12/14/2025
I have a secret.
🎓 Yesterday was my doctorversary.
Twelve years. 🙌🏾
But that’s not the secret.
As I look at this picture of myself—cap, gown, hood ready—preparing to walk across the stage, all I can think about is how much it took out of me to get there.
What people see is the accomplishment.
What I remember is the cost.
Late nights—up until the wee hours of the morning—finishing papers, preparing projects, and trying to keep up with everything I was carrying as a full-time executive, a wife, and a mother to a young child.
And the truth is, some nights the only way I could get through was by sneaking a couple of shots of vodka into my blueberry lemonade to “calm my nerves” enough to get it done.
Nobody knew.
Not my husband.
Not my mother.
Nobody.
It was a secret I held close—because when people are looking at you like you have it all together, you don’t share the ways you’re barely holding on.
I’m not a drinker.
I was overwhelmed, anxious, and stretched too thin—trying to be excellent everywhere while quietly disappearing from myself.
From the outside, I looked busy and balanced.
Inside, I was exhausted and worried.
I’m sharing this today because so many people are succeeding publicly and struggling privately.
Because looking “put together” doesn’t mean you’re okay.
And because peace—the kind people ask me about now—isn’t something you stumble into.
It’s something you practice.
Over time.
With intention.
With support.
I celebrate the degree.
And I honor the woman I was then.
I’m so proud of the woman I chose to become after.
