to know how he died. Its way more important to know how he lived.

I only knew Wave for 4 or 5 months last year. We took the same directed study class maintaining film equipment in the lab. He was a very laid back guy but very focused. Great smile too! His concentration was in Audio and he wanted to be a music producer. He could always been seen carrying his laptop or a keyboard and ever present Beats headphones.

He also had a walk, a gate about him that was cool but slow and methodical too; like he was at his own pace and nothing would interrupt it or even rush him, if he didn’t want to be. Like the pop song he would “go his own way”.

That’s kind of along the lines of what the pastor at his service said, summing up Wave’s life. Wave happened to you; and you couldn’t control him; just like a real wave. He had an energy certification of some kind in his community and was a serious academic according to his friends and cousins. And that inspired a lot of the people that Wave surrounded himself with.

In fact it hit home for me seeing as over 200 people came out to support his family at the funeral service! he touched a lot of people.

When I got the news it freaked me out but not in an explosive way but in a confusing way. He was the youngest person to die that I knew. It didn’t seem right that someone with so much promise didn’t even get to graduate college. It was even weirder because though I wasn’t his close friend, I felt that we could have been and even maybe collaborators in the far flung future

Maybe we will be – in heaven one day.

Wave has inspired me to be the best that I can be, as cliche as it sounds. but really what other response is there when someone dies? The guy was remarkable in ways I am only beginning to understand, and so much of it blew me away at that service, how proud his loved ones were despite the pain.

You could feel the love.

I still think about him and the little bit that his life impressed on me. i hope I never forget him and what I know he stood for. I hope I can impact the world in my own positive way, and ride the wave. if I can’t ride the wave, I hope to be surrounded by loving people just like Waverly was who can help me.

Thanks for the brief yet powerful ripples in my life, Wave, and rest in perfect peace my brother.

Yours,

JOSIAH

#BeShameless and #SelfLove

So the past couple weeks or so I have been entrenched in the vlog posts of two young ladies named Andrew Lewis and Shamless Maya on YouTube. Andrea came to my attention actually a few months back when together she and Issa Rae announced a new web series coming to Issa’s channel, created by Andrea, called ‘Black Actress’. From there I kept following updates from Andrea after the first season of her show ended and found she had an online campaign called Self Love. In her videos she talks about her goals, what life was like up to about a year ago and how she started her journey toward self improvement and appreciation. Doing so has turned her life upside down and a lot of her goals, including creating a web series and an album of new music, have come to fruition.

Following Andrea, I saw one of her videos featuring of her girls friends who shared about their Self Love journeys as well. One of the girls was named Maya, and several weeks later her page was suggested to me on Facebook and I decided to check her out.

I’m glad I did because she has a lot of the same qualities as her friend Andrea. In fact it was a lot of hardship and pain within her personal life and family that put her on the road to self improvement she is on now and strengthened her friendship with Andrea. Maya now runs her own campaign and brand called Be Shameless, her way of encouraging herself and others to be fearless, face their inner demons and be unashamed to dream big!

Andrea and Maya’s videos have really inspired me to not only “professionally” as Dad and I continue on our book publishing journey, but personally as well. Communication from others or toward others about overcoming fear and how shamelessness and bravery can fuel dreams has really had an impact on me the past few weeks and makes me realize how awesome God and life really is. I also see now how important it is to own my dreams, especially for the novel, and beyond. Positive attitudes really are healthy and can change even the darkest days into brilliant experiences. I am reminded of a friend who encouraged Dad and I to see our novel as a movement for positive relationships amongst friends and family, and the campaigns created by these two ladies has brought that notion full circle for me!

I will post a single video from both Andrea Lewis and Shameless Maya in separate video posts for your viewing pleasure so you can see what I’m talking about. Whether you’re working on a mixtape, filming a movie or writing a novel, no matter what, be encouraged, take a generous dose of self love and no matter how big the dream is, be shameless in your endeavors.

I can’t wait to start a movement alongside my co-author dad!

Yours,

JOSIAH

*Picture(s) from Google Images

Genesis of the book ‘Noteworthy Tribute’

*Original Cover

I never really thought much about writing a book. Once I started, I discovered many other people who also spoke of their desire to write. It’s a great goal to have and I encourage anyone who is interested in writing a book to go ahead and do so. It is a very satisfying experience. As I look back now, maybe I was slowly being prepared to tell stories while watching too many 30-minute sitcoms in the ’70’s, somehow that formed my mindset. By mindset, I mean my way of viewing life in story-lines; to cope with challenges of the world, I’d see myself and others as characters in a series.

Everything came together for me at a launching point sometime around 1998. I was in Virginia, traveling the highway, Interstate 64, the car danced between the lanes while on the last legs of one of my earliest trips to see the ocean at Virginia Beach. That day, I did get to see the ocean; I was awed by the experience; I was transported in spirit beyond my roots of the corn and soybean fields Illinois offered, to the vastness of the sea and in that moment, I was given a story to tell. I invite you to share that journey with me.

Before I knew it there I was on the #89 Metrobus from Greenbelt to Laurel sharing my first pages with my kind friend Deanna Cunningham. Deanna was pleasant to me by sharing her writing experiences while employed at American University. I am forever grateful for her assistance.

Those days were filled with computer problems, floppy disk concerns (yes, floppy – not a misprint), yaa di, yaa di, yaa. Somedays it was really difficult to come home from hours of work, interact with the family, then somehow tap into the creative juices like a maple tree in the forest. I recommend everyone get an encouraging friend and remain diligent.

The story would center around the relationships of young twenty-somethings and a common struggle; how to deal with the question of going to college or not. The backdrop would be music; I really enjoy the liberating feeling one gets from simply jamming. When I was somewhere between 10 and 15 years of age while playing basketball on the outdoor court at the Boys Club in Springfield, Illinois with my childhood friends; Andrew noticed I was singing while trying to play the game and teased me that someday I’d probably become a ‘rock’ star – yeah right. Nonetheless, the point is I’ve always enjoyed music and the influence that it had on my life. So, I figured that I would include it in the story line of Noteworthy Tribute. Made sense at least to me, especially since we have a family garage band and this would give another dimension to the book. The songs in the book are written and performed by our band with a little help from our friends here. The combination of music and writing is sort of like when James Waller did an album to coincide with The Bridges of Madison County. The fact that the ensemble cast in our book reflected the camaraderie that I experienced growing up was actually not planned but was a pleasant surprise. It is somewhat of a tribute to the friends that I had growing up and the fun that we had…I now realize how special those times were. It’s possible I’ll miss a name or two, please forgive me but while I’m in the flow – well, here’s a shout-out to the guys (yes, there were girls also, thanks ladies – but this is about props to the brotherhood here). Steven Richie, Andrew Carr, Tony Young, Anthony Thompson, Brian Singleton, Phil Brown, Ron Smiley, & Keith Chambers. I have told my four sons about the days of our youth and encouraged them to pursue friendships that I was blessed to have had with you.

Yours,
Mark