You're all that I've ever known, when you smile my face glows...

You're all that I've ever known, when you smile my face glows, You picked me up when I was down And I hope that you feel the same way too - K-Ci and JoJo Oh. My. Goodness. How I have loved this song for years and years. Loved it. We will save my (used-to-be) undying love for Jodeci for another post. Today we're just gonna talk about this song and the memories attached versus today's thoughts and feels. Ok, so this song was a monster hit when I was in college. When it first came out it could be heard all in the dorms, in the clubs, blasting from cars, everywhere. Of course my love for Jodeci's music was carrying over to K-Ci and JoJo so I was digging the song. The piano is amazing here, from the intro to the end. I believe the piano and the auto-tune made this an instant classic. Aside from the beautiful lyrics, this is what we connect with and we've remembered for years on end. I was so caught up in the worship last week that I did not get to tell you so I'll tell you now- this is the month of love as well as Black history so for the entire month of the February I will be covering love songs by Black artists. As has been, I will continue to cover Christian inspirational music as well as other genres. So let me give you a little bit of history with this song and me. You probably know at least one person that had it played at their wedding or a family member's wedding. We all do. All My Life wound up being a song that I would play on repeat and cry to over and over. My first "real" college boyfriend sent the CD to me Valentine's day 1998. I was broken-hearted because G lived in Connecticut and I lived in DC in Meridian Hill Hall as as a freshman at Howard University. He and I had met during homecoming and it was a whirlwind romance. For a 17/18 year old... As I typed that just now I laughed so hard because I realized that he was just a just a few weeks shy of being R. Kelly. I was definitely 17 when we met! In his defense we were literally days away from my birthday and I'm not sure if I told him my real age or not so there's that. Listen by now you know my young life was interesting to say the least. I had adventures so back to the story... I'm glad that my mom will not read this, but G and I met as my girls and I were hitching a ride from the club. Dumb I know. Strangers in cars, strangers from other states in cars, strangers from other states during one of the busiest times in the city in cars. The whole deal was bad. But I seriously talked my girls into it. I said that we would be okay because we outnumbered the guys- there were four or five of us and two of them you're still of them. So I calculated that if anything jumped off we could kick their butts and get away. At the time I never ran from a fight and I figured that I could whoop pretty much anybody. There would have to be a brick or a bottle or something I could use as a weapon. I literally never saw myself losing. Man, to be young and dumb is bliss! Again back to the story at hand, G and I were in a long distance relationship and we talked on the phone all the time, just as his homeboy talked to my homegirl all the time. We were a modern urban love story. With his crazy work schedule we didn't get to see each other as much as we wanted to. We had a Valentine's Day visit planned, those two driving down to spend time with us two with us to for the Hallmark holiday, but wouldn't you know it a snowstorm hit. The roads were horrible with ice as slush and the trip got canceled. I was heartbroken. And now that I think about it that was the event that soured me on snow forever. Mind you I had to waited at the bus stop for two and three hours in the snow because I was a student of DC public schools and if you had to be there you had to be there. Mind you I missed the news and weather report one morning, caught three buses, took two hours to get all the way to school one morning only to find out the school was closed. I had to turn right back around and take three more buses two more hours to get back home. None of that made me hate snow like this missed visit. I was so upset. I cried and my girls consoled me. My young little heart was so hurt. I don't even remember when G and I saw each other next possibly the following month or at least by April we saw one another again. I didn't know it would be for the last time. Some time after that the calls got inconsistent, the stories weren't quite adding up and things weren't really working out. Long distance relationships take a lot of effort to maintain and he and I were at two very different stages in our lives. He was helping take care of his granddad and his daughter while working full time while I was a full time student living off of dining dollar and care packages from my mom and church family. Soon it just became annoying and I decided to cut it off. I still kept the CD though and I still loved the song even though it always reminded me of that awful snow day And a weird young love.

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