Sassy Black Friend

Reclaiming Sassy

Even my avatar is sassy

Up until 2 years ago, I hated the word sassy. I got called it a lot, and I always thought of it as condescending. Like attitude, but in a vapid teenage way. But now, staring down the barrel of 30 (tick tock, tick tock), I changed my mind. I’m all about the sass.

Which reminds me of a vaguely related thing that happened while I was in college. My work-study job was at the admissions office, so part of the job was giving tours to prospective students and their families. During downtime the small army of work-studies would sit around and read the comments from the feedback forms. A friend of mine was reading a review from a tour I gave the day before that said I gave “the wackiest tour ever.” Not to be confused with wackest tour ever. That would have sucked.

Anyway, I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Basically my tour style was to give them the information they need, but keep it interesting. For them because most college tours are mind-numbing, and for me because I gave 3 a day for months. That shit got old. After looking at the rest of their comments I realized they meant it to be complimentary, so I went with it. Post-script, the kid who made the comment did end up going to my school, and ran over to thank me for the tour every time I saw him the next fall.

So, back to sassy. Fact is, that’s how I am. When the boyfriend asked what my blog was called, and I told him, he said, “Well, obviously. I might add crazy in there somewhere, but it works.” Plus, I spent most of my childhood and college life as one of the few black people around, and often the only black girl. So, when I say sassy black friend, I know what I’m talking about. I’ve lived it. A lot. And while I think the idea of reclaiming words that cause pain is a serious issue, I completely unseriously reclaim sassy for myself. So, suck it.