Meet Keshawn Dodds

We were lucky to catch up with Keshawn Dodds recently and have shared our conversation below.

Keshawn, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?

My optimism stems from when I was a child. I was always encouraged by my mother that I could do anything that I put my mind to. It didn’t matter what it was, if I saw someone doing something extremely difficult on TV, my response was, “I can do that!” and my mother always said YES YOU CAN! that helped me to build confidence in myself and from there, I built an extreme optimistic attitude towards life.

It is difficult me to to see the negatives in many things in life as I tend to focus on the positives, which in turns allows me to stay focused and resilient in times of stress or adversity.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I was born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts and early in life, I become known as a well-established football player in the city of Springfield. I was awarded a football scholarship to American International College in 1997, and played there my entire time. In 2001, I graduated with a B.S. in Education and a completed my Master of Education in 2009.

After graduating, I became a fourth and fifth grade elementary school teacher within the Springfield Public Schools. I taught at the Homer and Washington Elementary Schools from 2001 – 2005. After my time teaching, I took a job under Springfield’s former Mayor, Charles V. Ryan as one of his Mayoral Aides. After my time working with Mayor Ryan, my love for education brought me back to my college alma mater, I where I worked for ten years as the Director of Diversity and Community Engagement. In 2016, I moved on to become the new Executive Director of the Boys & Girls Club Family Center.

Along with my career journey, I also worked on my artistic craft of writing and became a best selling author within the juvenile science fiction genre. I am the proud creator of the Menzuo ~ Solar Warrior’s series. I have written eight books within the series, and have currently published the four books with Cosby Media Productions. I have also taken time to teach myself 3D animation and have recently released my first animated short film, Menzuo: Ground Zero, which is available to view on YouTube.

The Menzuo series is special to me because it was created out of pain, but has given life and joy to many people across the world. In 1996, my best friend, Marcus McDowell was diagnosed with cancer. While in the hospital, and trying to take the focus off of the pain and his chemo treatments, we decided to focus on creating our dream comic book. Marcus was an avid artist and I loved to create stories. We decided to come up with our very own superhero that kids could love and grow up with, Marcus came up with the name “Menzuo” (Men-zoo-O) and we gave him the nickname, the Sun Prince. he would have the most insane super powers and would one day become the Universal Protector. Unfortunately, eleven months later, Marcus passed away from his battle with cancer and I was left with a huge void in life.

After several months, I kept having this reoccurring dream about this superhero, fighting evil pirates under a street light and blasting them away. I couldn’t shake this dream so I decided to write out the story. Within six months, I had my first three hundred page manuscripts. Now, when you read the story, you will see that Menzuo is no ordinary superhero. You will see that Menzuo is me (Keshawn Dodds). Menzuo has a protector that lives within a crystal that is around his neck, his name is Solar. He represents Marcus. In the first book, we both battle Morbid, who is a powerful Pirate Warrior. Morbid represents the cancer. So in the book, you will see that Menzuo (Keshawn), and Solar (Marcus), battle and defeat Morbid (The Cancer). So this is how a pay tribute and honor my best friend.
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Below, you can find a list of works that I have completed and or will be completing soon in the Menzuo series:

Menzuo: The Calling of the Sun Prince
(Best Seller)

Menzuo: Legend of the Blue Diamonds

Menzuo: Judgment Set Upon Earth
(Best Seller)

Menzuo: A Warrior’s Destiny

Menzuo: War At Home
(Comic Book)

Menzuo: Ground Zero
(Animated Short Film)

Menzuo: Friend or Foe
(Coming 2024)
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I am an avid writer and strong supporter of education. My long term goal is to become a full-time writer and well-known educational advocate and motivational speaker. I want to continue to spread my words of faith towards obtaining a great education and achieving all goals that a person has set in their life. I have always been instilled with what a good education can bring to a person. I firmly believe that, when hard work meets dedication, success is born.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Resilience

Discipline

Focus

My advice for anyone on their own journey is to not listen to the negative words or thoughts from others. because something hasn’t been done or seems impossible doesn’t mean that you cannot do it. It may not be done in a day, month, or even a year, but if you continue to work at it, I promise that you will be proud that you stuck to it. And WHEN you complete your goal, you will see that you may have just inspired the people that doubted you.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

When I feel overwhelmed with things, I have learned to step back and focus on myself. I give myself the grace to analyze what is pushing me to feel overwhelmed, and how can I focus on lessening that stress. I also find something that I love to do. Be it golf, fishing or working out. I have found that taking care of your mental health will help you become stronger when dealing with hard situations.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Image 7: East Cost Black of Ages Comics Convention

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