episode 5: what it means to bet on yourself with Eni Popoola of @enigivensunday
Eni Popoola is a second-year law student and the content creator behind the beauty and lifestyle blog, #EniGivenSunday. On this episode of the Chroma Radio podcast, she chats with Daneshé on her path to growing her audience from scratch, authentically, how she maintains her confidence both in and out of the classroom, and the power of dedication when it comes to making your dreams a reality.
Whether you’re interested in pursuing a career in law, education, content creation or anything in between, there is something that you can learn from Eni!
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transcript
Daneshé 0:00
Eni Popoola is a Nigerian American originally from Queens, New York, after graduating from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in government and sociology, and he taught seventh grade history at an East Harlem charter school. She’s currently a second year student at Columbia Law School where she serves as the Secretary for the Black Law Students Association. And she’s also a staff editor on the Columbia Law Review, in the free time that she has any works to maintain Eni Given Sunday, her beauty and lifestyle blog that she started in 2018. She wears many hats, but she wears them so well. And I’ll let her tell you how. You’re tuned into the Chroma Radio Podcast, a show for women who didn’t just end up here. I’m your host, Denise Shea Henry, founder of the Chroma network, an online platform kicking down the barriers of early stage career development, and helping you move on up the ladder of life with confidence, style, and most importantly, intention. Together, we’ll get into the nitty gritty of mindset development, for finding everyday experiences, and thoughtful conversations with a woman making major moves in the real world.
So let’s get into today’s episode. So there are a few questions that I like to start with just to paint a picture for our audience of who you are in the very early stages of your career. So right now, you’re a beauty and lifestyle blogger, and you’re also a law student at Columbia University. But what was your first job? And what did it teach you?
Eni 1:33
Yeah, so my first job which, okay, well, is it like first job out of college or first like paycheck job period?
Daneshé 1:41
first paycheck job period.
Eni 1:42
Okay. Okay. So my first job was working as an advisor at prep for prep, which is an educational enrichment program that I was a part of that many students of color, who, like across New York City are part of it’s like, pretty. But Wow, what did my first job at prep for prep Teach me, I would say, so basically, also, working as an advisor, for those of you who, like don’t know, is you’re like a 16 year old, basically, like I was 16, at the time, coming in and helping or guiding students who are going through the program, which is pretty rigorous, pretty intense. And we’re just providing them insight, providing them encouragement, sometimes, you know, being given a little tough love for the kids who need it, but basically helping them make it through the program. And that job taught me. I mean, I guess it taught me that one, it definitely taught me the importance of giving back. And like, you know, being an advisor was the first way that I could give back to an organization I did so much to help me. But it also taught me to not go so hard on myself, right? Like, it’s hard, because when we’re in the moment, that’s all that we see. And I’ve had to teach myself, there’s a lot that like, I always think that I’m not doing enough in the moment. And then I look back on the moment and think, wow, I was doing a lot like I was really doing a lot. And I didn’t appreciate myself for the fact that I was doing a lot. And so being an advisor, because of the fact that it was a program that I had been a part of, I’m looking at these kids who were in the same position as me five years prior. And I’m thinking why I was doing a lot. And I was so hard on myself for not, you know, racking up all the awards, or, you know, being the brightest kid in the program. But it was an intense program. And so that job specifically taught me more about like appreciating the work that I’m putting in at that very moment. Obviously, that’s not a thing that I would imagine I’d learn at 10 years old. But coming back as an advisor at 16 1718. I didn’t until I was 19. He really helped me solidify that, like I need to appreciate like and give myself a pat on the back for the work that I do.
Daneshé 3:52
Yeah. And I also think that’s important, because I feel like because I also was an advisor, I feel like you don’t realize the impact that you actually have on the kids like being in that space. Like as you said, you don’t feel like you’re doing a lot. But to them, you’re doing so much like really guiding them through such a tough time. So I think it’s really important that you said that. Yeah. So then you spent your undergrad years at Harvard. So take us back to your headspace at that time. Like what organizations were you a part of?
