Speaker 1: It's Monday, and it is officially the first day of school.
Speaker 1: I am excited a little more.
Speaker 2: Calm than I expect it to be, but extremely grateful
Speaker 2: for this opportunity to finish.
Speaker 1: A very necessary part of my career. And I'm excited
Speaker 1: this is finally a show about the first day of school.
Speaker 1: Jennifer was in the Atlanta ballroom scene. Wants to put
Speaker 1: it to law. So seventh grade, first day of seventh grade.
Speaker 1: I love my first days. Listen. First days are very
Speaker 1: very important to me. So when I got on the
Speaker 1: bun my cousin was on the bus and I think
Speaker 1: at that time she was dating a boy and so
Speaker 1: she was sitting with him, but she still let everybody know,
Speaker 1: like this is my cousin, blah blah blah blah. And
Speaker 1: I remember that was the first time people had CD
Speaker 1: players back then, so I had the headphones on I
Speaker 1: was listening. I was like, Oh, this is so cool,
Speaker 1: you know, I can zone out to music. Was kind
Speaker 1: of like my hideaway, like headphones and a CD player
Speaker 1: and batteries. I was good, correct, that's me. Today marks
Speaker 1: the beginning of what I would say is a completion
Speaker 1: of a degree. I've been pursuing bachelor specifically, professionally, I'm
Speaker 1: known as Jennifer Barnes, Palenciaga and Leek. I am missus
Speaker 1: Jennifer Lee McQueen, and I think for the beginning of
Speaker 1: school purposes, I am Jennifer Barnes simply. And we're riding
Speaker 1: through East Harlem right now, headed to Baroke College on
Speaker 1: a busy traffic field Monday. No better way I'd like
Speaker 1: to start off the week. I achieved my associates last
Speaker 1: semester and now I get to complete my bachelor's after.
Speaker 1: I guess this would be going into the eleventh year.
Speaker 1: So I'm excited and a lot of life experiences has
Speaker 1: brought this point to where it needed to be. Is
Speaker 1: there anything you did this morning to get yourself in
Speaker 1: the right headspace? So I listened to David Bowie's when
Speaker 1: I listened to Lenny Prafits, Black Girl, I listen to
Speaker 1: Paul Jackson New York. I listen to Pol Jacks and Bulldozer.
Speaker 1: I am a music person, so that helps me get ready.
Speaker 1: I am pursuing an undergraduate degree in political science and
Speaker 1: minoring in law. This would make me I think this
Speaker 1: is my beginning of my junior year, so end of
Speaker 1: sophomore beginning of junior is kind of where my placement
Speaker 1: is at this point within college. First class is Civil Liberties.
Speaker 1: From there, hopefully we can get something made somewhere around
Speaker 1: here and then go to the second class. Second class
Speaker 1: is European political systems, and the third is public policy.
Speaker 1: But that is on zoom Yep. They're all in the
Speaker 1: main building. Oh look, you can see the banners. We're
Speaker 1: almost here. Seventeen. My biggest hope for today is to
Speaker 1: have a great ID picture.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: I was set. I was a set person. I knew
Speaker 1: who I was for a long time. I was born
Speaker 1: January first, nineteen eighty nine in Hamilton, Ohio, to two
Speaker 1: parents who were very young, one of which had just
Speaker 1: graduated high school and one of which was going into
Speaker 1: the military. And I think I was a lot more
Speaker 1: than they expected, a lot more. I am brushing my
Speaker 1: hair out because we have to look like something.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: I'm putting on lift gloss. This is fortune Cookie and
Speaker 1: I can't remember what this color. I think it's like
Speaker 1: temptation or something. A tempted fortune.
Speaker 4: Cookie looked this way. Smild you like ready, stand away
Speaker 4: from your car.
Speaker 1: You friend.
Speaker 4: Nice?
Speaker 1: Why didn't Now it's the waiting game. It's a good
Speaker 1: fingers crossed legs, crossed toes too.
Speaker 2: Oh please, oh please.
Speaker 1: Please, school gods help me. I look like my mom. Dank,
Speaker 1: h God, I look just like my mother. It's hilarious.
Speaker 1: Well we're official. Oh god, I like my mom. I
Speaker 1: had to send it to my husband. I'm still gonna
Speaker 1: face tyring. You want to see the picture. It looks cute.
