Southern Fall/Winter 2022
A Publication for Alumni and Friends
A Publication for Alumni and Friends
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PUR<br />
“Maybe you didn’t choose to face whatever you’re facing,<br />
but you have a choice in how you’re going to deal with it.”<br />
Driven by deeply rooted purpose, both LaKisha Cargill ’00 and Carla Youngblood ’94 — Birmingham natives who have waged successful<br />
battles against breast cancer and have transcended life’s challenges with remarkable optimism and faith — personify the ginkgo’s ability to<br />
thrive.<br />
Today, they’re versatile entrepreneurs, successful authors, and survivors. As they inspire others, pursue personal and professional projects, and<br />
achieve big dreams, both are in irrepressible bloom.<br />
At Birmingham-<strong>Southern</strong>, Cargill was guided by the singular knowledge that she would become a writer. She’d been writing, speaking publicly,<br />
and performing monologues since childhood. Now, Cargill works as a claim team manager at State Farm and is an accomplished writer and awardwinning<br />
poet.<br />
“My purpose hasn’t shifted. I was always going to be a writer, no matter what job I landed in,” she says. “Nothing was going to change that.”<br />
Youngblood’s purpose has evolved into life as a CPA, comedienne, podcaster, and author. Through it all, she’s harnessed her talents for discussing<br />
taboo subjects – from money to serious illness – with honesty and humor.<br />
What nurtured them?<br />
“It really boils down to having that support system and being able to do the things you want to do that you feel<br />
will help you thrive. Birmingham-<strong>Southern</strong> gave me that opportunity to develop the creative spirit I wanted to<br />
have,” says Cargill.<br />
“You can do multiple things, but you have to focus on one core thing that’s going to fulfill you. If you can<br />
combine all of them together, that’s even better,” she adds. “It’s not just about making all the money in the<br />
world, it’s about finding fulfillment and joy.”<br />
Youngblood agrees.<br />
“Being at Birmingham-<strong>Southern</strong> gave me the freedom to totally be myself. The<br />
professors were so relatable,” she says. “They wanted to make sure that you<br />
understood what you were doing and what you really wanted to become.”<br />
Facing the unexpected didn’t alter their course.<br />
At 26, Cargill found a lump during a breast self-exam – and knew it was<br />
cancer before testing provided confirmation. She asked the doctor one<br />
question: “What are we going to do about it?”<br />
“That’s how I fought it,” she says. “I’m driven by the fact that at any<br />
moment any one of us may be snuffed out, for any reason.”<br />
Youngblood’s triple-negative breast cancer diagnosis seven years ago<br />
became an opportunity to change others’ outlook.<br />
She told jokes to lift the moods of fellow patients receiving treatment,<br />
eventually compiling them into “The Truth About Breast Cancer,” a<br />
one-woman show. Her first performance was for an audience of over 300<br />
people, nearly half of whom were breast cancer survivors.<br />
“I wanted to tell my story, to make it funny without being offensive,”<br />
Youngblood says. “Afterward, people said they wished they’d<br />
known my story while going through treatment, because<br />
they would have looked at their situations differently.”<br />
During that time, she also obtained a second college<br />
degree. Now, she is cancer-free and still in pursuit of<br />
her dreams.<br />
“Maybe you didn’t choose to face whatever<br />
you’re facing, but you have a choice in how<br />
you’re going to deal with it,” Youngblood says.<br />
“Everything starts in the mind. There is<br />
nothing I can’t do if I set my mind to it.<br />
Then it’s a matter of making it happen.”<br />
Carla Youngblood (left)<br />
and LaKisha Cargill