It is not too late, you are not too far behind, and you can even come late to the decision to study economics and still thrive. The other thing that helped to drown out the negative voices was understanding historyour own and my own, Sadie T.M. Alexander's and Delta's. All of those individual paths and all the places that they intersect.
Knowing our history is powerful. Charlayne Hunter-Gault, the pioneering journalist-and, obviously, Delta-calls that history "our armor." She also says it is the wind at our backs. We have to claim that history; let it infuse us, guide us, and be our center.