Eni 4:21
Yeah, I was excited to be at Harvard, Harvard was like a dream of mine since I was like five months old. So I would go in order of importance, and then an extra organization at the end. So the most important organization to me was ABHA, which stands for the Association of Black Harvard women. I spent I was on a board position for that my sophomore junior and senior year, my junior year, I served as the president of that organization. So that was something that was very important to me. I had gone to an all girls school for high school and part of middle school. And so being in spaces where women with women was something that I think I was more inclined to coming into College. And so was definitely something that was important to me. And it was the first it wasn’t the first time that I had been a part of a black affinity of black woman’s or a woman of color affinity group, because my high school had something like that. But something of that magnitude where we could just like appreciate, like, what it meant to be a black woman at Harvard was very important. I also like spent some time and I would like to volunteer with the Harvard organization for prison and education reform. So what that looked like, for me was once a week, I would go to kind of like a home for, quote, unquote, troubled youth, I don’t like that terminology, but essentially, students who were like, you know, in the system, and just like, needed people to just spend some time with them, mentor them or tutor them. And that was really important to me, because during my undergrad experience, I had grown more aware of the issues surrounding you know, mass incarceration, and just generally the criminal legal system. And even though like the opportunity arose to volunteer in, you know, at a jail or at a juvenile center, but this was also very important to me, because I wanted like kids and children or something that I cared very much so about, I also spent some time like doing some initiatives at the i o p, which is the Harvard Institute of Politics, it’s very big at Harvard. So there’s some people who are hugely involved, and some people who are more so on the sidelines, I was on the sidelines, and I would, you know, come on, they had cool speakers, but it was also really cool to just see, you know, the the opportunities that Harvard had and the connections I would have for bringing in people in the political realm. And that allowed me to explore whether or not that was of interest to me. And last, but definitely not least, this came like later in my undergrad career, but I became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated. And that was something that was more so off campus because it was a city wide chapter. But you know, still keeping in line with my personal preference for being in spaces with black woman, and how important that is, and just basically just it solidifying my identity as a black woman. So AKA was also a big part of like, my senior year of college because I became a member my junior spring,
Daneshé 7:05
and how have those I guess, those networks that you’ve been able to build? How have they shaped your life now? Are they still present?
Eni 7:13
Yeah, so I’ll start with aka definitely still present. That is life long. I currently, though, I’m not in a graduate chapter currently, just because law school is both time consuming and expensive. So I was not in the graduate chapter. But I still like some of the people that I talk to every day these days are people who are you know, aka, or people who are in my chapter people who are in the chapter before me. And so that is both encouraging, because it’s like I didn’t come into it thinking it would be a one day thing or a one year thing. So it’s very encouraging to see that that’s still lasted all this time. And I’m, you know, excited to see where it takes me down the line. The same thing I would say, for the Association of Black Harvard women, though it’s not as prevalent in my life on a day to day basis eyes, aka is it’s something that like, you know, there are plenty of black women from Harvard, who are doing amazing, amazing things. And you know, Instagram seems to be the way that we keep up with each other and see what everyone’s doing. And so it’s still nice to know that one, there are people who are doing some amazing things. And to that, like, I still have access to those people, I can still reach out, especially to the to the women who were the years ahead of me, like in the class of 2014, and 2015. So that’s been an important part of my journey to, you know, through school, through a career, everything like that.
Daneshé 8:38
So did you pick your activities that you were involved in, in your undergrad years? Did you pick those with an end goal in mind, like preparing for your future or just enjoyment?
Eni 8:46
So the the affinity spaces, so Okay, so ABA was more so like, because this is what’s going to make my college experience bearable, right? Like people always ask me like, oh, did you like Harvard? or How was it right? People want to know, what was your experience like? And I say, Well, I had a solid group of people. If you don’t, if you don’t have those group of people around you kind of keeping you grounded. Harvard can be a very, very cold place, it can be a very tough place to get through. But so agua and surrounding myself with black woman was something that was just came naturally because I needed it. And that’s where like that those are the people I needed to get me through for hope that I had also like that was a trend. So for the Harvard organization of prison and education reform, that was a personal interest of mine. I wrote a senior thesis on the political participation or the voter participation of formerly incarcerated Boston residents around the 2016 election. I had taken like a couple of sociology classes on race, poverty and justice, where we spoke about mass incarceration. And so that was just all something that was of importance to me. Did I think I would be working at some nonprofit that dealt with mass incarceration, not necessarily but it was something that academically interested me IEP. So that’s I think that was something that I tried to, you know, be strategic about and think like, oh, if I want to go into a political career, I need to be involved in IEP. And I think that’s why I ended up being not so involved in it, because I didn’t want to force it. And I couldn’t force it. It just wasn’t the space for me. And if it didn’t come naturally, I wasn’t going to be involved in initiatives that I didn’t necessarily align with. So overall, I would say I don’t think I had a specific end career goal in mind, I think I understood that I could always pivot at some point. And it didn’t have to show through my student organizations, I knew that I didn’t necessarily have to use my extracurriculars to align with a career that I could just be committed. And as long as I was committed to any student organization that would show through on my resume, and that would mean something to an employer.