Speaker 1: Don't I look like my mom?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 1: My god. Okay, that's all I wanted. We're walking around
Speaker 1: campus and think from the beginning, I showed signs of
Speaker 1: high expression. I loved with my mother while my father
Speaker 1: was in a military and I started second grade at
Speaker 1: Kramer Elementary, which is in Oxford. Activities that I was
Speaker 1: allowed to do at Kramer Elementary were that of playing
Speaker 1: with dolls. If I requested, I could do that. Seventy
Speaker 1: percent of the class was black. I had a black
Speaker 1: first grade teacher. Seventy to eighty percent of that class
Speaker 1: was black. All of the black figures of leadership and
Speaker 1: trailblazing movements were kind of presented to me at that time.
Speaker 1: When I went to Kramer, my mother had started to
Speaker 1: figure out that I was into women's things heels firstly,
Speaker 1: and from there I think my mother was looking for
Speaker 1: my father to save me and bring me back to manhood.
Speaker 1: And so I went to live with my dad at
Speaker 1: the age of seven and a half eight. So when
Speaker 1: I moved my father a few months after going to
Speaker 1: Kramer in Newport News, Virginia, which is of course a base,
Speaker 1: totally different environment, very structured. It was very you know,
Speaker 1: these are boys toys. I'll get you boys toys. We'll
Speaker 1: get your boy clothes. When I went to school in
Speaker 1: Newport News, I was made to do punishment if I talked,
Speaker 1: or because I was talkative, of in the corner, like
Speaker 1: I'd have to hold the push up position just because
Speaker 1: I was being expressive. So the introduction of a black
Speaker 1: male at that time, because that's what I identified as
Speaker 1: and was, it's just a It was a lot. Once
Speaker 1: I school became kind of the focus, and then not
Speaker 1: just the focus, it was kind of like that you
Speaker 1: have to and then not just that you have to,
Speaker 1: it's you have to do better. And then with each
Speaker 1: grade it just felt like more and more and more
Speaker 1: was paling on to something that was already not being
Speaker 1: dealt with like who I am, how I identify? School started
Speaker 1: to be something where I would ditch class to be
Speaker 1: with boys, Like we ditch and go to the bathroom,
Speaker 1: and you know, you learned about anatomy and atomical mod movement,
Speaker 1: but that was it, you know, not how to handle
Speaker 1: yourself in those situations. So with that being said, I
Speaker 1: ended up in detentions and alternate school assignment so kind
Speaker 1: of like in school suspension, so you're removed from the
Speaker 1: other students in place with these students that they're labeling
Speaker 1: as bad or you know, disruptive, and you have to
Speaker 1: do all the assignments that are put in class, but
Speaker 1: without any of the fun. And I think I was
Speaker 1: fourteen fifteen, and one day I came home and then
Speaker 1: was like a fifteen I was supposed to be in
Speaker 1: by eight, and my father would not let me in
Speaker 1: the house. I walked away from the house and I
Speaker 1: was going to my friend Sabrina's house, and my father
Speaker 1: apparently had come looking for me. He was like, well,
Speaker 1: you better beat me home before I get home. Impossible
Speaker 1: in a car, And when it got out car, he
Speaker 1: like threw me over the hood of the car and
Speaker 1: was just really upset that I didn't make a home
Speaker 1: by curfew. I mean, that's what all of this was
Speaker 1: out for her. And after he left and that happened,
Speaker 1: I called the police. I went to some neighbor's house
Speaker 1: and I just called the police. And when the police
Speaker 1: got to the house, they basically blamed me and said
Speaker 1: I should be listening to this man in this nice
Speaker 1: home and all this bullshit. And after they left, you know,
Speaker 1: my dad came into the room after I said, oh,
Speaker 1: didn't to go to sleep, and was like, well, since
Speaker 1: you don't feel so safe, you need to find yourself
Speaker 1: somewhere else to live. When I got to my mom's house,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a great time for a period of time,
Speaker 1: and then it starts to settle. End that one. You're
Speaker 1: poor in this space. Not only poor, you're dealing with
Speaker 1: the mother who has issues. So I go to register
Speaker 1: for school and I was started in the freshman building.
Speaker 1: At this point, I had been held back about two
Speaker 1: to three times in school, and after three days there,
Speaker 1: I just couldn't do it. It was children. I dropped out.
