“I’m just trying to be me…”
-Lil Kim
This week was hard, loves.
When I started this week? There was all matter of dopeness! And as the week ends? I almost have a panic attack.
Why?
Money.
It always, always, always comes down to money.
These past 8 weeks have been something serious! I mean it truly has. When my husband told me to go back to school while I’m on this hiatus from work, I said why not. But in the ‘why not’ I knew that my financial aid was sketchy at worst and iffy at best! There were things that I needed to do–still haven’t done!–but this whole semester has been based in faith.
Let me tell you something. This how all this came to be.
I took a nursing exam for a LPN program and passed. Awesome! But, there are multiple hoops I had to jump through before I could ever start! One of them is I had to go through three interviews before I could even be let in! On top of paperwork, immunizations and other academic scrutiny. I was so frustrated. And I cried.
My husband, seeing me cry, offered that I should go back to school. Finish the English degree. In the course of a Saturday afternoon this happened–
I got a degree audit. I was able to reapply to my program. I only needed 9 hours, not the 12. This meant I could graduate in December. In reapplying, I got to start in Fall 2019, not Spring 2020. I started class that Tuesday.
I believe that God was tired of me fearing what it is I was supposed to do: I am a writer, not a scientist.
I am a healer of a different source…and that is okay.
______________
The dope thing that happened this week:
My professor, Dr. Welch, put me up on game. She asked me after turning in my second reflection paper, she asked if I was an undergrad student or graduate student (I’m an undergrad–last semester). Then she said this:
“I don’t know what your life journey includes, but you should consider grad school.”
You have to know what this means. A Black professor, of English, saw a Black student–and her promise–and told her to dream. Bruh! Not even dream, but prepare to take over! She told me that there is a way to complete my Master’s degree, and get paid to finish my doctorate. As a Black woman, in doing being in halls of academia–like a college–that would allow me to be in a space of influence that just being a freelance writer cannot touch.
Besides, the goal of the artist is to disturb the peace. What better way to do that than by degree at a time?
