BHM 2022: Seeing Your Future Self Through The Lenses of Now (Day 3)

4.7% of lawyers in the USA are black…and if gender rates for the totality of American lawyers hold true, then within that 5%, only 33% are women. 🙃

At this point I’ve made it abundantly clear that being an attorney was no lifelong dream of mine. I never cared for the game, but when you tell God to use you as he sees fit and you’re willing and obedient…sometimes you find yourself in Tarshish when you really wanna be in Nineveh. (That's a biblical reference…but God is still faithful, so we just say yes and keep moving. 😂🤷🏾‍♀️)

That’s not the point though…lol

During my first weeks’ orientation I heard this older black lady speak about her law school journey. I wanna say she was a judge at the time, but I could be mistaken.  In so many words she said there was only one book that got her through school. In a room full of more white faces than black, she picked up her black Bible and waved it in the air. She said, “I don’t know what you believe in…but this book got me through.”

For the life of me I can’t remember the name of that woman, but I kept that story with me and referred back to often.

VERY early in my first year of law school, I got to a point where I was ready to walk away from it all. The work and the energy it took was way too much for somebody who didn’t want to be there…to stay there. At the same time, I’d never been a “quitter.” So, I knew I had to find something to keep me there…a “why” so to speak. 

After plenty of tears, I resolved within myself that this would be a journey of faith…a journey to see what God can do if I would be willing and obedient. On the outside of I was attending law school, but on the inside I was going through a faith maturation process.

I can’t say the process got easier after that resolution, but I can say my entire perspective changed.

Roughly 6 years later, the black lady’s story still resonates with me just as it did the day she waved her bible.

Seeing a black woman in that position, boldly standing in the faith she held dearly, helped me in ways that I will likely still unpack when I’m older.

On this 3rd day of Black History Month 2022, I hope we can reflect on the moments of personal history where everyday black folks inspired us in larger ways than we can or could ever imagine. I hope we can also understand the importance of seeing our future selves through people who look like us.

I hope we understand that there are everyday people who give us glimpses into our future, glimpses that could be more helpful than anything else that you could imagine. 

6 years later, I can pick up my own black bible, wave it in the air and say, THIS book….this book got me through…and in the end I became one of the 4.7%. 

God is good.