“I’m doing it. I’m trying.”
I’m originally from the South. I moved here to pursue acting but decided I had a greater calling in helping others. So now I’m getting my masters in psychology and marital and family therapy. It’s interesting, it’s also not a field dominated by African-American females so I’m going into something that, at times, feels very isolating but I know this is a greater calling on my life, so I’m doing it.
I am a single mother of a 14-year-old so moving out here when she was four and kind of being on my own and trying to make it happen for both of us I realized the hurt and the pain that was coming up from issues that I hadn’t dealt with and I was also seeing it manifest in my daughter’s life so I had to…that is when I began the search of God; you have something greater for me than just be out here auditioning, and what is it? And so I started to see all these other families that were just hurting and broken and people in general just wanting to find that purpose in life and that was what put me on the path for really wanting to go into mental health, particularly in the African-American community.
I collect Barbie dolls. I’m inspired by their stillness, their ability to just remain in the mix of whatever is going on, and I get that they are dolls. There is a level of resilience to them and part of me goes, I think I’ve got to tap into that strength in myself and I have. I’m doing it. I’m trying.