I don’t mind telling you all that today didn’t go at all according to plan for me. Picture it, Summer 2021, record breaking temperatures are running rampant throughout the nation and my AC decides it has reached the end of the line as soon as I return home from a trip.

So while I had planned a very different kind of introduction for you all, I gotta keep it really real cause that’s part of the core philosophy of TheWRITEaddiction. In fact, it is rather fitting that this week is the enormous milestone of our 7th anniversary! That’s right, the amazing writers in this group have been posting collaboratively for SEVEN years. And as we transition into Year 8 something huge jumped out at me as I examined the current line up of the weekly staff.

Can you guess what it is?

I bet a bunch of you are like, “Duh. Marta, all of you are Black women.” Yes, that is something we all share in common. However, there is another common thread that links us all that lies beneath the surface.

I know some of you might wonder if we all grew up together, but no, this group is made up of women who grew up in Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.

And before you ask, while some of us are affiliated with Greek sororities, not everyone in this group has those social ties.

Okay, now that you’re probably getting a little frustrated with me I suppose it’s only fair that I spill the beans. Each and every one of us completed our undergraduate education at an Historically Black College/University.

We each walked the Yards of schools steeped in rich culture and traditions that shaped us and challenged us to strive and create a better future for those coming after us no matter what career path we chose in life. From Albany State in Georgia to Mississippi Valley and Tougaloo in Mississippi to Lincoln in Missouri we definitely have shared life experience. But perhaps not exactly in the way that some people think about it.

The choice to attend an HBCU as a Black woman means that you will more than likely outnumber your male counterparts.

In 2018, for every one man on an HBCU campus, there were 1.75 women; a 1:1.75 ratio.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

So, regardless of whether you formally attend rush and complete membership intake with a Greek letter organization, the simple act of attending an HBCU means that you’ve joined one of life’s unexpected sororities.

When I think about how these members of my WRITEaddiction staff relate to one another, I can’t help but smile. We share common language and expectations. We are attuned to the times when we need to check in on one another. We are a circle of support that was formed to encourage and support our shared interest in writing, but has also celebrated new babies and job opportunities and consoled during painful periods of loss.

We are an uncommon sorority gathered to the purpose of providing support of one another to help make the world a better, more beautiful place through our writing. (We do have a few fellas in our contribution writers group too cause we believe in inclusion and they are fantastic writers.)

I love it here in this wonderful sister circle and I pray it will continue for a long long time to come.

We invite you to come celebrate our anniversary with us. Check out our author pages and play around in our archives. Leave us comments on the pieces you enjoy and let us know if there’s something you’d like to see us write about.

We have a number of occasional contributors who post on Fridays and if you think you might like to become a contributor then you should check out the instruction on how to join our staff at https://thewriteaddiction.com/freestylefridays/.

Thank you all for reading and supporting us for all these years. We look forward to seeing you continue on with us as we strive for bigger, better and best.

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Marta is an award winning filmmaker, writer and producer committed to sharing the rich and complex stories of America’s Heartland region.  Marta wears several hats as Chief Creative-in-Charge of MartaGwyn Productions, LLC as well as the Co-Founder and Senior Grant Writer of Youngblood and Associates, LLC and Chief Operations Officer of Marta Collier Educational Systems and Services, LLC.

Marta is also the founder and editor-in-chief of TheWRITEaddiction.  An online community of writers that publish creative and inspirational works daily at www.TheWriteAddiction.com.

Marta is an alumna of The Ohio State University and Tougaloo College with degrees in Sociology and English-Journalism and resides in Little Rock, Arkansas, with her husband and unconventional college sweetheart of 10 years, Terrance Youngblood.