Mèlisande Short-Colomb's ancestors influenced her to go back to school in an extraordinary way though they are long since gone.

According to KWBU News, Short-Colomb is the descendant of slaves sold by Jesuits to fund Georgetown University, the educational institution in which the 63-year-old has decided to enroll.

Short-Colomb learned of these ancestral roots when a genealogist for the Georgetown Memory Project reached out to her. Almost immediately after, Short-Colomb submitted an application to the university and was admitted.

"The mountain doesn't come to you," she says. "You go to the mountain."

This fall semester, Short-Colomb will be reclaiming her history as a freshman of the university that her enslaved ancestors helped build.

In an interview with NPR's Morning Edition, Short-Colomb expressed her instant emotions upon discovering that her ancestors were enslaved by Georgetown.

"I was sad, I was hurt, I was angry. Which is something that I am all of the time, for all of my life, as a black American child born in 1954," she said. "What is happening here should not be a surprise. This isn't an 'aha' moment. This is history. And this is a part of our American story that we don't talk about. It's the difficult conversation we refuse to have."

Short-Colomb has decided to live on campus and will relocate from her home in Lousiana to Georgetown in Washington, D.C.

Photo: Marvin Joseph

"I am not the hovering, helicopter, have-a-grandchild-so-I-can-have-something-to-do-with-my-life mom," she said about how she shared the news of her moving with her children.

She also states that she is looking forward to living on campus and that it is helping to honor the legacy of her ancestors.

"I feel good about it. And I feel like we, who are descendants on campus now — there are three of us on campus — I feel like we are the dreams of our ancestors realized," said Short-Colomb.

"We are prayers that are answered. We are 180 years in the future, of people who were terrified. On some day in 1838, when their lives were dramatically changed. And it's taken that long for us to talk about it."

However, Short-Colomb says that her being there doesn't entirely change things.

She added, "I don't think my being there actually starts to set things right. That's really not what's happening here. And I don't think we should misunderstand that. I made an application and was accepted as a qualified individual to attend Georgetown University."

"I had to apply like everybody else. I have student loans. I have a scholarship. I have a Pell Grant. I have work study. I have all of those things that go into being a student, and being a somewhat disadvantaged student," she continued.

Short-Colomb will major in African American studies.

How befitting is that?

Short-Colomb's decision to enroll at Georgetown would not only make her ancestors proud but proves that it is never too late in life to embrace your heritage.

Watch Short-Colomb discuss her newly-discovered family history and journey as a freshman of Georgetown University per The Washington Post below.

Mèlisande Short-Colomb

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