Coach Mel Honored Among DMV Notables at Black People Rock Honors

My talents and passions are always opening doors for Me and I'm forever grateful. However, recently, the personality trait that I honor most in Myself, and seek in others, opened a door to being honored along people I've idolized.

Integrity is everything to Me. Coming from nothing, I've learned that your integrity is about the only thing that can't be taken from you. To be a person of integrity, it means to honor truth and justice about your own feelings and personal gains; it means to step up and in when someone is in need and you have the capacity and resources to help; it means sometimes showing up and staying late when you only planned to attend.

In fact, two days before the awards ceremony was due to take place, I got an urgent message from the Founder of Black People Rock Honors asking if I could drop what I was doing to pick up the citations for all 50 award recipients, and I did. I didn't do it because I wanted to, or because I wanted accolades, but because I am a woman of integrity. There was nothing that I was inundated with at the moment that could even justify disappointing 50 people. I was hold, free and had time to meet the 4:30 deadline which was a little over a hour away.

Stepping into the award ceremony didn't feel real, I was here to be honored alongside people I had only watched on television or heard about; honorees were people such as Vic Carter from our local news, Lady T from Bmore Lifestyle and Dr. Joanne Martin, Founder of the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum. This life-changing experience came just as I was preparing to embark on a journey of transition and it felt amazing.