No one can take my identity, my education or my self acceptance away from me.

Of the things that make me who I am two big things I think would be my Black Identity and my college degrees. My parents especially my mom have pushed education since I was a little girl. It was important to both of my parents that I applied myself and did well in school. I was never the type to be a smoker. I tried to quit smoking with the patch back in my 20s but I was not successful at quitting until age 33 when my psychiatrist asked me if I was serious about quitting and she started me on Chantix. In a few months I had no desire to smoke and next July will be my 3-year smoke free with not a puff off a cigarette in three years. I never thought I would become a smoker as a kid. It was because of peer pressure I started smoking at the alternative high school I went to where teenagers got smoking privileges. That was when I guess you could say I became a smoker. My Bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in Creative Writing at age 34 is something I am very proud of. No one can take my degrees away from me. I am working on a second BA in Early Childhood Education starting this Fall 2016. I want to teach at a The Goddard School or a Montessori school when I get my Early Childhood Education degree.