Goodwin quickly received a wave of support. Perhaps it was the underlying message that so many women, some with similar stories and some with young daughters of their own, felt connected to. 

“I feel this so strongly. I just turned 46, never married/no kids and often feel invisible in my own life. Congrats on your amazing achievement!!,” one person wrote.

“As a 40+ single never married woman, I’ve learned to flip the narrative about women like us. YOU are the apex of womanhood. Fully liberated w/choices and life that our female ancestors couldn’t even fathom. You represent the fullest potential of womankind. Congratulations!!” another person said. 

Goodwin said she didn’t expect her tweet to resonate with so many women, adding that the response was overwhelming.

“I didn’t expect that anyone outside of my family and friends would actually like it or tweet it,” she said. 

The trajectory of Goodwin’s path, however, looks more similar to other women her age, KTIC Radio reported. According to the local radio station, the U.S. Census Bureau found that nearly 16% of Americans reached their late 40’s without ever having been married.  

After nearly two decades since graduating college, Goodwin said she was initially rejected from several law schools. In the meantime, she earned her master’s degree and created the Community Justice Action Fund (CJAF), a program dedicated to preventing gun violence in communities of color.

After building a career at Capitol Hill, Goodwin decided it was the right time for her to chase her forever dream at age 38.

“My mentality was: I’m going to keep applying places and they have to tell me no,” Goodwin said in an interview on Good Morning America. “I’m not going to call the question on myself. If people tell me no, then that’s on them, and I’ll just keep trying.”

Now three years later, the Texas native is finally seeing the reality set in.  

“A lot of times people, especially women and Black women, are not celebrated while we’re doing things. We’re celebrated maybe when we’ve made it and are winning big cases as an attorney or doing other things like getting married or having kids,” she said.

“And a lot of times things like [graduating law school] aren’t just seen as a win for someone who is 41 years old,” Goodwin added. “This gave me a sense that people were standing right next to me as I was getting really great news and times when I was maybe not feeling as sure of myself.”