I was in my junior year of High School when I experienced my first adrenaline rush on what it could be like to acquire free things. "FREE-99" as my loves like to call it! Granted, it was a $3 Starbucks card--barely enough to purchase a "Tall Vanilla Bean Frap" from the vast coffee chain-- but it was $3 of sweet, creamy, goodness that I didn't have to flirt with to get a hold of...*pause*. And let's not forget to mention that homie was giving out 3 cards at a time just so he could get back to his "in-store" position; safe behind the counter making holiday lattes and mocha orgasms.
Soon after that, I was acclimated into an organization with a former supervisor and because of all the events she took me to, I was picking up gift bags left and right. Yes! This was my Grammy's. And best of all, I was getting the award, the recognition, and the gift bag. Not just the plaque and a hand clap; poor Denzel and Halle at the Oscars!
Listen, I don't mooch and I've never thought of possible ways in which to get free things but they sure have been coming my way a lot. Maybe it's my choice of career path or maybe it's a heap of good blessings. Using the word "Karma" would crush my mum--"DON'T YOU BELIEVE IN GOD, BONNIE?" she would ask. Nevertheless, I am pretty secure in writing my vast blessings/karma down. So the gift bags came and then the offers were pushed and I relented. It was just an awesome feeling. The greatest memory I have is of my 2010 summer internship at Penguin Group (USA).
I was an editorial intern eager to get the job done and to have the bulbs to go off in my head with ideas. Hmmm, that was all good and propah (as the Caribbean would say) but the day I was given the green light...and the official I.D. card to gain access to the editor's storehouse, I didn't make joke to stack up. I'd go down with my awesome supervisor and she'd ask me if I need this or that--for the office I assumed but the day she gave me an extra pack of pens to start off the semester with, I was hooked. For the next ten weeks (1 day a week), we'd go down and she'd fill me up with rubber bands, paperclips, binders, those good-good recyclable notebooks, fountain pens, highlighters, Post-It labels, Paper Mate markers, anything that would probably help me finish my upcoming semester of college smoothly.
After just a ten week internship, I was not only stocked for my upcoming semester but I was good until I graduated and then some. It was like heaven.
Another encounter came up when I discovered my love for the health of hair. After taking a Journalism course and doing my final report on the sudden trend of African American women reverting back to their naturally grown tresses, it took me two years to fully gain an understanding for how big this phenomenon was. And so it occurred. I got hooked on to Natural Hair YouTubers like RusticBeauty, Kimmaytube, Blackonyx77, BeautifulBrwnBabyDol, and learned that there were activities to do that wouldn't sound suspect. Natural hair meet-ups are what I'm referring to. At these meet-ups, usually hosted by said YouTubers, we'd get to link up, meet each other for the first time, in a way be bedazzled by how many more women loved natural healthy hair, and in the process we would gain that support system that would banish all the doubts we ever had about transition back to our roots while still living in a Eurocen[trically] styled world. These meet-ups would consist of the gift bags I relished about above and inside would be every product [hair]-junky's dream! Nothing could be better than coming home with a compacted bag of top of the line product samples and possibly a raffle win.
YES! My days of living under the Free-99 rule have benefited me in so many ways. I could not ask for better blessings...though I do accept other forms as well. And it's not about what I can get really; it’s about how I ironically get it.