Speaker 1: My mom the next day she said, come on, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take you somewhere. We went on this trip to Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: and she was like, I found somewhere where you can
Speaker 1: make some money. And I was like, okay. We wound
Speaker 1: up going to job Corps, the recruiting space, and the
Speaker 1: lady was like, well, you got two options. She said,
Speaker 1: you can either stay at home with your mom and
Speaker 1: she take you to class, or you can go to Dayton,
Speaker 1: where you can live on campus and I'll pay you
Speaker 1: a little stipend every week. And oh, well, I'll go
Speaker 1: to Dayton. I had to shave my hair. I had
Speaker 1: a mohawk, a literally a literal mohawk, and it was
Speaker 1: blind ends and they told me, they said, you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to cut the hair, and I was I was devastated,
Speaker 1: but I was like, okay, okay. And when I cut
Speaker 1: my hair, it felt like my whole life started that
Speaker 1: At that very moment, I felt like adult had started
Speaker 1: for me. I not only past the ged the first
Speaker 1: time I took it. I graduated the same month as
Speaker 1: my actual class was supposed to graduate. From the very
Speaker 1: beginning of me being in school, I graduated in May
Speaker 1: of seven. Like it was. I can't even explain to
Speaker 1: you how much all of that turmoil was meant to
Speaker 1: happen in order for me to understand what it means
Speaker 1: to be traumatized and get past it.
Speaker 2: And going to this.
Speaker 1: Dang. I have three pages of notes already, learn some
Speaker 1: new terminology. It's pretty exciting. I mean, it was a
Speaker 1: good class, great professor. I think he is extremely knowledge
Speaker 1: of He asked a question about what is quit pro quo,
Speaker 1: and of course I know exactly what that is. A
Speaker 1: sea of diversity and youth. We're singing questions so diverse.
Speaker 1: Right now, we're headed to the fourth floor in order
Speaker 1: to go to find where the second class is and
Speaker 1: then starting till twelve fifty and so we're just making
Speaker 1: our way downtown, walking fast faces past and we're class bound.
Speaker 1: I ended up meeting a friend of mine who was
Speaker 1: from Muskegan, Muskegan, Michigan UH named Torrianto and he he
Speaker 1: he was the introduction to ballroom for me. He was
Speaker 1: playing a Miss Jay Kuran beat and voguing in the
Speaker 1: courtyard and and I was like, child, I could do that.
Speaker 1: And that was kind of the moment where I started
Speaker 1: learning how to vogue and dip and all this stuff.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, I love this. So he
Speaker 1: was showing me videos of you know, Sonaia, of Ashley Yaalanda,
Speaker 1: of Katrina, of Mika, of like all the girls that
Speaker 1: were the girls at that time, and I was just obsessed,
Speaker 1: totally obsessed. Just the beat, the presumptuous understanding that with
Speaker 1: this beat your meant to dance. Like That's what registered
Speaker 1: in my mind as soon as I saw voguing. I
Speaker 1: they just like it's slammed together. It was perfectly pronounced
Speaker 1: that this is what happens. And so I've always been ballroom.
Speaker 1: I just didn't know how to express it. So at
Speaker 1: home when I was living with my father, looking on
Speaker 1: YouTube and stuff like that, my best friend Cameron, we
Speaker 1: had watched many, many clips voguing in the house all
Speaker 1: the time. One day we went to this mini ball
Speaker 1: in somebody's house because they're called many balls, and I
Speaker 1: was walking the category of runway because duh. But the
Speaker 1: crazy part about it was I didn't understand the fundamentals
Speaker 1: of it. And I got on the floor and it
Speaker 1: was almost like everybody was waiting for me to do anything,
Speaker 1: and they chopped me in this house for walking this category.
Speaker 1: And the funny thing was when me and my best
Speaker 1: friend left, we was like that's the last time that's
Speaker 1: ever gonna happen. Like we were determined to be the
Speaker 1: best Cincinnati had ever produced, right amazing. I gave him
Speaker 1: a business card and tell him how excited I am
Speaker 1: about that class. I'm really enjoyed the syllabus, so I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to it because I got so much information
Speaker 1: just from today that had I not been in class
Speaker 1: at the appropriate time and listening, like I truly would
Speaker 1: have missed some very good points in some initial ways
Speaker 1: to study. Like I now know how my study it
Speaker 1: needs to go. I feel like the first day of
Speaker 1: class is supposed to give you that, and that's what
Speaker 1: I got. I feel totally affirmed in the decision I made.
