May 8th, 2010 - 10 years ago today I graduated from college! I had no blueprint and neither one of my parents were alive to see me do it... but I did it! Earning a college degree was the goal but little did I know the journey towards this goal would be the gift that keeps on giving! Going to college was one thing, but going to an HBCU (THE HBCU ❤️💙) set me up for greatness AND helped me understand and prepare my mind for a world that is threaten by my Blackness. I loved my experience at Howard so much and was so impacted by the Blackness that I’ve been intentional in living a life full of & focused on Black centered education, Black love, Black friends, Black family, Black creatives, Black art, Black power, Black liberation... ALL BLACK CULTURE EVERYTHING! To the people who thought that too much Blackness would skew my reality... I’d say, thank God it did. This world’s lens on us should never be our lens on ourselves! Being immersed in Blackness at Howard protected my lens and I could never undo the Black love I now know and cherish to my soul! I’m grateful for the degree because it was the first of many major accomplishments... but the Blackness and the lens is how I get through this life. My Blackness and my lens will be how I thrive, uplift my communities, and resist the world’s lens. My beautiful and powerful Black life meant so much to me then and it means even more to me each day I live and breathe! I can’t imagine not being built by Blackness for this world! You kill the Black life, but the Blackness will never die! #May8 #DegreeDay #10YearsAgoToday #FirstGeneration #TheFirstButNotTheLast #Legacy #TheHBCUexperience #HowardUniversity #Blackness #BlackLens #BuiltForThis #BlackLife #BlackLiberation #BlackLivesMatter #Value #Identity #StopKillingBlackPeople #LongLiveBlackness https://www.instagram.com/p/B_8zFLagTcY/?igshid=1nn54emeep8kb