Daneshé 10:50
So you had internships at the civil rights bureau of the Office of the New York State Attorney General, and then you had a public policy role at the n double A CP. So how did you navigate the internship search process in the policy space?
Eni 11:04
Yeah, so honestly, prep was very instrumental in getting me the first internship, the person who was the head of the Civil Rights bureau at the time was Kristin Clark. And she is a prep for prep alum, who also went to Harvard and Columbia Law School, so literally goals. And so that just came, I knew I wanted to do public service or public interest. And I just, I couldn’t fake interest in consulting jobs, or in banking jobs, which a lot of people were doing at the time. I think I had one interview with like a bank, and I just couldn’t even I couldn’t even pretend to be interested, I couldn’t. So that process, I navigate, I really, for the most part, it really helped me out. But of course, like, I had to be clear about why I was interested. And I had to be clear that like, a job at the civil rights Bureau was what I wanted, because I was considering going to law school. And I cared a lot about civil rights and African American rights, like I cared about those things. So I think that was what showed the most because as a sophomore, as a, you know, rising Junior, I didn’t really have that much work experience, prep was the only thing on my resume at the time, because that’s where I’d worked. So it really just came to be about conveying my interest at an interview for the NAACP role that I had. That was something that I got through Harvard’s Institute of Politics, and they have a public interest or public service, like summer program where they match you with certain employers, I specifically wanted that because I wanted to spend a summer outside of New York. So I spent the summer in Baltimore. So I guess a part of that search process for me was looking for was paying attention to geographic region, right, like, I didn’t study abroad. And I had lived in New York all of my life and interned in New York all of my life. So I wanted at least an opportunity to spend some time somewhere else on my own. And so that was something I heavily consider through that process. But I also like there were other people at Harvard who had done that internship before. So I reached out to them for help. Like, that was a huge part of the process for me talking to them, did they like it? Did they enjoy it? Would it be something that I would actually enjoy as well. And so those were some of the key considerations I had when I was searching for internships my summer before senior year, though, I knew unlike my counterparts in consulting and finance, that I would still be on the hunt for a job during my senior year because I wasn’t in a field that gave a return offer or anything like that.
Daneshé 13:40
So which one of those if any impacted your decisions for what you wanted to pursue? After college?
Eni 13:47
I think the civil rights Bureau, my time at the civil rights bureau at the New York Attorney General’s Office did the most, there were a couple of issues that one I hadn’t really become aware of. It’s actually interesting. I didn’t really know what the school to prison pipeline meant. You hear certain buzzwords, and this was back in 2015. So I’m not even sure if it was common for people of our age back then to understand what it meant to be like for a school to facilitate the school to prison pipeline. And so I remember once reading about a story where a student with the New York Attorney General’s office had like sued a school district or not, maybe not sued, but basically enforcing some policies or programming. The story that sparked it was that a young boy had been suspended from school I think it was either in Syracuse or Buffalo, it might have been Syracuse, but had been suspended from school and sent home immediately during the school day. And as he was waiting for a bus stop, he was like shot and killed and I don’t think it was intended for him. But it was kind of just like, you know, if this child had not been suspended, or if this child had had someone come to pick him up, or like there were a number of options that schools could have explored to prevent this from happening. That’s not necessarily a school to prison pipeline example like that’s, that’s a case where someone died, because the school didn’t really think through the policies that would keep children safe. And so that was something that was very eye opening for me. And I did a lot more research into the school to prison pipeline, I felt like, Wow, I didn’t know what this meant, I thought it was kind of just like, oh, if you’re not on a certain reading level, you’re more likely to go to prison. Like, that’s what I thought the school to prison pipeline meant at that point. And so I, that was the first time that I understood it, and then understood the legal point and how how, you know, agencies or how government entities can take action, I don’t know if I necessarily cared much for the government entity taking action, as much as I cared about the fact that there were legal options to pursue as well, to keep children safe.
