Growing up a little black girl on the south side of Chicago, I was sold the idea of the “American Dream.” For me, that meant I had to survive my childhood (literally), work EXTRA hard in school, go to college, get a degree (or two), secure one of those “good jobs,” become a leader, climb the corporate ladder, make lots of money, buy a house in the best school district, retire and travel when I’m old. Whew! I’m exhausted saying it. I did it. I did it all…but I’m not old yet!
No one talks about what it takes to accomplish all the items on the long list of the “American dream” I had to be alive and healthy. What do young women think about being active and healthy at 23? What person thinks about illness, death, heart surgery, and having her lung reinflated when she’s one semester away from completing her master’s degree in Finance? Youth made me feel invincible.
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