A Love Letter to My HBCU
Oakwood University, Huntsville, AL
Dear Oakwood,
Where do I even begin? I’ll start with thank you. Thank you for the fun-filled precious memories. Thank you for bringing me friends that I’ll keep forever, that coddled me through both the splendid and not-so-splendid times. Friends that will be the future (way in the future) aunties to my kiddos, and faces in the photos of my photo album that I’ll point to one day and say “Look this was me in college back in the day.”
I write to you with a heavy heart, because the day has come for me to leave your safe and sacred grounds. It was here that I became a fully-realized black biracial woman in America. You gave me an education that challenged my critical thinking and stretched my knowledge of the world and all its complexities.
You gave me career guidance that helped me set the course for a meaningful and successful life. And you gave me the tools and resources to learn and grow in ways I never thought possible.
In addition to those gifts, you shared a strong sense of community and inclusion. You brought us together and helped us to develop meaningful friendships and professional relationships. Together, we have risen up and made great strides toward bettering our community, nation, and even the world.
As I prepare to leave your doors for the last time, I want to thank you for all that you have done for me. You have been an oasis during my journey to becoming a black woman in America -- a place that always encouraged and never judged. Where walls were broken down, perspectives shifted, and we moved our future forward.
Thank you for growing my faith and setting my spirit on fire. For pushing me to ask faithful questions, and take more Bible classes than I can count. For classes that start with a “Good morning class, how are you doing today?”, and a “Does anyone have any prayer requests?”, followed by “Who wants to pray for us?” Instead of jumping straight to the lesson. Thank you for giving me professors that let you cry in their office instead of sending disingenuous email chains. Thank you for the small groups and sabbath cookouts that were birthed from late AY altar calls and Saturday morning sermons.
I came to you as a lost city girl from the west coast, overwhelmed with depression and anxiety, who was silly/smart enough to listen to God’s call to leave my previous PWI and come to Oakwood. With more questions that I had answers to, I came to Oakwood and would soon call it home. Thank you for being the four walls that felt like a hug for the last two years, and providing the support I needed to find, accept, and love myself as a biracial black girl in America. Thank you for being the affirmation I needed that trusting my gut actually works out. Thank you for being one of my smartest adulting decisions to date and my proudest moment.
When God told me to move, I said “where” instead of “no”
In two short years, I’ve grown spiritually, mentally, and professionally to say the least. While I’ve learned a lot in our time together, I unfortunately won’t be finishing my degree with you, but with another university. God has laid another path before me that I must continue on.
I will think of you always and carry your lessons with me wherever I go, and wherever I invoke change.
Love you endlessly,
P.S. I pinky promise that when I grow a bigger community and enter a new tax bracket I’ll start a scholarship for future Oakwoodites.