EXCERPT FROM MY FORTHCOMING BOOK: BROKE(N) GENIUS

6/12/02

BSIXTEE6 BEGINS

It’s been less than a year since the terrorist attacks on September 11^th 2001.  I haven’t shared my memories of that day with anyone probably because I’ve heard so many crazy stories about it that I didn’t want to add another one. 

A lot of people who weren’t even in the ground zero area  (that’s what they’re calling it now) wanted to put themselves in it to garner some sort of sympathy I suppose or make an insurance or lawsuit claim, who knows?

I’ve been alternating sleeping on my Cousin Tiara’s floor and couch and I’m still unemployed. I’m grateful to Tiara for letting me stay here because I really had nowhere else to go.

I had been a little depressed about not working and with my living situation when my Cousin, Cordell asked me to go to a party with him.  I initially said “NO!  I had not been in a party mood, I was broke and I didn’t have anything to wear.  He convinced me to go and I thought “Maybe I’ll make a tee shirt and wear it”. 

The days, weeks, months prior to that I had not been doing anything but wallowing in my own misery so I don’t know why I thought to make a tee but I did.  I took an old tee and wrote out in bubble letters “I MADE THIS TEE”, I then cut the letters out and sewed them on to another tee shirt. 

When we arrived at the party, people kept coming up to me asking me where did I get the tee shirt from.  When I explained to them that I had made it, they asked me if that’s what I did for a living and if so, could I make a tee for them and they would pay me.  Uhhhhhh!!!!! That was a no brainer.

Admittedly, aside from the tee shirt that I made for myself, the others were pretty awful.  I think I was more concerned about making money than I was about the quality of the work and it showed. 

My family and friends tried to be supportive in that “Oh My Gawd! This is soooooo great! But with their eyes rolled up towards the sky” kind of way (thank you guys, tee hee) but the more I looked at it, the more I started thinking I needed to make them as if they were for me, as I did with the first one.  I started taking the creation of the tees seriously.

I began to like what I was creating. I sort of jumped right into the fire.  I began calling myself a “Designer” although I had no formal training.  I figured if I didn’t start believing it, then how would I be able to convince others.  Common sense was saying that if you talk a good game, then people would buy into it up to a certain point.  Certainly, there would come a time when you would be required to show and prove.