“I will preface this by saying I was born and raised in West Africa and came here when I was 9, so I think that because of being an immigrant and also being unaware of certain truths about America, honestly, it took me a long time to understand racial dynamics in America. Because I had that ignorance, I was always like, ‘I’m gonna go for it, I’m gonna get it,’ and there was never a shadow of doubt in my mind. But also seeing my mom — and this is a typical immigrant story — my mom came here, got a degree as a lawyer, had to come back, went back to Georgetown, to get another degree just so she could work here. She couldn’t find a job, and then made her own law firm. So when I started getting rejections, I’d be sad, but I’d be like, ‘This is a rejection for today. It’s a no for today, but it’s not a no for tomorrow.’ And I just kept going.