Surviving teen pregnancy had never featured in any of my plans for my life. In fact, I looked down on other girls who got pregnant. I thought they deserved what happened to them because of their promiscuous and fast ways. Yet here I was in the same boat. A pregnant teen who would soon become […]
Because I was not sexually active, neither I or my parents probably thought they needed to talk to me about how to avoid teen pregnancy. If you had told me I would join the teen pregnancy statistics at age 15. I would have called you a liar. After all, I was book-smart and knew-it-all. Yet […]
There are not many moments when you’re invited to be a part of history. Last Monday, I had the honor of speaking on the program for a major moment in University of Memphis history. As part of the University of Memphis’ initiatives to Eradicate Systemic Racism (I’m on one of the committees), new markers and […]
When I was younger, I didn’t have the best of attitudes. I was stubborn, often disrespectful, and focused on having my way. In other words, I didn’t have an attitude for success. But that all changed when I started to understand that my attitude would determine my aptitude. I had the power to steer my […]
Without a doubt, the teenage years are tough from an angle of self-love and self-realization. For some, it’s even more challenging because not only are they struggling with discovering who they are, they are also trying to learn how to love and accept themselves. That was me. As a teenager, I was still reeling from […]
If you aren’t spending time with positive people who uplift you and motivate you towards achieving your goals, you are doing yourself a big disservice. As a 15-year old, I was careful to make friends who have similar priorities to mine. That way, I knew there was a good chance that I would achieve my […]
Make a good impression! Put your best foot forward, and be respectful. That’s how I might summarize my life lessons on how to show up well at work. And my time volunteering at my mother’s job – the mental hospital, taught me those life lessons better than anyone could. Even as a teenager, I intrinsically […]
Show appreciation for others, no matter what your job is. My job as a volunteer at the mental hospital wasn’t necessarily the most exciting. My work involved lots of filing, shredding papers or doing deliveries across the hospital campus. Yet through those simple tasks, I learned different ways to show my appreciation for the opportunity […]
Your work, no matter how small, can make a difference. At this point in the story from my memoir, Life After Birth: A Memoir of Survival and Success as a Teenage Mother, I was volunteering at the mental hospital where my mother worked. I was doing simple things like filing and shredding papers and delivering […]
