Whatchudoing?
Go get a snack. Grab a seat and a blanket and let me tell you a story.
My newest favorite beverage. I'd suggest it but they're 5.99/4 pack!
You ready? Here it go.
So I was involved with a program called CERTL. It was basically an early program for high school students interested in medicine to do research at Wake Forest University. It was a partnership between my county and Wake which is in the county and it's biggest employer. So I got in and there I met someone.
Someone very important.
Me and Tiff now: PhD Candidate and Neurologist starting a Epilepsy Fellowship next July!
I want to be just like her when I grow up except in OB/GYN!
Tiffany was a grad student in my lab and another guy's lab and she was….Black.
This, being a Black graduate student, was something I'd never seen before but we had no reason to really talk to each other. I knew my Daddy had a PhD but a Black woman do basic research was a whole new thing. I was someone else's high school student for the summer and he and her did NO-THING together.
Later on I'd find out that she thought he was lazy and they just did NOT get along.
Anyway I can't remember exactly how we became people but I do remember two distinct early conversations.
1. She and I were very alike. Both our dads are PhDs, we both took piano, and we're both AMEZion which is a very special thing as I've rarely met another AMEZion person in an non-AMEZion affiliated situation. AMEZion stands for African Methodist Episcopal Zion which is the denomination of Christianity I was raised in.
2. I wanted to go to UNC-Asheville. Its a state school in a totally artsy fartsy part of the state that's unbelievably gorgeous. I told this to Tiffany.
Tiffany's reaction?
Yea its me but that's the same side eye Tiff gave me over a decade ago.
She gave good side eye before the phrase "side eye" existed. I learned from her!
Tiffany was NOT having it! She then told me about this place….
Ogden Hall. The grass on Ogden can only be walked on once you graduate. If you walk on it before, legend has it you won't graduate on time. And we take legend SERIOUSLY!
Hampton University. She told me all the wonderful things that I never imagined about something called an HBCU.
Where I'd take some of my hardest courses…Turner Hall, the home of Chemistry.
Tiffany made Hampton sound like the promised land and I went home singing its praises.
Convocation….where a very special young lady received her Bachelors of Arts Sunday!
Not to leave anyone out, my godmother is a Hamptonian as well but she is my mother's age so when she talked about college is sounded very much like my mom's experience and I wasn't really trying to duplicate that.
Now Tiffany was a few years older than me so her Hampton experience was one I could get with!
The brand new dorm I stayed in for two years!
So, with the blessing of my parents, and armed with the knowledge from Tiff that all that separated me from a full scholarship at Hampton was a slightly more than 100 SAT points I set my sights on Hampton.
I continued to work in the lab throughout my Junior and Senior year, take advanced courses, work towards my Girl Scout Gold Award, and be tutored in a myriad of subjects until one faithful day.
I was getting ready to take a test in AP Biology. I'd like to note at this time that my AP Biology teacher didn't think I was that bright. In fact he told my mother so. He didn't think biology was a good major for me to go into. O_O Funny cause I'm getting a PhD in a few months but you know…I'm not that bright according to him. O__O
Anyway, our SAT scores dropped that morning and I got a 650 and a 670. Now you needed a 1300 at the time to get a full ride to Hampton. Unfortunately my brain was on siesta when it came to math and I distinctly remember that I couldn't add these two numbers in my head to determine if I'd passed 1300. Lame I know.
Anyway I added up the numbers and went on the balcony of my classroom and called my mom and told her.
Then I took my exam and drove straight home.
I got just to the bottom step to get in the house when my mom opened the door and I just wept.
Yup right there like a baby. I was so happy.
It had all paid off. All the works had paid off and I was in fact walking in the fulfillment of words spoken to me in second grade.
"You will go to college on a full scholarship."
I'd been saying that on and off all my life since my Dad, a college administrator, told me I would.
And I did. I got a Presidential Scholarship to Hampton University. I was being paid to study.
Now….I could drop the story on you of how I met ML right about now but I'll save that for a later more mushy time like her birthday.
Yup…that's what I look like when I think about her….a silly grin all across my face. Can't maintain no kinda swag around her :-P
I digress….but I know y'all like it when I do. :-P
Anyway so I went to Hampton, had a blast, made lifelong friends, and graduated in 4 years with my Bachelors of Science in Biology, Molecular and Cellular Concentration and my minor in English.
SN: ML was the only other Biology major to complete her minor. English and Political Science!
Anyway…I went to Hampton. And then one year later, my sister came to Hampton too.
You see Hampton has a 6 year pharmacy program (that us Biology majors hoping to become Drs. kicked ourselves repeatedly for not being in) and my sister wanted to be in it. She also got a tuition scholarship to Hampton so that means that all my parents had to pay was food and lodging so their answer was :
YES! Yes..where do we send our money and how would they like it?!?!
My sister would matriculate successfully through this program and graduate with her PharmD in 6 years.
Yea…she got her doctorate first. And yes her and my Dad do sometimes call each other Dr.
To her credit she graduated Magna Cum Laude. I think its because I always told her that if she didn't finished, she'd still be a high school graduate. :-D Yup I was mean….but she got through it right!?!?!
So then…along come my first cousin. Most people have lots of these but I have two.
Me and my sister: Thing 1 and Thing 2
My two first cousins: Thing 1 and Thing 2: Part 2
So Thing1P2 decides that Hampton is also for her. At this point we've got a legacy at Hampton.
I've successfully finished and my sister is doing well in Pharmacy school so naturally, Hampton admits T1P2.
Now this was a struggle. T1P2 is a lovely sweet girl but let's just say no paper she turned in didn't take a few turns around my inbox. My inbox while I was trying to get my PhD. Read: I was busy but I'm still the oldest…I'm Thing 1 period.
In the end though she made it….with departmental honors. And I've never been prouder to help someone fulfill their potential and see them see themselves as capable. Yup…we three Hampton Women have come, rocked it, and conquered.
The legacy I started has ended with great success.
Me, T1P2, and our sociology degree!
Cousins by blood, Hamptonians by degrees conferred!
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