A GIRL WITH BRAINS THAT HAD TO CULTIVATE CLASS....

I never saw myself as a girl with class and I thought I was more street smart than book smart. More than anything I was all over the place as a little girl, a tomboy. My mother looked at me and called me "CRASS, CROOD and UNCOUTH! I was LOUD, BOISTEROUS and OVER THE TOP...you heard me before you saw me! As I write this, I am laughing to myself, because it was TRUE. Growing up, I wished I was a boy. I loved to climb trees, my legs looked like a map, I had more bumps and bruises than a boy. I LOVED BRUCE LEE & JIM KELLY! Enter the Dragon was my favorite movie and I wanted to learn how to use nun chucks and become a black belt. One of my favorite songs was Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas. I loved watching Charles Bronson with my Grandfather, Blaxploitation films and Godzilla. No I wasn't the little princess, I was a mess! Couldn't keep my earrings in my ears to save my life and popped every piece of dainty jewelry I was bought.

One thing though, I was extremely smart and by the time I was four; I was reading and listening to grown folks think they were doing something by trying to spell in front of me. I wanted to say "SPELL CHECK HOMIE" I know what you said! Yeah, I was a MESS...but I did love women who were beautiful and took care of themselves. Mommy was a beautiful woman and everyone thinks that of their mother, but my mother was about 5'8, with an hour glass figure and flawless Indian skin. She wore the biggest afro, was a style maven and her make up was always on point, never too much and she never used foundation!

By the time I got to Junior High School, I was so out of control the boys used to call me "He-Man!"

Now that's a damn shame, you know you're off the hook when the boys torture you for whippin their asses...oh well, I thought, I'll be that but you better not hit me! Which was always my first retort, because I'm going to hit your ass back or throw a chair across the room at your head. I did things like that and the last time I remember tossing a chair at a boy was in Far Rock High School. We were in the lunch room and somebody threw a open milk carton at someone sitting near me and my bunch. The milk got on my clothes and I got up and flipped my lid. I can't remember it all, but he said something out of pocket and I got so angry!  I turned around, picked up the chair and just tossed it clean across some heads to hit him with it. He charged toward me and I said "COME ON!" Before he could get there, security grabbed my bad ass, because I had another chair ready to CRACK him in the head with it!

Yeah, CLASS IS CULTIVATED, TAUGHT, LEARNED and it DOESN"T GROW OVER NIGHT! You're not born with it, it has to be something you want bad enough to learn about it. Well, I wanted it really bad and as I grew older, I began a change. It is a slow process and I never thought I was classy, I just knew I had my own style and didn't like over doing things. It's a known fact, less is more and my mother drilled it in my head. If I had on something excessive, it was GAUDY to her and she'd explain why and I'd take it off. Who has the experience and better judgment?

So how did I get the name Classychick? Well, the first time I ever heard it was from a my oldest son's father. He liked nice things and spent money on nice things. One day out of the blue in he just looked at me and said, "You know what I like about you? You have a lot of class about yourself!" He went on to explain why he felt that way and basically, it boiled down to less is more and having knowledge of certain things, cultures and beauty...just being a renaissance woman. LESS IS MORE! I always wore a French Manicure or pastel colors on my toes. I hated airbrush and didn't wear whatever came out, I had my own style and sense of what to wear. As for brains, well I don't have to mention too much about that, I did eventually graduate from college, but I'm not where I need to be, so I have more learning to do. MY BRAIN IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!!

So many women claim titles, they know nothing about. I've learned class is not in a label or how much you spent on something; it is something cultivated over time and with experience.