i made it! i have completed my undergraduate career at unc! i still have finals, but TODAY was the LAST day of classes, so i’m good and done. i can’t believe it’s over. time definitely flies when you’re having fun, and i’ve had more than my share of fun. now it’s time to prepare for the next stage of my life…GRAD SCHOOL! i’m so excited about going to grad school because i love school (yeah, i’m a nerd) and because i’ll be getting into what i REALLY want to study–social science education. i’m excited about my future and becoming a teacher. america better watch out! you ain’t seen a teacher like me before!

on another note, i suppose i do have a twinge of nostalgia about leaving carolina, which has been my home fore the last four years. here’s my attempt to articulate my thoughts about my time at carolina:

i come from humble beginnings, and i say that because it’s a large part of the appreciation that i have for this university. my maternal grandmother had 12 children (my mom was number 9) sharecropped until the 1970s. of her eleven siblings, my mother was the only one to finish college. of the 25 grandchildren, i will be the 7th grandchild to graduate from college. when i was growing up, i never had an idea of the poverty that my mother’s side of the family experienced; and the values of family and community were strongly emphasized.

when i arrived at unc in the fall of 2001, i had no idea what i was getting myself into. i wasn’t quite homesick, but i missed my family (my mother and my siblings moved to phoenix, az one month before i started school). i wasn’t quite sure what i should get involved with, but i knew that i couldn’t bear to just be another student- i wanted to be involved, i wanted to be aware. it was from that desire (and also by the grace of god) that i got involved with the black student movement. if you know me, you know that my involvement with the black student movement could be considered a defining moment of my college career. lots of important moments and people make my time within the black student movement particularly special.

all of that said, leaving carolina will be bittersweet because i can recognize the tremendous amount of growth that i’ve gone through as a person. this university has given me so many opportunities and my time here has been so blessed. it is my sincere hope that what i have given to this university through my activism and involvement through organizations, as well as through the growth in my relationship with god will be an inspiration to others.

walking through campus, i realize how much i have come to love this place. from the people i’ve met to the crazy experiences that i have had–i definitely wouldn’t trade any of it. i am confident that when i leave this university, i will be prepared for the next phase of my life. furthermore, this university has made me realize the value of an education; not just the schooling that can take place inside of the classroom. i emerge from carolina as a woman, forever changed, forever enlightened by this experience; however, ready to grow and ready to accept the challenges that exist at the next stops on my journey. carolina has helped to make me into the person that i am…and into the person that i am to become. and for that, i am truly grateful.