Editor’s note: Sherae Ann Honeycutt, press secretary and spokeswoman for the City of Kansas City, is earning a master’s in journalism this weekend. We asked her to write a letter to her former self.
Dear Me,
You don’t know it yet, but you’re going to surprise yourself. Not just once but again and again. One day, you’ll look back at everything you went through and realize you weren’t broken; you were just unfinished.
Right now, things feel hard in a way that doesn’t have words. You’re hurting. You’re angry. You feel alone, and worst of all, you believe the voice in your head that says you’re not smart. That you’ll never make it. But I promise you — none of that is true.
You’ll lose your way. You’ll fall through the cracks. At 14, you’ll enter foster care. At 16, you’ll run away. You won’t finish high school.
But that’s not the end of your story. It’s the beginning.
At 20, you’ll decide to try. You’ll earn your GED. You’ll learn to drive. You’ll go to community college. Slowly, painfully, bravely — you’ll begin to believe in yourself. At 30, you’ll graduate from San Francisco State University with a degree in Broadcast Electronic Communication Arts. You’ll walk across the stage, knowing how far you’ve come.
Then you’ll become a journalist. You’ll tell real stories about real people. You’ll work in newsrooms across the country, covering breaking news, standing in floods, asking hard questions. You’ll help children find families, hold people in power accountable, and give a voice to those who are too often ignored. You’ll win an Emmy Award. You’ll prove to yourself — and others — that your voice matters.
But even after all that, something will still call you back.
Mizzou was always part of your story — even before you knew it. Your father graduated from the University of Missouri’s School of Engineering in the 1970s. He earned his master’s degree from Stanford and was later inducted into Mizzou’s Civil Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni. It was on that campus where he met your mother, who worked as a librarian in the Engineering School. For your family, Mizzou was more than a school — it was a beginning.
But as you grew up, life at home became harder. Your mother’s struggle with severe mental illness cast a shadow over everything. You were angry, confused and convinced that your life would never amount to anything. You stopped trying. School felt pointless. Home felt heavy. And the more you hurt, the more you pushed your dad away. He didn’t always know how to help, but he never stopped trying.
When you were 14, he brought you to Mizzou. He showed you the campus where he studied. He walked you to the School of Journalism. He pointed at the arch and the stone lions and told you he believed you could be a journalist. You didn’t believe him. You told him you weren’t smart enough. He asked to take your picture in front of the lions. You didn’t want to, but you let him.
That photo sat in a drawer for over 20 years.
But not long after that trip, everything fell apart. That’s when you entered foster care — not because of abuse, but because things between you and your dad had reached a breaking point. You were angry, depressed, and convinced none of it mattered. He wanted you to try — to care, to succeed — but you couldn’t bring yourself to believe it was worth the effort. The arguments, the silence, the weight of everything unspoken made home feel like somewhere you couldn’t stay anymore.
And now?
You’ve come full circle.
You’re graduating from the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism with a master of arts in strategic communication. You’ve been inducted into Kappa Tau Alpha, the national journalism honor society for academic excellence. You’ve completed a capstone project that asks one simple but powerful question: What happens to a child’s digital footprint after an AMBER Alert ends? You interviewed experts in journalism, law and public safety. You helped start a conversation in journalism that didn’t exist until you asked the question.
You’ve turned your lived experience into advocacy. You’ve turned hardship into expertise. You’ve turned a moment in front of the stone lions into the life you never thought you could have.
And you won’t do it alone.
You’ll be guided by professors at Mizzou — Professor Jim Flink, Dr. Jeannette Porter, Dr. Beverly Horvit and Dr. Kellie Stanfield — who see the value in your work and the power in your voice. They’ll support you through one of the most meaningful projects of your life. With their help, you’ll finish not just a degree — but a mission.
So, to the 14-year-old girl standing in front of the stone lions, scared and sure she doesn’t belong — you do. You always did.
You just had to try.
With love and pride,
Sherae
Sherae earned her master's through Mizzou Online. Learn more.
