ABSTRACT
Over the years, I have held countless informational interviews with Black women Ph.D. STEM-health program aspirants. I cannot recall one that did not end with, “Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?” Already knowing what they would ask, I would reply, “Sure.” To which they proceeded to ask, “How do you make time for a relationship and family while getting a Ph.D.?”
What you will find in this chapter is a longer and more detailed version of my encouragement to them to live out their lives. My story is slated as an alter call to all my mahogany-toned sisters who dare to question, but never have had the opportunity to ask, “How do I pursue my God-given right to expand myself into the spaces that I am predestined to be?”
Truth be told , I did not have a roadmap for being all that I was and was seeking to become. My life unfolded with each blinded and faithful step forward. I want whoever is reading this right now to know that pursuing a STEM-health Ph.D. as a Black woman in a predominantly white institution (PWI) while being married and having a baby may not be easy, but it is nowhere near impossible. What you will find in the pages that follow is a revelation of truths that I buried down to make it through. Truths birthed through time, therapy, and reflection; through which I learned to accept that my succession was, in fact, a testimony that could liberate other gifted Black women of their fears of realizing their vast oceanic lives in STEM, matrimony, and motherhood.
