3 days packing, 2 days driving, a few weeks of reminiscing later…

Recently I abandoned the only life I ever knew and hit the road from Tennessee (where I lived for 20 years) to the unknown, Denton, TX to begin grad school. I blared music and sang at the top of my lungs all while clasping my foot on the gas and never looking back. As Bright Eyes puts it, “Then I’ll leave your town and I’ll never look back. No, I don’t look back because the road is clear and laid out ahead of me.”

After a 2-day journey which felt like a lifetime, the road brought me somewhere that calmed my mind from old memories and gave me hope in a time of uncertainty.

I can now say that it was all worth it because this enormous transformation is greater than I ever could have envisioned. Feminism is my life and words cannot express my immense gratitude for this opportunity: to study what I love at a graduate level with like-minded individuals. Not everyone has access to higher education and I fully realize this privilege and will use it to the best of my ability. I love my Women’s Studies classmates and new friends here at Texas Woman’s University. Together we will help the women’s movement grow and I will do everything in my power to leave this world at least a little bit better than it was or even help at least one person.

As Nikki Ayanna Stewart puts it: “Women’s Studies Graduates act as ambassadors of feminism, bringing the women’s studies perspective into the rest of the world.”

I’m ready to take on the world but first through one book at a time.