MakesMeWannaHoller Turns 1!

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Exactly one year ago today I wrote my first weblog post on this site. At the time it was called Manchild in The Promised Land. I had lofty goals: to speak about my blessing in spite of all the forces working against me --- issues at work, issues at home, issues with society, whatever.

And after a couple of weeks I stayed to my theme, but it was just sooooo boring. Inspiring, but boring. So I tried to think of something else that might click better with me. While this was going on, I was growing to detest my commute into work --- the sending my son off to school at a God awful hour, the having to leave my baby behind with someone else to raise her for 8-10 hours a day, the arguing with my wife about the little things husbands and wives argue about while trying to get anywhere on time, the train and finally work itself (but only to a small degree because I wanted to keep my job). I began to complain, satirically, but complain all the same. Then I began to comment on more ludicrous pieces of news that I ran across either on the Internet or on television. I began a piece called What the Hell. A few people commented with little tidbits like, LOL or Funny!

The more I added commentary the more I realized I was hollerin’ and everything I was writing about made me want to holler. And so a new and final title to this blog was born. Meanwhile my marital bliss (I had been married for roughly 5 months) was tanking quickly. Being with my wife for 7 years before our actual marriage had a lot to do with this because married life although new was not exactly new life with her. At the time I was coming to terms with the absence of a what I thought was a very great friend from my life (I removed him) and the subsequent loneliness that I felt and still feel to this day being that all the guys I used to roll with simply are no more for one good or pointless reason or another. Work and family life infringed so much on my time that I had to give up the gym. My eating habits changed for the worse. Quickly I became a man with no outlets. And with only one television in the house life got really dismal.

But as a man of extreme faith I’ve always been able to look at the lighter side of things and make fun of myself, although I don’t want anyone making fun of me. I began to mix pieces of my home life with my commute, work and everything else on this blog until one day I wrote the post Threesomes.

The response I got was surprising. As most of my base were people I knew they weren’t accustomed to commenting yet so they all called me to tell me how funny I was. And every parent out of that group told me they could relate, either because they remembered those times or they were currently going through it themselves. An author friend of mine, Bernice McFadden, went so far as to tell me, “I like the stuff you put on your blog a whole lot more than the fiction you’re trying to get published. You have something here. You need to run with it. By the end of the year it could really be bookworthy.”

I was horrified by Bernice’s complimentary criticism, but I took her words to heart and began, over the next few months shifting my content, learning bits and pieces of HTML and tricks and trades of blogging to erect what you’re looking at today --- a daddy blog, that’s also a husband blog, that’s also a black man’s blog, every once in a while a movie blog, once or twice a photo blog, also a music blog, and often a random blog.

MakesMeWannaHoller is a year old today and 169 posts later, I’m seriously considering revamping my site completely although I really don’t want to undertake the effort to make it look the way I’m thinking of making it look. So in the meantime while I entertain the prospects of MakesMeWannaHoller 2.0, sit back and enjoy this blog’s birthday week. I’m coming hard with the posts all this week, blogging as if I were getting paid to do it.

Maybe one day I actually will.

Thank you all --- original, loyal and newest readers --- for the love.

Peace.