Speaker 1: The diversity that I've seen there today has been affirming
Speaker 1: as well. A lot of the interest that the students
Speaker 1: seem to have seem to be pretty much aligned. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's a probably a ten year age difference between myself
Speaker 1: and the majority of the ten years plus of myself
Speaker 1: and the students, so I think they're just a little
Speaker 1: more excited than I am. Probably I'm like, yeah, when
Speaker 1: can I take a nap? Me and my best friend
Speaker 1: Sydney at the time was like we could go to
Speaker 1: one or two places, you know, replaces La New York
Speaker 1: or Atlanta. And I was like, fucking I mean, I
Speaker 1: had two trash bags and a suitcase and I got
Speaker 1: on that bus and I went to Atlanta sixteen hours.
Speaker 1: If I'm not mistaken, Atlanta was full of you could
Speaker 1: be whatever you want, but you better make it work.
Speaker 1: That's what Atlanta was built on. I ain. During that time.
Speaker 1: I had contracted HIV In twenty eleven, I was at
Speaker 1: a club night. My best friend Camera and had come
Speaker 1: down to visit, and it was getting free if you
Speaker 1: just tested, and I was like, okay, well cool, we'll
Speaker 1: go test because I can spend more money on drinks
Speaker 1: at this point. So and got to test. My vest
Speaker 1: friend Guy as the results he was fined, and I
Speaker 1: got my results and they said, well this is showing
Speaker 1: up preliminary positive, and so my entire world was crumbling.
Speaker 1: I was absolutely, you know, distracted by survival. How was
Speaker 1: I going to survive? Am I going to live? What
Speaker 1: does this mean for sexuality? How do I engage sexually
Speaker 1: with people with being HIV positive? All of these thoughts?
Speaker 1: How old were you on this? Twenty one two and
Speaker 1: it was just horrible. I had to drop out of school.
Speaker 1: My grades were horrible, and yeah, I was homeless. I
Speaker 1: was sleeping on some friends who were still in the
Speaker 1: same schools couch for a while for a few months,
Speaker 1: I think, and I one day I had gotten into
Speaker 1: housing and founder program Evolution Center and they would give
Speaker 1: gift cards and resources and shout out to John Diggs
Speaker 1: changed my life. He recommended me going to the Grady
Speaker 1: IDP building anyways, that's where all the infectious people were going.
Speaker 1: And so I signed up for and I was waiting
Speaker 1: around and one day I was able to get an
Speaker 1: apartment and downtown in this place called the Etgewood Center,
Speaker 1: and that came with supportive services. So the supportive services
Speaker 1: place was behind. So I moved in there. My best
Speaker 1: friend helped me move in. It's a room like this,
Speaker 1: a little smaller than this. And I lived there for
Speaker 1: six years, six seven years. The first four I cocooned
Speaker 1: twenty three, twenty four. I was like, okay, bitch, do
Speaker 1: you want to be a man walking around in hills
Speaker 1: at forty five? And I started identifying with exactly what
Speaker 1: made me happy, and my womanhood was what made me happy,
Speaker 1: like truly being able to just go ahead and follow
Speaker 1: that path. And so the next time I had a
Speaker 1: doctor's appointment, I think it's a week or two later,
Speaker 1: I told him what I was thinking. You know, I
Speaker 1: would love to hear about options of that, and he
Speaker 1: looked at me. The doctor looked at me and he said,
Speaker 1: I absolutely can see where that would go for you,
Speaker 1: and if that's what you want to do it, gave
Speaker 1: me a pamphlet and tell me he'd give me a
Speaker 1: week to think about it. That night, I called my
Speaker 1: parents and told him. We came up with a name,
Speaker 1: me and Ifat and Cody, and I chose Jennifer. My
Speaker 1: aunt Ifat gave me the last name of Barnes. She
Speaker 1: was like Barnes the name Salama, and it stuck and
Speaker 1: I became Jennifer Barnes. I called my parents and told
Speaker 1: them that's what my name was. That's how I wanted
Speaker 1: them to refer to me. And yeah, I really focused
Speaker 1: on what did it mean to be the woman that
Speaker 1: I saw inside of me? What did that mean? What
Speaker 1: did I desire? How could I do that efficiently productively?
Speaker 1: I didn't want to be the same person I was before,
Speaker 1: So I got in touch with Chanelle Haley because I
Speaker 1: was changing my names at this time. Chanelle Haley at
Speaker 1: Georgia Equality in Atlanta, Georgia, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: they won't let me change my name. I had no
Speaker 1: idea about how to do any of that shit. She
Speaker 1: listened to me, huh, because she's very about our business.
