Daytime!

Kobe's passing made me think about my basketballer niece, Deja. She now plays for CSUN. She has been schooling on the court since she was three. She is fierce. You want to know her. When she was very young she wrote her jersey number on her shoes and said she was going to be the first lady Laker. Her work ethic is all that. Always was. As a child she was in the backyard shooting and practicing. She said Kobe shot a thousand shots a day and so could she. In middle school she would get to school over an hour early to hoop with the early birds. At eleven years old she had her second hip surgery. I was very concerned and asked her to please slow down because I didn't want her to damage her hips and legs and not be able to use them at all. Her response was priceless. "That's okay, Aunties! I'll just play in the Special Olympics! I'mma be like...BOOP!" And she hasn't stopped. Remember her name. Deja Williams. I call her Daytime because she is truly light. When she entered kindergarten I was living in Georgia. I told her that if anybody messed with her for her to let them know that she had an auntie in Georgia who would come out on the next plane smoking. "No, Aunties! You stay out there. I'll handle it!" And she stay handling it. I'm so proud of her.