As an adolescent, we usually dream about the direction we would like our life to go within our career paths. What was your dream during this time?

• “I dreamt about being a news reporter.” 

Can you talk to me about specific instances that influenced you to diverge from the route that you were on? How did these instances lead you to your current situation?

• “Well, in high school my mother drew me to journalism by sending me to journalism camps. There was a local camp in the city and then there was one at a state university. So, it gave me the okay, “you do well, you go to school, this is what happens”. But when it was time to attend a university my grandfather felt I was going down the wrong path by coming in late from hanging out with my older cousins. He felt I needed to attend Fisk which was out of state.   Fisk did not have a journalism school. So, my mother shared with me, “well you should do computer science cause that’s where the money is at and that was it.“

What is your definition of the grey area? Would you say you are in it currently?

• “Yes, I am in the grey area. Now that I have children whatever I have projected for me has been put on hold or deferred until I can get my life together with forming a family. So, figuring that out and still trying to tap back into my career path is what I see as the grey area. I try not to say this is fate…it is not fate that I do not have my Ph.D. My grey area is trying to connect pieces of what is supposed to happen in life and what is happening in life. It is totally grey because sometimes there is not a bridge that I can see.” 

Do you believe the grey area is temporary or permanent?

• “Temporary. Eventually, it is going to click like okay, I am making a connection, my brain is making that connection, my body is making that connection. I’m actually going to act on it and that cannot be grey. If you act on it that cannot be grey. When all of those things meet, it cannot be grey. “

Before attending, how did you view college?

• “My view was the television program, “A Different World”. A Different World gave me my perspective of attending an HBCU and gave me a crash orientation on what life was about. In addition to that, different organizations in the community would give college courses and tours. My mother was pursuing her undergraduate degree while we were in high school so we were always on her campus. Starting my junior year of high school, my mother made me take courses at a junior college.   I remember at my undergraduate orientation being acclimated to a university campus.  It was not foreign to me because I had been with my mom for all those years  seeing her pursue her career goals while we were in school.”

Was it worth the debt?

• “First of all, this debt is ridiculous. This (debt) is put in place, my conspiracy theory,  because back in the day college was not that expensive.  It (universities and colleges) was not for everyone, but eventually, the ideas of higher education and its benefits became tangible and accessible to folks that at one point in time were only viewed as laborers. So how does one keep this status quo so we have a segregated capital? How do we keep the assumed laborers in these pre-determined classifications? How do we create more divisions? Let’s increase the price of education. We (Americans) on average do not perform well in the math and science subjects.  It’s because of when and how STEM subjects were introduced in our formative years. There is a reason why a lot of people here through the H1 visa, import their knowledge, but we can do the same thing. It (debt) is a way to keep people separate. But, if it is a key for you to get in the door of opportunity and better quality of life, I will take all the debt.”