Speaker 1: And then she got me in contact with Emily Halden Brown,
Speaker 1: and Emily Halden Brown got me in contact with BT.
Speaker 1: He goes by BT, and he literally hand held walked
Speaker 1: me through changing my name for free in Atlanta. It
Speaker 1: was the most underground shit I had ever seen. I
Speaker 1: remember my court date. I have a picture on my
Speaker 1: phone of the day that I changed my name to Jennifer.
Speaker 1: That was the first thing that I had really done
Speaker 1: in completion. And after I started doing that, I became
Speaker 1: an advocate for it becoming easier for people to be
Speaker 1: able to change their name. So that was my platform
Speaker 1: in the beginning, was being a name change specialists. Everything
Speaker 1: started to blossom once I started becoming happy with my decisions,
Speaker 1: being able to make my own decisions. You know that
Speaker 1: is truly, it is the truth. If you allow a
Speaker 1: flower to just be, it will bloom. If you give
Speaker 1: it all the necessary things that needs it will bloom sunlight,
Speaker 1: photosynthesis is real, water feeding drinking is real, and food
Speaker 1: or pollination it does, it works. All those things work
Speaker 1: together in tandem. So I think all of those things. Internally,
Speaker 1: I started to understand and started to be appreciative of
Speaker 1: the opportunities. I was given the peace that I was
Speaker 1: able to sustain for myself and started to pay attention
Speaker 1: to Okay, now what else can I do to help?
Speaker 1: Once I figured out legally that I was me that
Speaker 1: everything started to click. I got invited to come to
Speaker 1: a youth policy HIV Advisor's interest meeting and then they
Speaker 1: said that they were going to give us a stipend
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, well, I'm set I this
Speaker 1: ain't sure, I'll do it. Absolutely sure will. The next
Speaker 1: week or maybe the week after, we had a meeting
Speaker 1: with state Representative Park Cannon. That was my first time.
Speaker 1: I think I have a picture of that too, of
Speaker 1: like me being able to be on the bill. So
Speaker 1: it was the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, and it was
Speaker 1: Georgia's Sexual Health Policy Symposium of twenty fifteen, and I
Speaker 1: was on a panel for voices of the epidemic black women,
Speaker 1: transgender people, black MSM, and LGBTQ youth. I felt like
Speaker 1: I was trusted in what I would, what I knew.
Speaker 1: I felt like this was the first time that I
Speaker 1: was able to really do things my way. And that's
Speaker 1: all I've ever wanted, all I've ever wanted. If you
Speaker 1: be and anybody, they'll probably tell you that's the one
Speaker 1: thing about me. I've got to do it my way.
Speaker 1: My life skyrocketed. It was just like it just went
Speaker 1: up and it was the only person that could stop
Speaker 1: me was me. Okay, so I just reapply my lip gloss.
Speaker 1: After eating a delicious lunch at Chipotle, we are headed
Speaker 1: back now to European Political Systems class at Barot College.
Speaker 1: Whoo yeah, ver y. I want to power. I definitely
Speaker 1: am a person that's looking forward to leaving d US.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if it'll be short term or I'll
Speaker 1: be an expat or who knows, but I definitely am
Speaker 1: looking for future career moves. That's the goal. I'm looking
Speaker 1: to leave the US to become better acquainted with international procedures.
Speaker 1: I believe that America has a lot of growth to do.
Speaker 1: Being one of the youngest nations in existence with so
Speaker 1: much controversy that could have probably been avoided if we'd
Speaker 1: only learned new and more efficient and inclusive and equitable
Speaker 1: means for Americans to exist row versus way being overturned,
Speaker 1: ways that we can certainly identify and find layers of
Speaker 1: how to make sure that those types of inconsistencies don't happen.
Speaker 1: The only reason why I'm able to pursue these goals today,
Speaker 1: you know, it's because I saw Shirley Chisholm. This is
Speaker 1: the only reason why I do what I do, and
Speaker 1: she did, you know, the first. So ballroom prepared me
Speaker 1: to face any room head up, shoulders back, legs stretched
Speaker 1: for the stripe, like I am absolutely prepared to do
Speaker 1: whatever is necessary to make sure that equity is completely enforced.
Speaker 1: So barroom in itself is a rebellious movement, a rebellious
Speaker 1: movement of what we couldn't be included in. So if
Speaker 1: I can't be a lawyer, I'm going to portray a lawyer.
