NSBE Luv

Just taking a brerak right now because the puppies are killing me, yo. I fell like Isaac Hayes in Jim Brown when his joints were bulging near the end of the movie. Heard some good things today while at the NSBE Fall Regional Conference here in Stamford, CT this weekend. Only remmbered a few of them enough to write down though.

One quotable came from a rather boring IBM rep who did happen to have some good food for thought. He spoke as part of the Graduating Seniors Reception the NSBE professionals hold in honor of the shorties making it out into the real world over the course of the next few months. His lines went something to the effect of being both bold and wise in your decision making habits.

Dare to take risks
Dare to learn
Dare to innovate

Pretty simplistic, but meaningful nontheless. I'm gonna have to pull a straight jack move on money. The other quotable came at this evening's awards banquet in the form of our keynote speaker, my man SGM. His speech was dopeness squared. But the snippet that stuck most with me from his speech was his breakdown of what he deemed is life's three states/modes of living:

• survival
• success
• significance

In essence, they comprise an idea cycle to define life's meaning. Thus, without leaving this wolrd in better shape than when you find it, how truly significant (or successful for that matter) were you with the live you lived?

I've gotta send a big shout-out to my man DW from Cali and SJB from Kansas City for coming through at the last-minute and helping me out by serving as judges for the Undergraduate Studies in Technical Research poser presentation competition. We saw some truly innovative, creative, and eye-opening research projects that shine a bright light of the future of black scientists striving to do their thang. The winners truly deserved their honors, and I hope they can translate their regional success into a national title as well.

All in all, it's been a good conference so far. Due to the action-packed and well-received workshops, the leadership panel that I was to appear on in the afternoon just so happened to get canceled. But it's all good. The judging wore me out enough. And my collegiate chapter made me so damn proud because they contine to rep to the fullest and carray that torch for the Huntington Ave fam. Regionally, they took home both the Chapter of the Month (Sept) and the Chapter of the Semester awards. And on top of that, their chant (MJ's Beat It) was the ish and they racked up with New England Zone awards. But apparently, the new breed seems to be a bit mellow overall, but of course it's only because us mid-twenty-year-olds are truly getting up there in age. Although change is uncomfortable, it is also unavooidable. But it was cool to see the new faces and reconnect with my peoples from across the northeast on some real shT. Plus, now that I'm no longer as in the mix as I would normally be at this conference, I got a chance to meet some new peoples, establish some good connections for random other enterprising and networking purposes, and continued in the tradition of fostering that NSBE luv. And that's what it's all about.