I'm Major Jackson and this is the Slowdown.

I have a friend for my years in Philly who not knowing how she was going to pay the remaining

balance of her college bill. Sad on the edge of her seat, the first few weeks of classes of her

first year, unable to concentrate. Her parents wanted her to return home and enroll in a local and

more affordable college, believing she had made a poor decision to attend a school of such a high

tuition. Then, one morning, on a whim to use a new credit card, mail to her the previous day,

she flew the parish for lunch. She decided to postpone her worries by taking an impulsive weekend

trip overseas. Much to the dismay of her parents, she never returned home, nor to the school with

a hefty tuition. Instead, for a decade, she worked six months a year as a waitress, collecting

tips, then traveled the globe the other six months of the year. She's one of the most adventurous,

exciting, and independent people I know. Years later, I was excited to tell my family that I was

driving cross-country to attend graduate school at the University of Oregon. We were gathered for

some birthday occasion around a restaurant table, but they paled to me with questions that

harbored between harassment and hilarity. My grandfather wanted to know if there were black

barbershops or black churches in the northwest. A distressed aunt asked if I could not have found

a graduate program half the distance. Conceptually, they could not imagine or conceive a world

beyond the one we currently inhabit it. One where they meticulously bestowed their nurturance and

protection. I'll be it. Given the history of violence against black bodies, this was a brand

of paranoia that was grounded in truth. My venturing out of the bubble carried all kinds of historic

risks. A month later, with family hovered around my car, I gave hugs and took off in my used

jetta full of everything to my name. Something called me beyond the familiar streets of Philadelphia.

When I arrived in Eugene, Oregon after an arduous yet stunning road trip of camping and driving

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