Page 14 of Rise Above

38

Rise Above

“Sure, and Davis will be there too.” The elevator

dinged, and we caught sight of Dre’s puffballs. She interlocked our arms together, practically dragging us to the food.

“What we talking about?” Dre asked.

“A soccer game,” Nat said quietly. “Davis will be

there.”

Dre and I exchanged a knowing look. We both

knew the two liked each other, but they refused to admit it. “On Sunday?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said as I looked over my food

options. “Sunday morning.”

“Ugh. You’re lucky I love you. We’ll be there so

Nat can ogle Davis’s ass.” Dre laughed and poked our friend’s cheek.

Nat turned a deep shade of red. “Knock it off.”

“Never.” They stuck their tongues out at each other.

I couldn’t help the smile that was on my face. These two were truly my best friends, and I was so glad I’d met them. They made my life better and more fun.

We quickly purchased our food and gobbled it up,

talking about various topics. After our last bites, we rushed back to the floors. Hospitals required lots of work, but I did love it. Fast paced was my middle name. Just a few more hours, and I could go home and write.

39

Rise Above

I eased myself onto my couch and pulled my

notebook toward me. Time to get writing and editing. My intro was essentially done, minus the edits I needed to complete. Really, I needed to start on my outline. Once I could complete that, the writing would flow. My dissertation was going to be a monograph—a book. It would be roughly between 100-200 pages. I wanted to dedicate a number of chapters to disorders and then some on the treatment of women, mental illness, diagnosing, insurance, and then solutions. The first chapter I wanted to tackle was going to be about the average length of time it took for women to receive a diagnosis. There was quite a bit of detail I needed to include, and this would of course mean research. I loved that part, a smile creeping onto my face at the thought.

Grabbing my laptop, I began my research. To help,

I popped ear buds in and blasted my beautiful metal music. Some found it horrible and grating, but metal soothed me. For me, there was nothing more relaxing than some Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold, and Metallica. They just made me happy. The smile never left my face as I stumbled down my research rabbit hole. Some of the articles I found really upset me and that only fueled my passion for my paper.

40

Rise Above

The medical system seemingly hated women; the

world thrived on misogynism. It was harmful and wrong; it needed to be changed. After about two hours, I’d finally found enough research material to truly start the meat and potatoes of my dissertation. The one thing I would have to remember was not to let my anger get the better of me. So much of this paper was a little too close to home, and I absolutely could not let it get to me. My jaw clenched just thinking about my own trauma.

My music paused as my phone rang. Quickly, I

answered my phone as I added another bullet point to my outline. “Yeah?”