Girl, You Are Just Like Your Father — EXTRA IS MY ORDINARY®

My Father - The little girl in me still misses him...The woman I’ve evolved into appreciates the gifts from him.

At a very young age, I learned the value of staying true to myself and developing that person despite what the world thinks. My father’s bold and distinct way of living life from a greater extent than the norm was where I learned about the power of being “extra”.

Throughout my entire life, my father’s presence was consistent, strong, and of high value. As a young girl, I would watch him in awe as he tackled life head on, not knowing that he was learning and figuring it out all at the same time. He made life seem exciting and difficult, sweet yet bitter, and fun with a dash of woe. Plainly put, he kept it real! The same dynamic individual who we experienced at home was the same person we shared with the world as he engaged in politics, service, fun activities, a 30+ year career, business ventures, and building relationships. Truly, his zest for experiencing the fullness of life was remarkable. On a daily basis, he pursued big dreams, thought deeply, created change within his community, and aspired to have and do all the things that were associated with becoming an extraordinary individual. He possessed a hallmark of living extraordinarily; doing everything needed to pursue his goals and live the life he desired in excess! I even found myself thinking on many occasions that my father is so extra as he said hello and tried to get to know most everyone he encountered, or when he never ceased to over-extend himself to help benefit our community, and again when he would teach my brother and I during our early childhood years to smile big and develop confidence. At times, it was hard to see the benefit of these actions while going through the process, but being extraordinary penetrates everything that you do so taking the time to develop it was critical and he knew.

Being escorted by my father at the Debutante Ball during my senior year of High School

It’s safe to say that when you’re driven by faith and an earthly father who loves you enough, trusts you enough, and believes in you enough, you learn that you are enough. The direct effect of this is that I have never had to second guess my worth, eventually, making extraordinary a normal part of who I am. I’m not exactly sure when it happened. There’s no specific date and time or incident that I can reflect back on, but at some point in my evolution, the people closest to me, including my father, began to see the parallels in the ways I navigated my life with the ways he navigated his. That’s the point when I began hearing “Girl, you are just like your father!” from my mother, aunts, uncles, and even family friends. One particular conversation with my aunt sticks out where she looked at me and listened with such pride. During this conversation, I was sharing my goals and the vision I had for my life along with explaining to her that I knew exactly what part of my purpose is. When I finally stopped babbling, she simply said what I had heard many times before, “You are just like your father”. Although this time, it caused me to reflect and I began to understand that the same extraordinary seed had been planted deep down inside of me.

Extra Is My Ordinary was birth as a result of being my most authentic self while living life unapologetically! Creating a space for other extraordinary individuals who are either finding their extra or living in the full extent of their extra-ness is what’s important to me. My primary vision is to empower others to unleash and further develop the extra that lies within to live life unapologetically. Let’s embrace when “they” look at us and whisper (it’s rarely said directly to you), “he/she is so extra.” That’s right, we are extraordinary in every way! I’ve grown to recognize that extra is a state of mind...a sense of being...a constant yearning for more...an understanding that purpose drives everything you do...a desire to become the best version of oneself. Identifying that being extra is not perfection rather it’s a powerful working combination of all aspects of who a person chooses to be.

Accepting and loving myself wholeheartedly is a part of the driving force behind everything that I seek to do, so it’s of no surprise that I connect with other extra-ordinary people too. As a mother, wife, daughter, educator, friend and entrepreneur, my desire to inspire anyone I come in contact with to live a fabulous life of purpose and freedom is second nature for me. The most powerful part of having the freedom to become the best version of myself was having a living breathing example in my father of how to develop and embrace the extra that was resting inside of me. I’m motivated to be an example because our children and young leaders are depending on this lead. I was blessed to have had an example of this in my father, but many people don’t because the world tells us to play it safe and small, so with this contradicting message it becomes evident that we cannot fully embrace being extra without tools and relentless courage.

Thanks to my father, may he rest in peace, I am free to know and embrace that EXTRA IS MY ORDINARY! Who do you attribute your extra-ness too? Let me know down below.

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