On this day, 16 years ago, I ecstatically (and drunkenly) danced my way across the stage in some hot church after hearing my name called for my Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from THE Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. 💪🏾🤪
No parts of that day was what it was supposed to be AT ALL. 🤦🏾♀️
First of all, my fellow classmates and I weren’t getting to follow in tradition of graduating on Fisk’s historic campus….because Nashville decided it needed to have a historic flood all of a sudden out of nowhere. 🙄
It was truly the Sunday morning BEFORE Monday morning graduation that a lot of us started getting calls from our families coming in from different states about not being able to get into Nashville. We knew it had been raining because we had partied the night (and week) before but FLOODING caught everyone entirely off guard.😱
So now, EVERYONE is in a complete and utter scramble mode. Because, as a class, we had all COLLECTIVELY agreed: we getting these degrees, come hell or high water (so God say “BET!”). 🫠
After 4 LONG years of crying, stressing, trying to balance school and life all while wondering what your degree was even going to be worth once you graduate (if you know, you KNOW), this gradation was HAPPENING. Classmates, we truly LOCKED IN with everyone doing their part to make sure we could safely navigate the flood AND still have a graduation ceremony. 💪🏾🤓
The campus, like a lot of Nashville at that point, was fully flooded. So new venue for the ceremony was found. Families coming in didn’t know Nashville the way we did, so we all organized to go and get the ones that had made it into town new accommodations. That Sunday was a blur of just making sure everything was okay. Once we had settled the DETAILS of Monday, we went right back to celebrating. Because we had EARNED it, every second. 🥳
I reflect back on that weekend every time something I’ve planned doesn’t go the way that I wanted. Because that day taught me that it doesn’t have to look the way you planned in order for it to be exactly what you want. Sometimes your plan wasn’t big enough and God has to show you that you are MADE for greatness. Because after we did all that running around on Sunday, Monday was an absolutely clear and beautiful day.
Class of 2010, we CAME INTO Fisk already blazing trails. We were the class like no other by almost every standard. It was only fitting that God gave us an ending like no other class. Cause today, we can flex and sing with our FULL chest the Kirk Franklin song “More Than I Can Bear”. 💪🏾🥹
To fellow Fiskites, past, present, and future, “where ever we be, we shall still love thee. FISK! OUR ALMA MATER”. ✊🏾🥰
P.S.: No more asking for things “come hell or high water” though. Definitely learned to change that detail. 🙃
