In 2015 when Donald Trump rode down the escalator at Trump Tower in New York City to announce his run for the White House, my life was at a crossroads. I was stuck.
A few months before, self-doubt and an aimless life plan led me to drop out of electrical engineering school at North Carolina State University just a year away from graduation. At 21 years old, I didn’t know what to do next, but on that day in June when the soon-to-be president spoke, I got a good idea of what path to follow.
Many working people in this country and in Chattanooga don’t have the luxury to change tracks like this, but I did. It didn’t feel right to use this privilege to rack in six figures the rest of my life, oblivious to what was happening in my country. What Trump said during that speech gave me clarity I didn’t have before.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” Trump said in what became an infamous speech from the former president. “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.”