Tracy Ellis Ross says, “I was shy, but it came out in a big personality. My turning point was when I let my hair go naturally…” On March 12, 2020, I woke up and went to work as I do each day. I had no idea that my life would forever be changed. On this day, my principal was out of town at a conference and had entrusted me the responsibility of closing out teaching and learning as we headed into Spring Break. Twenty minutes into the school day, a text came across my phone. I looked down and the text said that our district would be extending Spring Break for an additional week. These simple words forever changed the trajectory of my life both personally and professionally.  Looking back, I wonder if I would have gone to a movie, taken my family to our favorite restaurant, or threw a party for my friends. What would you have done if you knew that your life would forever be changed within a matter of days? I’m sure that I am not the only one who has contemplated this question over the past six months.

Once the Coronavirus Pandemic hit, it threw my life into such an uproar that I was unable to focus for the first couple of weeks. I completely shut myself off from everything as I sat watching the news attempting to cope. When your asthma and other co-morbidities place you in the most likely to need a ventilator group, it really makes you stop and take stock of what’s important. I used to pride myself on being some kind of superwoman.

  • If there was a task that needed to be completed at work, I would volunteer.
  • If someone needed help, I wanted to be the one they counted on to assist them.
  • If I had to make a choice between celebrating with friends and working, I often chose the latter.
  • In an effort to always appear strong and professional, I came across as unemotional to some.

When you are quarantined in your home for thirty days, you begin to think about your life, your goals, and whether you have truly been living up to your full potential. It turns out that I had not been. I had gotten lost helping everyone else around me achieve their dreams and forgotten about my own. Two weeks into the quarantine, I asked my husband to help me take down my braids. In hindsight, I thought this was going to be a simple task. We had done this many times before. This time, though, something was different. Once my braids were out, my hair didn’t feel the same. It felt rough and hard. It was tangled and unbelievably unmanageable. I have had a perm since I was four and never really had to work too hard on my hair. It just kind of did what it was supposed to. With the mandated closing of beauty shops, I was in trouble. No matter what I did, I just couldn’t untangle my hair. The next day, I made a phone call and ended up doing the unthinkable…. I cut off 13 inches of hair and was thrust upon one of the most exhilarating journeys of my life…the natural hair journey.

I had no idea how hard it would be. If you have permed hair, let me tell you it is not easy figuring out which products fit your hair texture. I purchased too many products to list and sadly none of them worked. To adjust, I did what most women of color do, I bought a wig. Since everyone was home for the quarantine, no one thought anything about my new look. In fact, most people complimented me for trying something new. If only they knew that the real reason for the wig was that I was not yet ready to embrace the real me. I hate to admit it, but it took me nine-weeks to get myself over the hump. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t until I went back and had my beautician take off another inch that I finally decided that my hair did not define me.

As Tracy Ellen Ross stated, my life was forever transformed that day. Since embracing the new me, I have begun to speak up more, worked to balance my home and work life, am putting family first again, and wrote down a list of goals and am happy to say that in six months I am half-way down the list. Just to name a few, I have published two poems, started my own podcast, written a professional development book for educators, been featured on two podcasts, and recently signed a contract to formally write for a book publishing company. I didn’t list these things to brag, I want every, WOC reading this post to know that you too can reach your full potential if you embrace all of you. What’s holding you back? Whatever it is, forget about it and go for it. You are smart! You are beautiful! Embrace YOU and go for it!!! I can’t wait to hear about your accomplishments.