Graduation Recap: PhinisheD 🎓

What Earning a Ph.D. Taught Me About Faith and Becoming

Vannesia Darby

Jun 02, 2026

I graduated with my Ph.D. in Business Administration, with a focus in Marketing, a few weeks ago.

Me.

A whole me.

The same person who said she was not going to college.

The same person who said she was dropping out of undergrad.

I would say, “I can’t believe it!” but baby, we worked hard for this! I felt every single day of it: all 130+ pages of my dissertation, the years of research, the writing in airports, planes, and hotels, reading journal articles in the back of Ubers and Lyfts...this one, I can believe 😂.

But what truly surprised me was the overwhelming excitement from people I didn’t even know. From the “Yaaaas!” I heard from the audience when they read my degree at commencement to the woman at the hotel who screamed, “You got a doctorate?! I know that’s right!” when I walked in wearing my graduation tam, the joy is tangible.

GRAMMY Award-winning music producer Donald Lawrence once said, “We become so that others can become.” While I’ve always believed that, sometimes we don’t fully realize the impact our lives have until we witness other people’s reactions to our journey. And I’m learning that it hits differently on every level.

I’ve spent 9.5 years in college, 1.5 years teaching at the university level, and countless hours serving universities through board service, speaking engagements, guest lectures, and consulting with executive leadership. This week, I felt the culmination of it all, and you know what? It felt good.

The truth behind the photos:

Now, you know I have to give you a little backstory behind every feel-good moment. The thing I’m most grateful for during this journey is that I managed to keep my health mostly intact.

During my second year, I was diagnosed with Graves’ disease after some lab work came back abnormal. It was fairly aggressive, so I started treatment right away and stayed consistent with my thyroid ultrasounds and routine bloodwork. Over the last year and a half, my thyroid has fluctuated between Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and Graves’ disease, which is medically unusual (they’re at opposite ends of the spectrum) and only reserved for special little snowflakes like me (note the sarcasm!).

While the symptoms can be intense, I found peace in knowing I had already done so much work to care for my health over the years. Doctors were always surprised at how I was still thriving in life, but they didn’t know that I knew the Healer *insert church rock* 😂.

I had become so in tune with my body that I could even recognize when things were shifting, and I added an amazing endocrinologist to my wellness team who answers every single question I have without hesitation. I’m feeling great, and I genuinely believe things will stabilize now that I no longer have the constant undertone of school lingering in the background.

The point of it all:

So what’s the lesson in all this? The point is that whether circumstances are good or bad, high or low, we don’t always get to choose them, and we aren’t absolved of our purpose because life gets hard.

Some of my highest highs also came with really private lows. I share some of them so you don’t become disillusioned into thinking I’m living a dream life without any problems. Additionally, I’ve worked with some of the most successful people throughout my career and, believe me, everyone has something they’re carrying.

During my final defense, the program’s executive director asked me what one thing I learned over the past three years. I reminded him that during my first semester, he challenged what he considered surface-level questioning. He told me to “dig deep.”

And that’s exactly what I did.

And that’s what I challenge you to do: DIG DEEP.

Don’t live a surface life. You’re worth so much more than that. This program reinforced that the questions we have about life are worth asking, the dreams we have are worth pursuing, and the causes we love are worth fighting for.

I’ll leave you with the last two stanzas of one of my favorite poems from childhood, “Do It Anyway” by Mother Teresa: