6:57

Notes on being pretty with my weave and lashes.

My look was inspired by Nneka J. 

I love her style, head to toe. 

Found this suit a year ago at the Goodwill, for $4 !

I vividly remember leaving home and starting my new life as a freshmen at Morgan State. 

The smell of pine sol in Blount’s halls. 

My grandmother getting a box of biscuits from Popeyes. 

The whole car was packed. 

We went to Walmart and got things for my dorm room. 

I didn’t see her cry, though. 

Not until the second time she brought me to school.

As she was putting the last of her things in the trunk of her car, I felt her energy. Sure enough, when I looked up at her, she was crying. She was proud of her gran. 

I wonder how my mother would have felt. 

Or my father...

When those freshmen girls began filling up the seats of the ballroom, I found myself smiling the entire time. I could tell, even from where I was sitting, who was from up north like me, who was starting to feel the silent tax of being away from a dysfunctional home, who was ready to become even without knowing who it is that they will be. I saw younger versions of me. And I told them what I needed to hear when I was in their seat: don’t spend your refund checks, don’t take out private loans, and whatever you do—start paying them back as soon as you graduate!