it's been one week since ...

I joined the esteemed ranks of "sista doctas" (a phrase coined by one of the fiercest sista doctas around) and I haven't posted about it on this blog because really I didn't know what to write except perhaps YAY FOR ME!

I'm overjoyed to have the defense behind me. I'm relieved and am in this weird liminal space. I'm honored to follow in the footsteps of Sadie Alexander (among other sista doctas who comprise the talented two percent). The academy can be a difficult struggle for most everyone, but for black women, for first generation college grads, for children of single mothers, for those of us from a working class background, it can be an insane mind fuck because "we aren't supposed to be here" or at least that's what the stats say, that's what the piercing eyes of those who assume we got here by quota say, that's what the good old boys who refuse to die or retire say (when we're not in the room or sometimes even when we are).

But in 1921, Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander looked all the doubters (and haters) in the face and defied even greater odds than the ones we face today, I suppose. It's all relative isn't it? So 85 years later, I exhale a lengthy sigh, cry a river of joyful tears and proudly say "I did it."