The first time I stepped away from college, I was 20 and simply didn’t want to be there anymore.
Instead of learning about world cultures from text books, I wanted to explore and experience the planet myself.
So after my sophomore year at Spelman College, I returned to my mother’s home in Seattle, made up faces at MAC Cosmetics, dated the neighborhood train wreck, saved money and bought an around-the-world, six-month solo ticket headed to Thailand, Nepal, India and France.
In my mother’s house, there was so much shame about “dropping out of college,” that it overshadowed potential curiosity about how I’d navigated Bangkok alone, trekked for 3-weeks (and survived an avalanche) in the Nepalese Himalayas, adventured solo up + down India’s west coast and turned 21 on the beaches of Goa (where I’d been living in a coconut tree).
Not to mention, how I’d dreamed up and delivered this trailblazing (PRE-internet) trip!
I was a 20 year old Black American young woman traveling solo + self-funded around the world.
I stayed at ashrams and temples, in hotels, hostels and with host families.
Lodging reservations were made from pay phones and in cyber cafes. Sometimes by handwriting + mailing a letter to potential hosts.
Train tickets were paid for in-person at the station.
“Lonely Planet” books, word of mouth recommendations + my intuition helped me decide where to go, where to stay and how to get there.
This beautiful, powerful, life-changing adventure transformed me — not only because I answered my soul’s sovereign call — but because I did it FOR ME, even in the face of the traditionally bougie people who didn’t understand or appreciate my nontraditional accomplishments.
When fall semester rolled around, I was back at Spelman for another few years before taking time off again, eventually graduating 8 years after my incoming class.
After my first year of college I’d told my mother that I wasn’t happy and wanted to take a year off.
She responded, “What does that mean? We don’t do that in this family.”
(My parents, grandparents and GREAT-grandparents ALL have AT LEAST one undergraduate degree and AT LEAST one masters degree. Completing college in 4-years was an expectation, NOT a suggestion.)
So, I went back. And a hit rock-bottom, debilitating, immobilizing depression.
By the end of my sophomore year I told my mother, “I don’t care what ‘we’ do in this family. I’m taking a year off.”
Because liberation comes from leading ourselves.
Not waiting for someone else’s permission, understanding or approval.
When we are soul-aligned and lead ourselves, we transform our world, embody our power and understand how unlimited we truly are.
So, here’s a toast to you my friend.
May you always remember who you are, follow your soul and light the world on fire by being your most luminous, authentic self. You got this.
This is where mystics gather.
Goddess Frequency is the revolutionary mystery school + spiritual community for effortlessly embodying wealth, ease and freedom.