Daneshé 15:48
So after having these experiences, it seemed to impact you very deeply, especially in the way that you think now you didn’t go to law school straight away, and you went into education. And I know, you mentioned that, you know, kids, or something that you care very deeply about. So could you tell us a bit more about your rationale behind that decision? What drew you into teaching?
Eni 16:08
Yeah, so I tried to, I feel like I tried to fight it for a long time. But the way my life is set up, it’s like, the one door that opens is the one door I’m supposed to go through. And that is the way it was meant to be. So I tried to get legal assistant positions or paralegal positions, because I thought, Oh, I want to go to law school, I’m going to take two years off, work at a law firm and then go to law school. And I’m really glad it didn’t work out that way. I didn’t get any offers from any law firms, but Success Academy, which is where I worked reached out. And I went through that interview process, and I got that job. But you know, I had worked at prep for prep as an advisor, I had, you know, volunteered at what, where I mentioned before with youth. And so that was something that was very important to me, and my time at prep for prep made me realize, like I was capable of standing in front of a room of children of middle school aged children, which is what I taught. And so I knew I was capable. I wasn’t doing it through any pipeline program. So I didn’t do TFA or anything like that, which was more comforting for me, because I didn’t necessarily want to be tied to your two year one year and it Well, yeah, I just could do what I wanted to do on my own. And I knew the reality was, I knew that there are not that many African American, that many black teachers. And I thought, you know, where is my skill set going to be best used? And where can I actually help in the time that I am taking off before law school, and it ended up being something that you know, I gained a lot of that it’s not just like, Oh, go and teach, right? Like you’re a public speaker, if you’re a teacher, you are presenter you’re teaching your lesson plans are presenting every day you are liaison, because you’re dealing with parents, you’re dealing with students, you’re dealing with other teachers. So there’s a lot that goes into teaching that I’m really glad I got to experience because it definitely also opened my eyes kind of alluding to what I mentioned before what I learned at the civil rights Bureau, I saw an auction where I taught. And so it still opened my eyes and really reinforced my decision to go to law school.
Daneshé 18:10
So Did it teach you or open your eyes to anything about education system? Maybe my son specifically in New York City?
Eni 18:18
Yeah, it’s a mess. It is a mess. It’s a mess. Man. Oh, man, I don’t even know where to begin, I think oh my god. It opened my eyes, one from the perspective of someone. So like, I went to public school until sixth grade. And then I went to independent school from seventh to 12th grade. I had never experienced a charter school before. So teaching at a charter school was also the means through which I was able to experience what life at a charter school was. I taken an education class at Harvard. And we spoke about these like, no nonsense charter schools, but you know, it was kind of like weird to me, I was like, Okay, and then I get there. And I’m just like, this is very interesting and eye opening, and kind of alarming at times, with how easily kids were suspended or how easily kids get detention. And it just was wild to me, honestly. So it opened my eyes in that regard, like, Hey, this is problematic, like, I don’t know about you, but a suspension for me growing up was a big deal. So for it to be happening, like, left and right, like, this is weird. This is this is weird. And this is not okay. kids getting pushed out of schools, you know, the ease of getting left behind, like, I didn’t really understand, like, I feel like in public school, there was a whole like bureaucracy to it. It was very kind of difficult for me, the kid behind, but that’s different at a charter school that’s different where you’re privately operated. So I don’t even know i don’t think i think i just gave a whole bunch of thoughts because and that there was no cohesion to that answer. But that essentially it just opened my eyes to how much of a miss schooling and education in New York City is Right.
Daneshé 20:01
So then I guess backtracking a bit after you graduated college on a different note, you started to also create these weekly style posts on Instagram under the hashtag Any Given Sunday. And you later turn that into a blog, and now a really strong personal brand for the thousands of people love. So we’re the inspiration for that. We’re the inspiration for that come from to create these weekly posts and then expand into the blogosphere. Because I know that can be like a really big leap and uncomfortable for some I still get really nervous when I when it comes to like advocating for myself online and sharing your creative project. So where did you get the inspiration from? And then how did you get over the nerves if you had any? At the beginning?
