I didn’t have a particularly impressive high school record. I was involved in clubs, varsity sports, and held leadership positions, but my grades weren’t exceptional. I didn’t have limitless options.
I applied early decision to Spelman with about a 3.4 GPA—and got in. For a moment, my path seemed set.
My mother, however, had serious reservations about me moving to Atlanta. She had reason. I had spent a good portion of high school in trouble. She had seen me arrested, even in handcuffs more than once (a story for another day), and from her perspective, sending me to a city like Atlanta would be… risky. “How you gon act once you get down there?” she asked.
I knew I wasn’t gonna act right.
My family pushed for other HBCUs like Hampton, FAMU, and Tuskegee. My family is a Hampton family, so no one brought up Howard University. I wanted to go far away for school anyway — Howard was just a 45-minute drive. I didn’t even consider it.
Then another option appeared almost out of nowhere: I didn’t have to go to school in the United States at all. I could go to university in England.
At the time, I was working at McDonald’s during my senior year. I wanted to eventually work at McDonald’s corporate. Studying international business, in another country, suddenly felt logical. It wasn’t some grand, romantic dream — it just… made sense. So that’s what I did.
Another real shift in my thinking actually started behind that McDonald’s counter.
I was the only native English speaker at that location. All of my coworkers were from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and El Salvador. I was 17, and for the first time in my life, I was surrounded by people whose stories didn’t resemble mine at all. Listening to them talk about their lives back home, why they had come, what they were trying to build—I had this very blunt realization: the world is huge, and I actually don’t know anything about it.
Going to London wasn’t really about the school (which is why I ended up leaving that school). It was about getting out of the United States.
The decision wasn’t perfectly planned, or even very intentional. It was a series of small, imperfect choices made by a teenager who knew she needed a different environment. England offered distance, structure, and a chance to start becoming someone else.
And that was it. We booked a flight to London. That was also my mom’s first time traveling to Europe to take me there. and honey, did I have a time in London.