It's Friday night. You work a laborious job. You are working to go to school, to buy a house, and to have a family one day. You're tired. So tired that you can't believe it when you wake up to the sound of gunshots. You don't have time to process it, because 6 shots later, you're dead. 

On March 13, 2020, Breonna Taylor, a 26- year- old EMT and aspiring nurse, aspiring homeowner, and aspiring mother was shot 6 times after more than 8 shots were fired into her apartment by police officers carrying out a no-knock warrant on her home.  While unimportant in the cause of her death, police were searching for drugs and evidence due to her ex-boyfriend (who had prior offenses, was already apprehended in jail, and was a suspected drug dealer) using her home as a mailing address. 

Breonna shared her address with her "person," her little sister who was away on the night of her murder.  Breonna was sleeping with her new boyfriend whom she wanted to try to have a baby with soon. Ju' Niyah detailed all of this in a Washington Post article on August 8, 2020, adding reality and truth to a sensationalized story about a real person who wasn't much different from most of us. 

Breonna Taylor worked in healthcare, like many of us. She wanted to go to nursing school as we are doing. She thought about all the possibilities of her life and dared to dream about them, just like us. 

I'm tired. I had a nursing test last week and ever since I took my first nursing prereq, I've worked full-time. Breonna's story has deeply affected me. I cry real tears about it often because I imagine the state of mind she went into bed in and the state of mind she never got to wake up again in.  I will finish my nursing goals for her and although she will never get to help another patient with her own hands, maybe she can in an honorary sort of way? 

Please consider adding your name to this petition if, like me, you think Breonna Taylor deserves an honorary nursing degree when my cohort at City Colleges of Chicago Malcolm X graduates in May 2021.  Our school can do that as a gift to our class and Breonna more than deserves it.