I started business school in 2009 and I remember having to learn how to dress, eat, and speak.

As young girl who grew up on the south side of Chicago, much of this felt unnatural to me.

No one in my family had ever had a career in business or entrepreneurship.

In business school, I was overwhelmed, there was so much. 

Pencil skirts, eating with certain forks, trying to enunciate and pronounce all of my words...it was a challenge for me to say the least.

I felt like I was doing everything wrong.

I used to talk CRAZY FAST and I didn't even own a professional outfit until my Freshman year. 

One day, I remember my Marketing Professor pulling me into her office one day and telling me I was “rough around the edges”.

Ouch, I know.

As a lil ghetto girl (I say this with love for myself and the word ghetto), perhaps, she was right.

Maybe I was rough around the edges. 

But I know in that moment that I didn’t want to be smooth lol.

I didn’t care to fit into a box, and I didn’t even wear my hair natural then.

That's right, my hair was relaxed and I still wasn't "good enough". 

You can imagine the looks I got when I chopped it all off and went natural the following year. 

I eventually got a corporate job and it didn't last very long.

Sometimes I wish I could have stuck it out longer. 

I left corporate America because I couldn't play the game. 

I really hated having to change who I was to fit in. 

I hated code switching. 

I know every woman with curly, coily, kinky hair can't quit their jobs, but maybe you can rock your natural hair to work. 

Make sure they know that the way your hair grows is indeed professional.