For the last couple of days, I have been in love with flowers. I have never been one to obsess over the beauty of flowers so this new obsession has caused me to ponder. From the abnormal midnight dreams to the unusual daydreaming about running through flower-filled pastures.

Today, I mentally took a journey through the neighborhood in which I grew up. It is formally known as, "Jackson Heights Projects” but to the residents and the community it was just “the new projects.” I visited the basketball court where the boys played basketball and I visited the playground where I got into my first fight. Anyway, on this journey I stopped to remember one of my favorite places in the new projects. It was an apartment on the corner that an elderly lady had turned into a garden. She planted a huge garden in her yard and you could barely even see her front door. It was a pretty weird thing for one to do in the “projects” but it was indeed a beautiful sight. My older cousin Mo’Neshia and I, would go there to try and catch the butterflies that also loved the flowers.

I had forgotten all about this obsession until today.

I spent majority of my life in the New Projects and majority of my days visiting that garden. I had some good times in the projects but I also had some hard times. I remember being ashamed to carpool from school or any other after school festivities with my peers because I did not want them to see me being dropped off in the poorest part of my community.

Finally, after years of living in the projects. We finally moved out. It was not because we could afford something better. In fact, it was because we could not afford anything at all. We all moved in with my grandma and stayed there until my mother could get a job to support our family again.

Life in the projects was rough. Every day I felt inadequate and I cried because I did not want to live my life in the darkness forever. When I say “darkness” I am not only metaphorically speaking but I am also speaking of the literal darkness in my household. I am speaking of the depressing nights that we went without electricity as well as the nights I thought I went without love.

I sit here today really looking back over my life. I am flabbergasted at the distance that I have come over the years (I still have a long way to go) but I sit here beginning to carefully dissect my own life and dig down to the core of how I have mentally gone from poor to wealthy. Now, do not get me wrong, I do not have any money but I have a rich mindset. I have grown. I have changed and transformed. When I look into the mirror today, I do not see the ugly black girl from the projects that I once saw. I see a beautiful flower that has grown and evolved. I did not do it on my own. I put all of my faith and my trust in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

As a student at the most illustrious institution in the world, Spelman College, the founder and CEO of my own non-profit organization, as well as a teen published author, I can say that this journey has not been easy. All of the odds were stacked against me. I lost my dad at 15 years old and felt that life was over for me. Because I was “just another girl from the projects”, I was expected to fail.

As I hold my first published book in my hand, I look at the many flowers that fill the book cover and I realize that I am one of those flowers. I am truly a flower that blossomed right where I was planted. When I think about the main necessities that flowers need to blossom, sunlight is at the top of that list. I know that it was not only the sun that helped me grew but it was the SON. My spirituality and relationship with Jesus kept me grounded. I know that my purpose in life is to be an inspiration to young girls, especially those in the projects and I could not be where I am today without Jesus. I had to live in the projects to show others that where you come from does not determine where you are going. Honey you can bloom right where you have been planted!

There is a garden of young girls in the projects just like the elderly lady’s garden on the corner and it is full of intelligent seeds waiting to blossom. Those young girls only need a little nurturing. I am determined to water those seeds. With every seed I encounter I will whisper, “bloom baby girl because the SON still shines in the projects.”