Speaker 1: If I can't be a runway model, I'm going to
Speaker 1: portray a runway model. If I'm not asked to be
Speaker 1: a beauty queen, if I'm not allowed to compete as
Speaker 1: a beauty queen. I'm going to portray that within ballroom.
Speaker 1: That's what the face category is for. You see the
Speaker 1: presentation of life in America. It truly is the most
Speaker 1: beautiful mockery of it. That's what it was created for.
Speaker 1: Because you won't let us in, we'll do it ourselves,
Speaker 1: and we'll do it probably even better in ninety nine
Speaker 1: percent of time. That's what happens. You know, everything glamorous
Speaker 1: comes from ballroom. Believe that we're talking about mainstream of
Speaker 1: black and brown ball room. And for me, the highest
Speaker 1: house in the land was always the House of Balenciaga.
Speaker 1: I have been approached by the House of Mizrahi, the
Speaker 1: House of gar Song, I'd been approached by House of Ebony,
Speaker 1: I had been approached by the House of avant Garde,
Speaker 1: which I did have a lot of mentors during that time.
Speaker 1: In that house, I helped impost group with a voter
Speaker 1: registration and at the voter registration is where I ran
Speaker 1: into the legend Rico Balenciaga again, and that's where he
Speaker 1: said the statement about how aga ish I was starting
Speaker 1: to look and carrying myself, and you know, he knew
Speaker 1: I was there doing then, so he was like, you know,
Speaker 1: I see what you've been doing, and I want you
Speaker 1: to be under my care. I'm gonna, you know, help
Speaker 1: maneuver you. But I want you to come to a
Speaker 1: house meeting. Being a part of the House of Lincayat.
Speaker 1: I got in for, of course the work that I
Speaker 1: was doing. But I am a talent and so walking
Speaker 1: runway is my thing. I am a multiple of the
Speaker 1: year runway winner in multiple states. I'm not just one
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. I have won also in Philly. I've gotten
Speaker 1: awards in Milwaukee for what I do in community as
Speaker 1: well as being a presence on the floor. I am
Speaker 1: to read the Constitution and its entirety, so I'm going
Speaker 1: to take pieces. Today. I got through article one and
Speaker 1: started article two, so I want you at least be
Speaker 1: done by about five articles. Wednesday is the next time
Speaker 1: I see him, So we're going to go over two
Speaker 1: and three strongly. So if I can get those strongly
Speaker 1: under the veil, then I should be fine. Student life,
Speaker 1: I wonder if we're I want to go in there
Speaker 1: because I want to see how I can buy some
Speaker 1: what we call it paraphernelic. Hello, So I know that
Speaker 1: we don't have a bookstore, right, so how do I
Speaker 1: get swag? We used to have a store, bookstore, But
Speaker 1: they tell me in the library, why right, bring back
Speaker 1: the bookstore? I'm heard, so like, literally, no, no anything
Speaker 1: sold here. If I started a petition, would you sign it?
Speaker 1: I love in order to be taken serious and make
Speaker 1: sure that the funding that I deserve is given to me.
Speaker 1: I have to have credentials in my line of work.
Speaker 1: And for what I am a woman, you know, women
Speaker 1: in America eighty six cents to every man's dollar, you know,
Speaker 1: and that's if you're getting You're just due a pay.
Speaker 1: So now I wanted to make sure that educationally I
Speaker 1: was garnered the respect that I deserved. That's what made
Speaker 1: me go back to school. I'm great at advising, so
Speaker 1: if I could advise specifically on international terms, then there's
Speaker 1: not many people that are doing especially trands, that could
Speaker 1: do that. I can do that. I am certainly well
Speaker 1: equipped mentally to do that. My husband knew that that
Speaker 1: was something I wanted to do, and he would always
Speaker 1: say that you can do it. Everything about school I
Speaker 1: did myself. My husband didn't help me anyway get started.
Speaker 1: He don't pay for any of my books or things.
Speaker 1: I've gotten multiple scholarships, I've been on Dean's lists. I've
Speaker 1: written essays to get extra funding from private donors. I've
Speaker 1: worked really hard, and it's just showcasing to me that
Speaker 1: if you just do what needs to be done, what
Speaker 1: you desire will be given to you. Alright. It is
Speaker 1: currently ten fifty two, the night of Monday. It is
Speaker 1: the first day back to school. I feel like the
Speaker 1: day has been completed. I am extremely thankful for such
Speaker 1: a consistently structured day.
Speaker 3: It is good night for now and math tomorrow
Speaker 1: To do.