Eni 20:43
Yeah, I said, well, because when you were like thousands of people, I was like, Wow, that’s so weird to think about. But it’s actually true. Yeah. Wow. Wow. So the concept of the Sunday style posts started growing up church on Sunday was a huge part of like it was every Sunday, we went to church every Sunday, we went to church growing up. And when I went away for college, I didn’t really find a church that I personally that like felt right for me. So a lot of times, I would still live stream, my home church. But like the fun part, not the fun part. Like some of the things that I liked the most about going to church were just like, you know, dressing up, right? Like That was my opportunity to be creative in a fashion way or in the sense of my fashion. And so when I moved back home, and we started going back to church with my family on Sundays, you know, I missed that I missed the dressing up culture that kind of comes in New York, as well do more generally, but also when I go to church on Sundays, and so I just every Sunday after church would just like, you know, take pictures like this is my outfit this week. And it would be in the same little like gazebo area outside of the church that I went to. And that was how it really started. There was no, I really just wanted to take pictures and post them on Instagram of friends. And then I was like, You know what, I do this every Sunday. So I’m going to call this my Sunday style posts. And then a friend went, commented and was like, how about any given Sunday hashtag Any Given Sunday, or like, you know, and I was like, Oh, that is brilliant. That is perfect. Yeah, I was like, that’s, that’s the thing, I didn’t even come up with the name, I did not come up with the name, which is why like, you know, your followers and audience are really so important. Because like, that’s like the biggest the probably the biggest thing about me, which is the name, someone who is a friend and follower gave to me, and so that it continued, which is weekly style posts every Sunday, any given Sunday. And around the mark where I was about to hit a year of doing those Sunday style posts like me naturally, I’m just like, Okay, well, how are we evolving? How are we taking something to the next level, I don’t want to do this for a year more than a year and it not take a different form. So it was like either you let it go and make your Instagram just be like a regular Instagram that’s not you know, you’ve kind of built you’ve built something people now look forward to the Sunday posts. So how are we going to do more. And so after a year, I was like, You know what, I’m just going to start a blog. And there wasn’t really too much anxiety about starting a blog, because no one was really asking for it. Number one, but part of me had already built up had, like, you know, a year’s worth of content behind it. So I kind of built a small name for myself, at least among my small community of followers, like, hey, Sunday’s are days that I dropped stuff. But starting a blog was important because you know, I call that phase, it’s the the song caption phase, or the song lyric phase. And so starting a blog, you know, the Sunday style posts were just like, you know, find a Drake lyric, post a caption post something about the outfit or whatever. But it wasn’t deep. It wasn’t really like sharing a story. And so starting a blog, I was like, you know what I like to write and I want to share my story. Like, I’m just gonna use it as that I prefer to write about beauty like I prefer beauty content, I don’t do much style content. But there wasn’t really too much anxiety. And I guess maybe that’s the answer to the question. How did I get over the anxiety? I didn’t really plan to start a blog to begin with. I figured out what I liked to do. I figured out what know what drew people in and that was just pictures. I cared a lot about the pictures I cared a lot about sometimes writing stuff. So okay, pictures and write written content, put that together, it’s gonna be a blog, and I’m just gonna roll with it. So there wasn’t really a lot of like, Oh, this is the day that I have to launch or, oh, my website’s not perfect. I’m sure my website was a mess when it first started, but I was just like, you know what, let’s just go with it. Like I told myself a year in turn into something. I picked a date that would be easy for me to remember the anniversary of so June 1, like who was when I started my blog a couple of years ago, and I went with it.
Daneshé 24:52
So I guess you didn’t have that vision in mind initially when you started but as you grew it journey with what Did you have any vision for what you wanted your platform to look like any values or messages that he maybe wanted to share with your audience? Or maybe any key parts of your life that you wanted to draw from and share? Did you have any vision for that?
