Finding The Courage
Updated: Jun 16, 2021
I never thought that I would be in the position that I am in today. Not because it is nothing that I never thought would happen, I just did not know when. For the most part I have always had a plan for my life and a clear direction in the things that I wanted to do. Once I accomplished all those goals, I was left asking myself now what? I am a 37-year-old black woman in America. I am a college graduate. I am married with children, and I own my home and business. My husband and I both have bachelor’s degrees and we have made great progress in our careers. We never saw this growing up. Sometimes I feel a little lost and I do not know which way to go. I never thought about my life past 35! Now God willing I’m trying to plan out the next 35 years of my life! It is a whole new book forget chapters! All our grandparents are gone there are not any elders in my life that I can turn to for advice. I have had to really dig deep into my spiritual self this go round and fully seek God and pray about his plan for my life. Even though I know what I desire sometimes it does not always align with what my true purpose is. I am still a work in progress, and I ask God every day to lead me. Whatever my purpose is I know that it is to be of service to the people.
Prior to the pandemic I was working full time as Creative Director at Mary Dewalt Design Group. I spent 6 years with the company, and I finally reached the highest of my highs. I spent 2 hours of my day commuting to work and I could not take it anymore. I was tired of not overseeing my life and my schedule. I spent most of my days sitting at the computer killing my back doing presentation after presentation. I missed out on everything being at work. I worked on projects that I did not receive any credit for. It was a little depressing after a while. I felt like I was being overworked and under paid for what I thought I was worth.
I recently read an article about the racial wealth gap, and it was specifically showing the financial wealth between black and white women. Reading that article was eye opening on so many levels. Like seriously why I am I even working myself to death! That made me feel even more sick and tired of the rat race.
(You can find the article here https://www.axios.com/racial-wealth-gap-black-families-income-9f1d729a-7225-48d4-8ac1-30f2b1d6b646.html)
"Compared to both white and Hispanic women, Black women marry later in life, are less likely to marry at all, and have higher rates of marital instability," a 2015 study posted to the National Institutes of Health library finds.
"Wealth differences among white and Black women persist despite type of family structure, marriage, age, or education," the DuBois Cook Center's study finds, tracking data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics.
"In fact, single white women with kids have the same amount of wealth as single Black women without kids."
"The median single-parent white family has more than twice the wealth of the median Black or Latino family with two parents."
The racial wealth gap among women and families is upheld in large part by intergenerational transfers "like financing a college education, providing help with the down payment on a house and other gift to seed asset accumulation," per the DuBois Cook Center.