10 Questions: This single mother of 5 overcame a lifetime of obstacles to become a lawyer
Did your kids help you study?
Yes, for every subject! I had flash cards—index cards where I’d write the concept and the elements—and they would quiz me on these flash cards. They’d do this daily when I was cooking or doing their hair. I also learn when I am teaching people, so I’d make them sit on the sofa like a little mock jury or a class, and I’d teach them what I had learned that day. They’d be so bored, looking at me like, “We have no idea what you’re talking about!” But they sacrificed their time outside for me. That’s why I wanted to take graduation photos with them holding signs showing they had helped. I didn’t feel like it was just me graduating. They had also sacrificed, so it felt like they were graduating, too.
I am so glad you mentioned those photos! Did you have any idea they would go viral and you’d end up in the news and even flying to California to appear on Steve Harvey?
Not at all. I just posted them on Facebook like I do anything else, never expecting the response I received. I posted them on Saturday, and by the time Monday came around, they were everywhere. A news station came out to interview me at school, and two days later, Yahoo reached out to me and did a story on me. Then the Steve Harvey show emailed and said, “We’d love to have you on the show.” He gave my family a five-night, six-day trip to Jamaica, an all-expenses-paid trip, on-air. In addition to that, he gave me $10,000 on-air. I paid my tithing to the church, and I sent the rest to Sallie Mae to start paying off my loans.
I was going to ask how all this publicity changed your life, but it sounds like it’s been pretty positive—I mean, Jamaica! Did anything else come your way from the photos?
The most amazing things happened. I went bar-study crazy from May until July—I took out a bar study loan so I didn’t have to work, and I never cooked one home-cooked meal all summer. But the picture had gone so viral by then that people started sending me gift cards and money, enough to feed me and my family the entire time.
I know you’ve also received quite a few public speaking gigs from religious organizations and women’s conferences. What’s the message you share?
I tell everyone my testimony and encourage and inspire them. I say, “If God can do it for me, he can do it for anyone, and don’t give up. Whatever circumstances you are going through right now, it doesn’t define your future. You won’t be in this place forever; it’s up to you to step out on faith.”
How did it feel to walk across the stage at graduation and accept your juris doctor degree?
I was speechless because all I could think about was that little girl who lived in the projects. Every hardship I had ever endured flashed in front of my eyes, from seeing my parents do drugs in front of me to being in foster care to being drunk myself. All of it flashed before my eyes, and I realized, this is happening. This is finally happening.
This article was published in the January-February 2019
