It’s been on my mind to write an op-ed for Valentine’s Day. The release of The Soft Life in October 2022 marked a significant resting stop in my journey of becoming. It felt like I had won one battle and had to immediately throw myself into the next bout to keep a handle on the greatness of the moment. I had made it, yes. But now I needed to drive the Little Master’s Thesis That Could through the reason it existed in the first place: to connect with readers and share my heart about the state of the national discourse concerning black women.

As if writing for children wasn’t hard enough, I took on the challenge of writing for adults; I decided to claim my space as a young academic and share my research findings beyond the dusty Second Basement of Wit’s University’s William Cullen Library.

I will tell you more about that in October.

The road to get there had been treacherous and the realisation of this goal sometimes splintered the darkness with enough hope to keep me going. I got there in terribly chaotic form but the only thing that mattered was that I had made it. I saw myself sending my final draft. I saw myself negotiate the cover (remind me to tell you how much I hated my cover. )

I really enjoyed reading this review by Mail & Guardian’s Lethabo Mailula. I hope you do too. You can read it here.