How has your upbringing shaped where you are today?

• “I grew up in a small town where people knew each other. For example, if I met someone in town, I may not have known them but I knew someone in their family. Before I went to college, I had a confined view of the world. Not heavily confined or sheltered where I was not aware of life existing outside of North Carolina, but confined in the sense that you do not know what you do not know until you go to places and meet other people. Growing up, I traveled around the United States for sports, but I still felt I had to stay close to home. At the time I was scared to branch out and be far from home and not close to my family. Because of that, I knew I was not going to a school out of state. I applied to all in-state colleges and ended up going to college that was an hour away from home. Even though my home was an hour away, I felt so far, I was going back home 2-3 times a month on the weekends. Currently, I live in Washington, D.C. and it is the farthest away I have been from home, but luckily I have been able to find a community where I am.”  

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

• “At the time, I wanted to become a doctor. My mother is a nurse and inspired me to work in the medical field. During high school, I participated in a program at a hospital called Volunteen. Volunteen allowed us to perform similar duties as a CNA  while supervised as well as shadow doctors. Some days we would be a wallflower in the surgery rooms and don the gear like doctors do and other days we got to help out on the children’s floor. I really enjoyed the program and I thought to become a doctor would be so cool and impactful.” 

Can you talk to me about specific instances that influenced you to diverge from the route that you were on?

• “When I began college, I was not certain about what I wanted to study but you can study any major and still be pre-med.  During my first year, I was studying biology and I  thought to myself  ‘no’, I am not a huge reader. I switched over to chemistry which I thought was better because I like math and chemistry is math.  I was moving and grooving through chemistry and then I got to organic chemistry and it ruined my life. I tried to take organic chemistry during the regular semester and I had to withdraw because I found it difficult. I tried to take it during the summer and I thought it would be better but summer classes are faster paced. It was worse, I made it maybe halfway through the class and then I just stopped going, that is how bad it was. I got an F in the class and I still have an F on my transcript to this day, however, I got an A in the lab. In the end, I  felt defeated and dumb because I  just could not figure out the course and came to terms that I was not going to become a doctor. Since I was always good at math and it came natural and easy to me, I switched my major to mathematics. I wanted to study something else but I  just landed on math and it was easy to catch up.”

What is your definition of the grey area?

• “The grey area is ambiguity. The thin line between being confident in a plan you set and being comfortable with the way things are meant to turn out. I feel with everything in life you are winging it no matter what, I do not think anything is really set in stone. But I personally believe that everything is already set for how it is supposed to be. So, even if you make a plan to have dreams and aspirations, not to say you will not achieve it, whatever route you take, you end up where you were supposed to be in the first place. It might be what you plan for it to be and it might not.”

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

• “The biggest thing I feel when I am in a grey area is fear and confusion. I’m a control freak, so I hate to be in a middle ground where I don’t know which direction to go. I like to have a plan and I like for my plans to be strategic and reasonable. In the grey area, I feel stuck in limbo, which is why I have trouble dreaming big. How can you dream big and not know how to achieve your dream? That is the biggest grey area for me. You wonder how you are going to do all of these things but you do not know how to get there….but eventually, I’ll figure it out.”

When beginning college, what were your initial feelings and thoughts?

• “I was excited to begin college because it was a new experience but I also felt overwhelmed and homesick. I thought I was so far but I was only an hour away, I was at UNC Charlotte. UNC Charlotte is a big public school in North Carolina and the campus is pretty big. When I first got there I was wondering if I would make it to classes on time. I was given 15 minutes to get to back to back classes, and I thought I needed to get a bike to get to class on time. I know now I was being really dramatic. UNC Charlotte is a big campus but it is doable to get to class on time.”

Post-Graduation while in college, what were your feelings and thoughts?

• “I was super excited to have graduated, but I still didn’t know what I was going to do? I thought okay, I hit this milestone and people are proud of me, but I kept thinking what is next? Will I have a career that is worthwhile?”

Was college worth the debt?

• “While being a student, I believed education worth paying for would have been supporting people who support me the most. I wish I went to North Carolina A&T for my undergraduate degree. When I attended North Carolina A&T for grad school I felt my professors cared about me and not viewed me as just a seat in their chair.”
• “Post-graduation, I wish the stuff I know now, I knew back then because if so I would have set myself up great financially. But it’s a good thing I’ll know for my kids. In my opinion, there is no reason you cannot get school covered, especially if you work hard in high school. Most of my college was paid for via scholarship but I  was being dumb by taking out personal loans and getting credit cards. I have no idea where that money went to and now I have to pay it all back.”