I am Sydney Comisky. I'm a full-time working mom and wife who just completed my first year of law school at Regent University. Let me take the time to tell you the story of my grandmother, who impacted my life in many ways. Her name was Ann Dana. Ann, otherwise known as "Granny," was a spitfire of a woman who had not ever backed down from a challenge. I grew up listening to her stories of when she was a flight attendant working for piedmont airlines, or when she was a nurse in my hometown of Virginia Beach, and how, for a time, she lived in New York City, even getting arrested for participating in the Civil Rights movement. During a time when women were told to keep quiet, she always spoke up. That is what I truly loved about her, and we often laughed about our commonalities and how they got us in trouble. But there is one story I learned about more recently before she passed away last year. When she was working for the airline and living in New York City, she was raped by a pilot. This incident caused her to become pregnant at a young age. She knew New York was no place for a single mom, and she knew she didn't want to give up the baby, no matter what the circumstance was. So she drove down to her hometown in South Carolina to tell her parents and figure out a plan. Well, come to find out - her high school sweetheart was still there and still wildly in love with her. He took matters into his own hands and married her regardless of her pregnancy, claiming the son as his own. Well, that son was my father. No one really knew of this story until my aunt stumbled upon a journal and confronted my granny about it. She got the chance to tell my dad not too long before his untimely death in 2014 due to a heart attack. I watched my granny love others unconditionally, speak her truth loudly, and extend grace to every person she met. She passed last year, Father's Day 2022, but I still hear her voice every time I need a word of encouragement or a "kick in the ass". I started my journey toward my law degree in August 2022, shortly after her passing. I knew It was what I was meant to do and feel her pushing me along as I work through this new way forward. I will be the first woman in my direct family to not only complete my undergraduate degree but also pursue my JD.