 My trip to Atlanta, GA was only for two days, but the first stop I made was to the Martin Luther King Jr. museum. I've been to the museum once before when I was younger, but now that I have had a few black experiences, and taken a few black studies classes this experience was different.  One thing that stood out to me while visiting this museum was realizing that MLK Jr. followed Gods Calling and found his purpose in being a Civil Rights Leader. His father was a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, and after college, MLK Jr. followed his fathers footsteps. I am sure that MLK Jr. had no clue what he was getting himself into, let alone, that he was going to die by making a change in the world.  I will say that visiting the Church was quite depressing, and cool at the same time because there was so much history, yet so many depressing memories that had taken place in the sanctuary. Not only was MLK Jr's funeral there April 9, 1968, but his mother was killed June 30, 1974 by a gunman in the sanctuary as well as two other Church members.  In the picture above, you will see that me and my little sister recreated the iconic photo of Coretta Scott King and her daughter Bernice King at MLk's Jr. funeral. I was sitting in the same exact spot that Coretta was sitting during his funeral. I also learned a lot about her during my tour around the museums. She was actually the reason that MLK's legacy lives on today. Yes, we all learned about Martin Luther King Jr. in grade school, however Coretta fought for him to have "Martin Luther King Jr. Day" and for the museum in Atlanta, GA.  This is the outside of the home that MLK Jr. was born. I was not allowed to take pictures, or videos inside the home because the King family owns the rights to the home. Remember how I said earlier that I been to this house when I was younger but this experience was different? Well for starters, I immediately noticed how huge the house was and in the early 1900s that obviously the Kings were living large. The security guard also told me that MLK Jr's weekly allowance was 25 cents. I understand that living today, in the year of 2017, that 25 cents a week would suck. However, back then 25 cents was equivalent to 25 dollars today, so you do the math. The CNN Experience!To break into T.V. Entertainment Industry would be a dream come true for me, and my tour at CNN made me believe that it was all possible!  My tour to CNN was an absolute dream come true! I went on the V.I.P tour and had such an incredible time. Before you start the tour, the tour guide tells you the rules which are: 1) Absolutely NO recording videos. 2) Absolutely NO taking pictures. 3) And do NOT, I repeat DO NOT walk up to the news anchors at all. 4) I don't remember the rest really, because the top three were the most repeated of them all.  The tour guide told us that Ted Turner lived in the condos at CNN. Ted Turner also would also drink his coffee, read his newspaper, and would come right downstairs where I am standing in the picture above and do the Morning News right there! Considering the strict rules, and Police Officer following us around the tour I decided to not take my chances at all with trying to sneak photos or videos. Anyways, so we get to the part of the tour where we are outside of the HLN Morning Express Studio and the tour guide was talking and I blurted out, "OMG There's Melissa Knowles! She's my favorite CNN Entertainment Anchor!" The tour guide reminded us again not to go up to the News Anchors and try to talk to them. We walked into the set of HLN and the tour guide went over and started talking to Melissa. Melissa walked over to me and said, "Hi, are you the young lady that wanted to meet me?" I was so shocked that I started crying, like the ugly cry, crying.  Just for the record, I have interviewed Kirk Franklin, Mike Epps, Erica Campbell, Dr. Bobby Jones, Vivian Green and many others, and I have never cried. I may have been a tad bit nervous, but never to the point that I have cried because I was so shocked and nervous.  I was crying so much that Melissa took my phone and told me that we should take some selfies so I could calm down. Once I calmed down we talked a lot about my future plans now that my college career is coming to an end, and she gave me a lot of advice!  Considering that I met my favorite Entertainment Anchor from CNN, made a connection with her, I was absolutely on Cloud 9. I had almost given up on my Entertainment Television dreams, but to me that was God reassuring me to not give up on that dream, and to push harder. Always remember that the impossible, is always possible.  I hope you enjoyed this blog. Like, Comment, and share!!!
A.Symone -Xoxo
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