Eni 25:13
Yeah, I did. So I wanted it to be clear that faith is a big part of my life, even though it’s not something that I’m like talking about, like, I don’t need to be an Instagram preacher. Just to get some revenue. I don’t need to be someone who’s posting, you know, scriptures or my devotional and that No, no, yeah. To anyone who does that. Of course, absolutely not. But that just wasn’t my mode of speaking to people. But it’s still important. So I end each blog posts. And I think I’ve done this for my first one. But I end each blog post with a scripture, or Bible verse that ties in either to what I’ve spoken about, or just like what I feel is right for the post or what I shared. So it was very important for me to one make it clear that like faith, my faith is something that’s very important to me. But I also just wanted to talk about navigating life, like where I was at the time, which was being a recent grad. Right. And so now I’m navigating life where I am right now, which is being a law school student. Sometimes I dabble in talking about working with brands, and that, like I do that to help other people, because I know I appreciate it when other influencers and bloggers will talk about working with brands. But the vision for me is to just talk about where I am in life right now and what I’m experiencing. And so I spoke about teaching when I was a teacher, I spoke about being in law school, and now that I’m in law school, but I also talk about friendships and dating, and you know, pretty men working out and anything. So it’s really just about me, I know that. But the hope is are the vision is that in talking about what I’m experiencing, someone else resonates. And that’s really the best part of it when someone says, Wow, that really resonated with me or I really, I really am having the same experiences you are.
Daneshé 27:02
So over over time since you’ve been blogging, and now that you’ve been able to grow your audience, what would you say Eni given Sunday has done for you if you could describe its impact?
Eni 27:12
Yeah, its impact for me is twofold. So I used to think I wasn’t creative. Like I was just like, oh, because when you’re young, you think creativity is a painting, or a poem, you know, and it definitely still is. But it’s allowed me to realize that there’s creativity and how you put your clothes together, or how you wear your makeup, or how you decide to pair a hair look with the clothes that you’re wearing. And then the angles and the poses and all that stuff. So it allows me to express myself and allows me to bring a vision for a certain picture to life. And then it also made me realize that I’m capable of like doing business, right? Like, it’s, it’s gotten to the point where now it feels like any given Sunday, and that’s something that I’ll probably be exploring, like, how can I make this something more formal, more than just a blog, because right now it feels like I’m also running kind of like a little small business. And so it’s funny because you know, you also when you’re growing up, get the sense are not growing up, but like in college that like business was working at a bank or working in consulting. And that was pretty much the narrow understanding that I have of what it meant to be a business person. And now it looks different. It looks a lot different. And so any given Sunday has opened up the creative side of me, but also the business side of me as well. Yeah, I
Daneshé 28:29
think it’s I think that’s really important, because I feel like there’s kind of this stereotype that, I guess blogging or being an influencer, just it’s just you posting pretty pictures. But as you kind of said, you’re basically doing project management, like you have all these deadlines, you have to negotiate with brand new, it’s like you’re wearing many hats at once. So you’re building your platform, and you’re growing your following, but you’re also working a full time job as an educator. And then to add to this, you also decided to apply to law school after those few years off. So did you always know that you wanted to go?
Eni 29:02
Yeah, I did. Well, not always. Yes and no. Right. So as a kid, you have the idea, oh, I want to be a lawyer or I want to be a politician. Sure. But do you actually know what goes into that? Absolutely not. So going into my teaching job. I definitely knew that I was going to apply to law school, right? Like I knew it was going to be a couple of years, and then I was going to apply to law school. But I needed to understand more about why like what what is the law going to do? What Why does any belief that the law is something that you should be in that is so weird that I refer to myself and the third person? Why is this the path for me? And it can’t just be because I said I would always be a lawyer. It has to be because I see an issue. And I see a solution that hopefully the law can bring or that I can bring through using the law or by being a lawyer. And so I for the most part did know I wanted to be a lawyer but you know that I didn’t know what went into balancing, you know, school, and then a blog gets thrown in like, I had no plans for that. And I and then also dealing with the law school application process, so it was definitely a lot to deal with at once.
Daneshé 30:14
So what was your process for selecting schools? Did you know what you wanted in a school? Or where you wanted to go? specifically? What did that look like for you?
