Three days after my twenty-eighth birthday, I interviewed for a new job. It wasn’t just any old job, but one that spoke to a deep passion of mine: Black people. I just think we’re so cool. We’re figuratively cool in the cultural sense, but also awe-inspiringly cool because of the things we’ve overcome: being snatched from our homeland, making it through the Middle Passage, being sold into slavery and all the horrors that accompanied it, being freed but not receiving an equal chance to succeed, fighting racism (still) and even becoming president of this country. It’s painfully evident that we have more work to do, but I’m proud of the things we’ve accomplished.
Sorry, not sorry for the brief history lesson. On paper, I wasn’t qualified for the job I wanted, I had six years of childhood development experience and zero years of professional social media management experience, but I had God and a plan. I knew once I got the interview the job was mine because well, I’m amazing and I had the creativity, faith, and confidence to know that no other candidate was better than me. I went to the interview, killed it and got the job.
What’s amazing is I was talking to my dad a few months before about my next job move. I told him I wanted to work at an HBCU because I loved them so much and wanted to give back to a place like the one that made such an indelible impact on my life. He and my mom fell in love at Jackson State University and exposed me to their alma mater at an early age. When it was time for me to go to college, I was only interested in HBCUs. I was enthralled with the culture, the life-long friends they gained there and the sense of community I felt when I visited.
After I started and even now, I’m in awe of how God orchestrated everything; being here was something I was set-up to do from my childhood. I feel blessed that I’m able to serve people who look like me and who have a similar cultural experience as I do. Going back to college has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
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