Women Who Are Going Places Start at Spelman

Guess what? Guess what? Guess what? I got accepted into grad school yesterday! And not just any grad school…the #1 Social Work program in the nation — Washington University at St. Louis!!! *doing Spelman celebratory hand signal* Ok, let me calm down.

As you can probably tell I’m really excited about it. 1) Because I hate working! and 2) because I really didn’t think it would happen. During my senior year of college, when everyone else was studying for the GRE, the LSAT, and applying to graduate/law/med school, I began to feel a little…what’s the word…inadequate. Random conversations while waiting in student accounts (which we did A LOT of) or while sitting in the cafe, led me to do something I thought I had overcome freshman year — comparing myself to other people. In my head I thought, “There’s no way in hell I’m getting into grad school!” These girls have dern near 4.0’s, internships at the White House and trips to outer space on their resume. Ok not really…but might as well have. Let’s be real…when you’re surrounded by so many successful, BLACK women it might be easy to feel like you don’t measure up. So I threw in the towel and headed for the workforce. My lawd…do I regret doing that! But in the end it all worked out.

After giving myself a swift kick in the a**, I got my act together. It was now or never! In addition to my own determination to get my butt back in school asap, I was inspired by one particular Spelman Sister. I won’t say her name, because I don’t want her to get a big head…lol. And because I’m not sure how comfortable she is with that. But you know who you are [feel free to identify yourself if you want]. I want the world [as much as my readers are the world] to know her story because quite frankly…SHE’S THE ISH!

When I first started at Spelman, I thought I was the only student in my year from my hometown (Macon, GA). Spelman is just not a hot topic of conversation where I’m from. Matter of fact, I had never heard of Spelman before I applied. Anyways…to my astonishment, sophomore year I found out there was someone else! She graduated from a different high school, but shoot I didn’t care. I was determined to find her and make her my new BFF. Well, it didn’t quite go like that. We finally did meet and had several conversations, but she wasn’t lined up to be one of my bridesmaids or anything like that.  There were several reasons for that. Our stories are similar in the sense that we don’t come from the life of privilege that many of our Spelman Sisters do, but right about there is where the similarities end. On top of that, I was both impressed and intimidated by her.

Here was this single mother who had managed to graduate from high school (on time), get accepted into Spelman College (the best school on the planet) and get this…was now accepted into 7 different law schools. Now, don’t get me wrong, all those things were impressive, but it wasn’t what impressed me the most. It was the fact that she had brought her son with her to school. I’d talked to other girls in school who (to my surprise) also had kids, but who were afforded the luxury of leaving them at home with their parents while they went off to school to “better themselves”. I don’t knock anybody who does that, I mean…hustling is hustling, but Spelman is no cake walk and I couldn’t even imagine doing it with a 1 year old — especially at 18. I would have been a H.A.M! No doubt!

We’ve grown a lot closer since graduation and I soon began to realize that I was using my fears as an excuse to not get my ish together. If she could do it, so could I! So to you girlie…I say, “Thank you! You are a truly phenomenal women. The true definition of a Spelman Woman. I luh you mucho!” You might get that spot in the bridesmaid lineup after all! LOL