Jessica Opoku

Transcript

sh don't speak don't say anything words that have lingered through my mind for quite some time I trusted you and you took advantage of my trust often times I would see what Gatherings and how I wanted to Lunge across the table and grab you by your neck and wait until you took your last breath but I'm Christian so that gets me every time but as God is my witness I know he will be my Vindicator so I say to you rest while you can you see he thought that by telling me not to speak that he could silence me but what he ignited in me

was an ability to speak but not only to speak but to speak with purpose how I wished in that time I had not been selected I would have been rejected and overlooked funny when I push forward to 10 years in my life at a moment when I should have been selected and not rejected and not overlooked that was not my story you see I'd applied to the job five times and every time I applied I applied with a friend their names were Stacy Amanda Samantha Heather and Jennifer my name was Jessica so as I sat in the interview room waiting for the woman calling out

Jessica we're looking for a Jessica she never once even glan in my direction thinking that couldn't possibly be the profile of a Jessica the one I spoke to who said I would really like to work for your company and agreed you know in fact I think you would be a great asset to our company perhaps she didn't hire me because she didn't like the name Jessica but as an African I have multiple names for her in fact it's Jessica Aquia ABIA opoku she could have picked any of them but I guess she just didn't like any of those names or perhaps in that moment it

dawned on me I realized that I was different and I recounted the conversations with my father when he would say to me honey you think you're going to just work hard in this life you have to work harder in fact he said had and I knew in that moment that my standard had to be different and so you would think I look around and figure out okay what else in my life could be working for me that I could be of value and I thought perhaps I would be accepted by my friends my family my culture and the answer to that is not necessarily because

at the age of 30 as a woman who was unmarried without children I am told that I am devalued and in fact someone may say I am expired I know I heard someone laugh I laugh too expired every time I call my father after work I say Dad I'm just getting off the subway walking home my father says to me uh did you see any boys on the subway did you talk to any boys on the subway and I say to my father no I was actually busy reading on you know some real estate books thinking about buying a house you know the natural next

step for a young woman and he says to me does the house come with a spouse and I say Dad that I don't know that's not how they usually do real estate I don't know people selling spells with with houses and I get it my parents they love me I get it my friends family my culture they love me but sometimes they need to realize that the words they are speaking to me is sometimes killing me because on September 15th 2015 there I was unwillingly dropped down to my knees on my carpet floor as I sat there dry heaving without a word to say but

just thinking I can't possibly go through this again I know you're thinking get over it it's a heartbreak but let me explain to you my heart was not only broken and shattered into pieces not even left an essential area for me to put it back together on my own oh no it was broken in pieces and left in places here there everywhere deep into crevices in places I've never been before and I had to go to those places on my own blindly to p put it all together but I have to tell you I rely on something Beyond and above me and that is my

faith because based on my faith I know that everything I've gone through is for a reason and I know and I know and I know that it won't always be like this and sooner or later it'll turn in my favor yeah it's turning around for me so I keep pushing knowing the turnaround is on its way

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.