Why Bodacious?

Being a native to Atlanta, Georgia it was a requirement to be Bodacious. 

Bodacious by book is an adjective that means excellent, admirable, or attractive or to be audacious in a way considered admirable. But when I say Bodacious it is a book definition, also confidence, embodying trust, transparency, and adaptability in oneself, in myself. 

I was born Bodacious by name and spirit. Ever since I started grade school I was ashamed about my name and being "Bodacious" because being a bodacious African American child quickly was perceived with negative connotations. I can remember being in kindergarten and my teacher pulling me outside the classroom to ask me "is your middle name really Bodacious?" At the moment for some reason I felt embarrassed to say yes, but how could I not considering he pulled me outside the class to ask me my legal name. At that moment I vowed I would not allow people to know my middle name, hence eliminating "bodacious". 

Thirteen Years later my parents passed and it was necessary to become Bodaciously confident in myself; Hence resurrecting "Bodacious". I felt I had mastered embodying bodacious through college experiences but motherhood was a pivotal moment in my life where I acknowledged I had still been burring that " Bodacious little girl." Motherhood really required you to not only "talk the talk, but walk the walk", for a whole being other than self; ultimately instantaneous selflessness. Suddenly I realized I hadn't mastered being Bodaciously Selfless and withdrew from being Bodacious once again because I couldn't make it "align" in my schedule as a new mother. 

Dismantling my Bodaciousness caused great sadness, but the collateral beauty was spiritual enlightenment. Through my new found liberation, I finally overstood why my mother would name me Kimishawn Bodacious Rickerson; it was the most modest way that she could prepare the world for what she had conceived. I am Bodacious and always have been. Bodacious is not just a word or my name; it is a lifestyle.