The Path Before Me

“The Path Before Me” is a visual poem exploring the generational journey between a mother and daughter, told through two distinct voices. As a first-generation African woman in engineering, I wanted to represent not just my personal path, but the quiet labor and legacy that made it possible.

The blueprint background speaks to my world of structure and design, the language of my education. But it also represents the invisible systems that women like my mother built by hand, without recognition. I created the silhouette of a mother carrying a pot and holding her daughter’s hand to show both weight and connection culturally as well as emotionally.

The mother's stanzas are routinely spaced with more flow to reflect her methodical and structured lived experience. The daughter's voice is more compressed and direct, mirroring a newer, faster-moving world shaped by goals, pressure, and possibility.

The title “The Path Before Me” holds a double meaning: it refers to the path my mother walked before me to allow me to be able to become a first generation student, as well as the future path that now lies in front of me because of her. That duality mirrors the poem itself, drawing connection between origin and direction.

The style is inspired by the talented Maya Angelou. My goal was to create a thought provoking piece reflecting the distance between two lives, and the closeness that still exists despite it. I hope to relate to the feeling of moving through a world our parents never entered, but never forgetting the steps that were taken before us.