My inherent intelligence and lived experience have prepared me for my PhD journey—where faith, discernment, and scholarship meet to create real-world impact.
For a long time, I wondered why people gravitated toward me. It was never just me, but what was in me. I would see how some people reacted to my presence years ago, and I couldn’t quite name it. Looking back, I believe my ability to nurture others, coupled with a lively, colorful personality, had a lot to do with it. I can walk into a space, know no one, and still connect deeply—with the right people, in the right environments.
When I returned to Nashville after years of traveling, my “ax” had been sharpened. Life had trained me. I wanted to reconnect with the church to regain a sense of belonging and community. Instead, I discovered something unexpected: in some spaces, there was more jealousy inside the church than outside of it.
That realization pushed me into deeper reflection. My worldview on religion had expanded. What I learned growing up in a Christian context gave me a powerful foundation—but it was no longer sufficient by itself. Having a broader perspective and thinking critically for myself has become far more useful than relying only on what I was taught in youth.
As I studied mental health, spirituality, and human behavior more intentionally, I realized something important:
People don’t just “see” the world. They interpret it—through the lens of culture, upbringing, education level, knowledge, and experiences.
To really understand people (and to truly serve them), I had to understand those lenses—starting with my own.
What Shapes the Way We See the World?
When I talk about people viewing life through culture, upbringing, education level, knowledge, and experiences, here’s what I mean:
1. Culture
Culture is the shared set of beliefs, values, customs, traditions, language, and ways of living that shape how a group of people think and behave.
Culture answers questions like:
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What does “respect” look like here?
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How do we show love, anger, or disagreement?
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What is considered normal, taboo, sacred, or shameful?
Culture influences how we interpret authority, gender roles, success, failure—even God. Two people can hear the same sermon, read the same scripture, or sit in the same classroom and walk away with completely different understandings, simply because their cultural lenses are different.
2. Upbringing
Upbringing is the way a person was raised—home environment, parenting style, discipline, affection, beliefs, and emotional climate.
Questions tied to upbringing include:
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Were emotions allowed or shut down?
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Was love expressed through words, actions, or not at all?
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Was faith modeled as relationship, religion, rules—or hypocrisy?
Upbringing shapes our expectations of relationships, how safe we feel in the world, and what we think we “deserve.” It also influences how we respond to conflict, correction, authority, and love.
3. Education Level
Education level is the amount and type of formal schooling a person has completed—high school, trade school, college, graduate studies, certifications, or none of the above.
Education level often affects:
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How comfortable someone is with research, data, and critical thinking
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The language they use to explain what they feel and believe
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Their sense of confidence or insecurity in professional or academic spaces
Education does not determine intelligence—but it can shape how a person organizes information, questions what they are taught, and communicates their ideas to others.
4. Knowledge
Knowledge is the information, understanding, and awareness a person has gained over time—from school, reading, conversations, training, observation, and self-study.
Knowledge can be:
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Academic (books, theories, lectures)
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Practical (skills learned through life, jobs, parenting, ministry)
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Spiritual (discernment, revelation, insight, wisdom)
Knowledge expands our vocabulary for what we’re experiencing. Someone who understands trauma, for example, interprets behavior differently than someone who has never heard the word.
5. Experiences
Experiences are the events, environments, and encounters that have shaped a person’s life—both good and bad.
This includes:
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Childhood and family history
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Relationships, betrayal, love, rejection, loss
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Work environments, leadership, conflict, success, and failure
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Spiritual encounters, church hurt, answered and unanswered prayers
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Travel, exposure to different cities, cultures, and lifestyles
Experiences are often the most powerful teacher. They don’t just inform the mind—they imprint the heart. They shape our expectations, our fears, our faith, our resilience, and our boundaries.
Why This Matters for My PhD Journey
As I step into my PhD, I am not entering as a blank slate. I am entering as a whole person—shaped by:
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A faith foundation that taught me to seek God
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A season of travel that exposed me to new people, cities, and realities
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Encounters with religious systems that forced me to differentiate between God and people’s projections
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Years of exploring mental health, spirituality, and human behavior from multiple angles
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A growing awareness that my inherent intelligence is not separate from my lived experience—it’s refined by it
I’ve learned that some people gravitate toward me not because I’m perfect, but because I carry something: a presence, a perspective, an ability to nurture, and a courage to see beyond surface labels like “Christian,” “religious,” “educated,” or “uneducated.”
My life has shown me that if we want real change—in mental health, ministry, education, or community—we must acknowledge the full picture of what shapes people: Their culture, upbringing, education, knowledge, and experiences.
That is the lens I bring into my PhD journey. Not just to earn a title, but to use scholarship, discernment, and lived experience to create impact that is emotionally honest, spiritually grounded, and culturally aware.
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