I visited Florida Memorial University today. It is Homecoming Week. Lunch with the president was an outstanding experience. I have never felt the need to return to a school after graduation until I attended an HBCU. The feeling of being at home even as a graduate student was unreal. I graduated in 2006 and nothing has changed. The welcome is big, warm, and inviting.
This is the essence that was missing as I was growing up because I was always different. I gravitated towards other things and was always the only black student in most situations. This reverberated in my personal life which had dire consequences from which I fear I will never recover.
Attend an HBCU. Send your children to an HBCU. Support an HBCU. Give yourself the opportunity to get to love yourself from an environment that empowers you to be the best version of yourself long after you enrollment is over.
Growing up in Miami did not do for me what Florida Memorial has done for me as a black woman that was born here. There is a sense of belonging. There is a community for me. #FloMo #Iamalion#FloMoalum