How has your upbringing shaped where you are today?

• “So, recently I was talking to my sister about how religious our mom was, the kinda church we grew up in was almost cultish and I am struggling with how my mom took us from our family and isolated us from our family and from black people. Also growing in up an extreme Pentecostal church where I was going to school. I feel like now my goal is to learn things that were wrong. My mind was kinda shaped by living in this church and isolating us from everything, it controlled all of our media. I wasn’t allowed to listen to secular music, I couldn’t watch anything that wasn’t Christian based television, reading books they were putting out. I feel like that shaped the person who I am today, I feel a little bit distant, I’m always kind of wary of people. I feel like they always want something versus people just being nice because I never felt that genuine niceness.”

Can you talk to me about your emotions/struggles in grey area?

• “A fog. You know when you are watching the Wizard of Oz, the remake, and she goes to OZ and everything is in color. That’s what it felt like, I know I’m not supposed to be here but I don’t know how to get out of here. Then when you do, you know that the grey area wasn’t all that life was, I knew this wasn’t just for me. When you finally get to that color area, you are like holy shit, I was right, vindicated and validated.”

Post-Graduation, what is your view of college?

• “I definitely view college as a learning experience. So, if I had the chance to go back I probably would have waited until I was 18, taken a year off and go to community college. Unless your school sets you up, gives you options, give you places that you can shadow unless you absolutely know without a shadow of a doubt this is the place you wanna be and you know your options at this place. I was talking to my sister and she didn’t even know Ohio State had an Allied Health program, so, I was like if you don’t know all the programs your school have, then how can you even go to that school? You don’t know what career you might want cause you don’t know. That’s how I felt. I just felt I needed to go to college and I didn’t know what to do when I got there.”

During your post-graduation phase of life, are there any lessons you learned and would like to share?

• “Don’t give up, you’ll be in this space where you feel like, is this worth it, should I be doing this, once you find your degree, once you find your career, don’t give up. Don’t let anyone, not teachers, not advisors, or family members tell you differently. Even if it takes you forever. If it’s something you want to do it will always be worth it at the end. No money, no amount of time, it will be priceless.”