By Nia Bush

Life after graduation has taught me that things are not always “that deep.” Meaning that throughout life, things are going to happen. Regardless. All the time. So if I immerse myself in a situation (good or bad) that happens, then I will not survive mentally and emotionally. When I finished at Spelman College, my plans to attend law school immediately after graduation did not fall through. This was the first time my life plan got thrown off. I endured a long period of sadness that was induced partly by hearing “What’s next?” hundreds of time as though I couldn’t just soak in the fact that I was graduating from the top HBCU in the nation with high honors and had worked hard those four years to accomplish several academic and extracurricular achievements. So once Summer was over, and most of my peers began to start law and grad school or their full time jobs, I decided to use my time outside of an academic setting (the first time in 16 consecutive years), to look within. This journey of internal exploration and healing is what taught me the most about life after graduation and life in general. I learned that the essence of who I am is not what I have built Nia to be. I am not my 3.7 college GPA, I am not any of the things I have done, I am a conscious being witnessing it all. So when I experience situations in life that produce feelings of emotional pain, I know that the feeling- the specific emotion- is not attached to me. The emotion becomes like a wild horse that I can decide to hop on or off of. It does not mean that I don’t cry, it means that I allow myself to cry even harder because I know that releasing and allowing the feeling to pass through is what will make it not stick to my heart. After graduation I did not feel like myself. I felt as though I was in a dark box that had no opening. When I realized that dark box was my mind, I decided to get it together. I practice watching my thoughts as opposed to letting my thoughts consume me. Distinguishing between my thoughts and my inner voice has been very important. Our mind is so powerful that it can literally amplify a situation in our head that we perceive as bad, then that causes us to experience low frequency emotion, and depending on what we know what to do with that emotion, the thought can cause an adverse reaction physically. In order to access your inner voice, your mind has to learn how to be quiet so that you can hear it. Your inner voice, This is a life practice though, and I have not reached ultimate enlightenment, but I have started the journey to become resilient to life’s situations. As I prepare to start the next journey, law school, I know that I will need to rely on what I learned this past year more than ever before, but I also know that no matter what obstacle is in my way, I will be okay.