Well. They did it. We did it.
Olivia graduated two weeks ago with her degree in Counseling!
Last week the non profit I work for, Lexington Leadership Foundation, turned 20. And a few days later we celebrated the Woodhill Community Center turning 1. Talk about full circle. Didn’t plan on telling anyone, but today is my 2 year anniversary as a full time staff member. Not to mention this summer will mark 12 years doing the dang thing! (That's a Chloe-ism for I’ve been around Urban Impact on an almost daily - weekly - monthly - semester basis for 12 years.) Come on y’all. That’s wild.
Michael graduated Saturday with a degree in Intercultural Communications and walked out with 4 awards!
This is just a reminder that the young people you think have something special in them, but it seems super far off for their goals to become reality, can actually make it happen. We (they) just need you to believe in them. Through the good, the bad, and the ugly.
We’ve been siblings for over a decade, Olivia’s had me her whole life of course. But when I think back to what it was like. Middle and high school kids. Sitting on the floor in the basement. No one knows what we know. No one lived what we lived, other than the handful of siblings that I see periodically. And I can’t help but get emotional when I think of who we are now. What we’ve accomplished. Failed at. How we argue better than the best lawyer you could buy. How we love harder than any love song you call your favorite.
20 years.
12 years.
2 years.
1 year.
All the years we spent in college.
Fighting to prove ourselves wrong.
Figuring out how to come back and face those we left behind to make needed moves.
I’m sitting on a plane, almost in tears, proud.
Proud of a good life.
A life you can go to bed tired in a good way.
This isn’t the end of a finish line for my siblings and I. This is a chapter closed and another opened. This is motivation to push for the next goal. For the next “you thought we couldn’t do it. But we did.”
My prayer, hope, and lifelong mission, is that I can create a similar bond, love, experience, for my kids, that has been done for us. I don't know how quite yet... but that's the cool part of this life. It just sort of happened.
