Introducing Window Seat

At every juncture, the closing of every chapter in my adult life I’ve said to myself, “Why didn’t you take the time to document that?” Or I would say “I should have started a blog when all this began!”

I said this to myself after returning home to New Orleans 5 months after Hurricane Katrina, immediately after finishing my Master’s degree and just before enrolling in my doctoral program, and once again after proposing my dissertation topic. The last time I regretfully pondered why I had missed my moment and I made a promise to myself that I would not let another chapter in my life go by without starting some type of documentation process.

I missed out on documenting and sharing some poignant and thought provoking moments in my life. I won’t take up this space to name the many moments when I was “expected to be a superwoman without acting like one” (Player, 1985).  However, as I am in the final stages of fulfilling the requirements for my PhD with aspirations of joining the professoriate, I figured there is no better time to start than now!

Window Seat is my invitation for you to view the world from my perspective, more often than not, supported by emerging and groundbreaking scholarship on race and gender. This perspective is informed by a life as a mother, partner, and daughter of a non-traditional age college student. It is also informed by my childhood in the South--filled with snowballs, Black Catholics, second lines, colorism, Mardi Gras parades, urban decay, but also lots of love. Not to mention, my adulthood spent primarily in the Midwest. (I am still coming to grips and coping with what I saw and experienced there. So bare with me.) I have a lot to say, about a lot of things—specifically when it comes to womanhood, Blackness, and education.

Put simply, I am tired of feeling regretful. Or “wishing” I could share my view on topics and events. And I despise a long Facebook post, that wasn’t an option. So here I am and here you are! Welcome to a front row seat.

Story behind the photo: In the summer of 2005 I worked as a instructor and chaperon for a 4 week pre-matriculation program entitled Super Scholar-Excel at Xavier University of Louisiana. This was also the summer I decided to pursue a career in student affairs. As a art major with a concentration in photography, I kept my SLR camera by my side documenting the experience. Unbeknownst to me a fellow instructor took this photo of me while we supervised study hall at Xavier South. 

When I hastily packed my bags evacuating for Katrina, under the impression I would soon be back, I took the camera, but forgot all of my previously developed negatives. Inside the camera was the film from that summer. Sometime in 2008 I took the film to a photo development shop and to my surprise this shot was in the set.  Photographers rarely have photos of themselves. I have none from my camera from college, except this one.