Eni 30:22
Yeah, so for me, I to really be blunt. There’s a sort of, I don’t want to say pressure. But what I felt a pressure to go back to Harvard for law school, right? Like going to Harvard for undergrad, it’s like, Oh, you did as great as you possibly could. So maintain the bar and go back to Harvard for law school. So the question would always be like, are you going back to Harvard for law school? Like, is that where you’re going? And I’d be like, if I get in? Well, you know, why is it always the assumption. And so I theoretically wanted to go to Harvard Law School. And I say, theoretically, because I don’t think I genuinely wanted to go, I think I was relieved when I didn’t get in for a number of reasons. I wanted to be in New York, because my blog was, you know, kind of growing, and my younger brother takes my pictures for my blog. Now, I take a lot of photos of myself these days, but at the time, and still, currently, he takes a lot of my pictures. And he’s based in New York, where I’m from. And so I knew if I moved out of New York, for law school, that would essentially be gone, because I would have to, I would lose my personal photographer. And I wouldn’t really be able to afford paying a legitimate photographer, nothing. My brother’s not legitimate. He’s actually legitimate. Let me take that back, paying a professional photographer, to take my pictures. And so my heart like really, genuinely wanted to stay in New York. But I applied to schools outside of New York, but like New York was where I wanted to go, Why Columbia specifically? I mean, part of it is, and I tell this to people all the time who are thinking about applying to law school, they’re like, why did you Columbia, the legal profession is is elite. It’s unfortunate that that’s the way it is. But it like a lot of times the ranking of the school that you go to matters to some extent for the professional opportunities you get. And so for me, it was about like, okay, I want to stay in New York, what is like the best ranking or the highest ranking school that I can get to that won’t, like break the bank entirely. So Columbia was like, you know, after my theoretical, Harvard, right, Columbia was really my real choice, because I feel like it checked all the boxes, I could stay in New York, I could be close to home and close to family, I could still go to church on Sundays, which is like, you know, something that so I would still go to church with my family on Sundays and families is very important to me. And I felt like I would have professional opportunities and that the black students network are the Black Student Association at Columbia, law school was also very strong. So those are all things that I took into account when I was applying to law school.
Daneshé 32:52
So now you’re in your second year, and you have one summer associate position under your belt. So what would you say the law school experience has taught you so far, it hasn’t made you more passionate about any areas of life or change your beliefs in any way.
Eni 33:07
It’s changed my belief, as much as it’s made me realize the importance of what I’m the profession that I’m going into, or that I want to go into. And that sometimes there’s like, sacrifice involved, right. So, you know, we’re balancing the need to pay off loans, with the need to do the meaningful work that, you know, sparked our interest or sparked my interest to go to law school in the first place. And that’s not saying that other work isn’t meaningful, but you know, it’s all relative. And there’s, there’s definitely a feeling of what I want to do in the long term, but I’m still figuring out as expected, as everyone is still figuring out. I mean, if anything, law school has reminded me of the need to speak up for myself, it’s very, it can be a competitive environment, if people let it be. And you can get lost in that, especially if you’re a woman, a black woman, like if you’re not actively speaking up for yourself. So it hasn’t really changed much of my view about like, the need to go into the profession, like especially the times that we’re living in, it’s just like, okay, right. Yeah, this. Right, exactly. So on the path to that I really need to make sure I’m doing the most that I can to make sure I’m getting the best experience and the best legal training. And that involves speaking up for myself.
Daneshé 34:25
And how does that play out into your day to day, whether it’s in your classes or in any internships or associate positions that you have? Like, how does you advocating for yourself play out?
Eni 34:36
Yeah, so in the classroom, it might look like it may not even be advocating or it is advocating for myself and I’ll get there but raising my hand and volunteering to speak like if I know an answer if I think I know an answer. For me it didn’t know the point wasn’t about getting the right answer. The point was like me being confident to know that my voice should be in the conversation and so All of fall even though law school is primarily cold call, like, in the spring, I had professors who were volunteer, like, you know, who took volunteers. And so I would read the answer to myself under my breath. And like, I remember even the first week of law school, someone who sat next to me was like, you know, you should say something like, you’re saying the answers and you’re not raising your hand, and he’s looking around the room, like, say something. And it took me a couple of months before I got comfortable just being like, even if I’m wrong, like, YOLO I don’t care like, Okay, what do you like, you know, sometimes you just have to get that like, Boss up like, okay, I was wrong, and what like, Okay. All right. Okay. Other people would have been wrong to like, I really don’t care about that anymore. So advocating for myself looks like just volunteering to give answers. And sometimes the wrong answer that I give might give a professor insight into why he didn’t get the right answer and probe a little bit more like and pull out a misconception that I had at a job advocating for myself, especially because it was virtual this summer looks like only speaking out about the types of assignments that I wanted, the attorneys that I wanted to work with what I wanted to experience or see. So those are just really short points of what I had to advocate for myself for and when I had too much work, because it’s very easy to be like, yeah, sure, let me space for another assignment. I have space for another assignment. But I started my internship the week that protests after George Boyd’s killing started. And I was overwhelmed. Right. And so I had to figure out a way to speak up for myself and be like, yeah, this is I can handle more assignments, but just know that like, mentally, this is an overwhelming week. very overwhelming. Yeah.
