I’m so excited that I’ve been tapped as the new entertainment columnist for the California Crusader News.

By Wyllisa R. Bennett

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had the gift of gab. Growing up in Burlington, North Carolina, family members always accused me of talking too loud or talking too much. “Tone it down,” they would always say, in an effort to curtail my unladylike ways. Because not only do I talk loud, but I laugh even louder. And for many years, I tried to edit my behavior in an effort to be the perfect, well-mannered, cultured Southern lady.

But then one day, I had an AHA moment: I. Can’t. Tone. It. Down. I’ve tried. Lord, knows, I’ve tried, but I just can’t do it. I have a really big personality, a booming voice, and I have a lot to say … every day! The older I get, the more I realize that it just can’t contained it. Either people will “get me” or they won’t.

I have to admit, I have a split personality. As a Southerner, I still respect the culture and adhere to some of the social graces I was raised on; but now that I’m a California girl, I’ve also integrated other habits from my adoptive homeland. I speak less with a Southern accent than I use to; lean a little more to the left than ever before; and I spend less time in church, and more time at the beach.

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