There are favorite teachers we will never meet. In eighth grade, my favorite English teacher

assigned us Toni Morrison's Sula. I've always loved reading, so it was nothing to jump

into the book. But once I was on those pages, those words mesmerized me and golfed me,

it was probably one of the few times I didn't procrastinate to the last minute to write a book

report. And ever since then, I revisited that book as a reminder that we all have a purpose.

Even the worst of us have the best of reasons for being on this planet. I started blogging in 2003

as a college student, ran to and about her random undergrad adventures, and blogging took on a

life of its own for me. But writing gave me voice even when I thought nobody was listening. Still,

I didn't call myself a writer until 2012, nine years after I started. For me, the word writer was

too sacred. And I didn't feel like I measured up to something that someone like Toni Morrison would

use to describe herself. How dare I? I didn't feel like I'd earn a title that people used for Miss

Morrison. We ain't in the same stratosphere yet club. But we were. And had I been listening and

absorbing her words, I would have known that because Toni Morrison's words gave freedom to black

girls and women to be who they want to be and step into the world as who they are. Toni's works

teach us to be freer. She gave me the freedom to be who got purpose me to be. It's like that quote of hers.

The function of freedom is to free someone else. Toni Morrison freed me. I can be courageous with

my word because this giant willed the sword with hers. Her words were convicting, consoling and

curing. She treated us like grownups and trusted us with those letters to do as we wanted. If there's a

book that she want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, you must write it. Miss Toni told us that

and who am I not to listen? That quote appears on page two of my debut book, I'm judging you the

do better manual. Her words have literally been life's instructions for me. I took them to heart.

Toni Morrison was unabashedly a truth teller. Beyond her works, her interview showed how this woman

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