Daneshé 36:46
Now that you’ve had your skin in the game, I guess both as a content creator, and as a law student, if there were any myths that you feel like exist, could you dispel some of them for our audience?
Eni 36:59
Yeah, one big myth I will give is that the elf that determines like your law, school success, your success in law school. And I would say even your success in as a lawyer, though, I’m not a lawyer yet. So I’m not going to say what I don’t know yet. But I can pretty much guarantee or pretty much say confidently that like your outset, that test is wild. It’s a demoralizing test. And everyone was at conversations with his like, I feel so discouraged, I feel so down, right. And it’s just like, it’s crazy, because all these people are feeling so down and discouraged. I wish we had known each other during the process like to understand, we’re all going through the same thing. But I’m speaking to a lot of people who are just like, lost this test is hard. And I’m worried that like, once I go to law school, I’m not really going to be that great. And I want to say that that’s just not the case. So that is a myth, a myth about content creation is that it’s all just fun and games, and that you’re just like living the life. Like, it’s crazy, crazy work. It’s a lot of work. It just is right like the work that goes into getting a whole like it sounds pretty shallow. But like putting picking an outfit making sure you have creative ways of thinking through looks trying to stay updated on trends, like being an influencer, or a blogger is about staying on trends. So thinking about new ideas. And then when you have deadlines for content when you have when you have personal deadlines for your own content, when you’re working with brands, when you’re managing money when you’re you know, all of these things, trying to think about how to upgrade, right? Like, do I need a new camera at this time, because like, I feel like I’m stagnant. And my, my pictures need to be another quality like needs to go to the next level. So it’s not it’s really not fun in games. And I say this all the time. Like I don’t have plans to be a full time influencer a full time blogger, but there definitely is enough work for me to do if I want it right.
Daneshé 38:47
So I think that based on what you shared with us, it sounds like you’ve been able to build up a lot of confidence, like both you and your academic life. And then also you running any given Sunday. So do you think there’s been I guess any difference in your journey to like building your audience or getting into a top law school like the person that you were in those moments versus who you are now, I guess maybe if you’ve had to deal with any like imposter syndrome or any like knocks your competence in any way? Do you feel like there’s a difference between who you are then and now? Hmm.
Eni 39:23
I think, yeah, I think I was unsure of myself at times. I think I also feel a lot more into the trap of comparison, then. Right? So when you’re just starting out, you got all googly eyes for people who have more than you who are where you want to be, and not necessarily in a positive way as like, oh, they’re an inspiration. And I’m like, why can’t I have that? Or why aren’t my pictures is nice and pristine? Or like I can’t afford that camera, but I wish I could or why didn’t I get that OSEP score. Why didn’t I get into this law school? Right? Like and she did and they did. And so now like, you know I don’t think that ever fully ends. I don’t think that ever fully stops. But it happens a lot less for me now. And it happens like I quickly catch myself. And I’m just like, oh, like one thing about where you were a couple years ago and like where you are now and how happy with where you are now. But to like, I’m always at the firm belief, like what’s meant for me will be mine. So even if I don’t get an opportunity, or if I don’t, you know, a door doesn’t open for me. I’m just like, well, everything that I have used to get to this point I have gotten. And I know that because I’m here now. And so if I didn’t get it, that means I didn’t need it to get to where I am now because I did it without it. So that’s that’s basically been what’s helped me like, stay out of that comparison lean.
