Darriell Y. Archie Wants You to Know Your Current Season Is Not Your Entire Story

Faith has been part of Darriell Y. Archie’s life for as long as she can remember. Growing up Catholic in New Orleans, her family attended St. Raymond Catholic Church every Sunday, where the DuPont family had its own family pew for generations. As a child, she did not fully understand what that represented, but today she recognizes it as “a beautiful legacy of faith,” a place where generations of her family worshiped, prayed, celebrated, and grieved.

St. Raymond remained woven into her family story. Her younger sister attended school there from kindergarten through eighth grade, and Archie describes her as “one of the greatest gifts God has given me.” Although she is the older sister, she has experienced the support and strength her younger sister has provided in ways that have taught her that those things do not always come from the person we expect.

Archie’s Catholic education also became an important part of her life. She attended St. Mary’s Academy in New Orleans through her 11th grade year, although she graduated from another school. Her mother had graduated from St. Mary’s, giving the experience of attending the same private, all girls Catholic school special meaning. Weekly Mass and the influence of Sister Timothy remain part of the memories she carries from that time.

St. Mary’s helped establish much of the foundation Archie still carries today, including lessons in etiquette, poise, diction, discipline, respect, confidence, and dignity. Her classical ballet training reinforced those lessons through posture, discipline, grace, precision, and presence.

Being surrounded by faith, discipline, academic excellence, service, and young women learning to believe in their gifts also shaped Archie’s understanding of sisterhood. She is proud that St. Mary’s continues that tradition of excellence, including the students whose groundbreaking mathematical work gained international attention.

As she grew older, faith became more than something she inherited. It became personal through seasons of growth, disappointment, healing, motherhood, love, transition, and new beginnings. Archie learned that trusting God is not only for the seasons that make sense.

During one of the toughest seasons of her adult life, the founder of Find Your Resilience entered her path. They had both attended St. Mary’s Academy, although at different times. That connection reminded Archie of what she describes as a truth she carries with her: “God, You knew.” She believes God knew what she would need before she knew she needed it, and that “seasons change, but God’s faithfulness does not.”

Learning to Serve

Archie believes her calling to serve others began when she was very young, although she did not have the language to call it ministry. She remembers tutoring classmates who were struggling because she wanted them to understand, succeed, and recognize their potential.

She was also deeply influenced by her late cousin Stephanie, who helped at a women’s shelter, prepared care packages, and opened her home to people in need. Watching her taught Archie that service does not require a title, recognition, or platform. Sometimes, she learned, ministry is simply recognizing a need and responding with compassion. As Archie grew older, that desire to help others found expression through education, advocacy, leadership, mentoring, community engagement, and the legal profession.

She describes the ministry God has called her to as “service, encouragement, advocacy, empowerment, worship, and sisterhood.” At its heart is a desire to help people, especially women, recognize their value and understand that their present circumstances do not determine the ending of their story.

Her understanding of sisterhood was shaped by both St. Mary’s and her relationship with her younger sister. For Archie, true sisterhood means praying for one another, encouraging one another, opening doors, celebrating another woman without competition, and creating space for each other to become who God created them to be.

When a Gift Becomes Worship

Dance has also been an important part of Archie’s journey. Classically trained in ballet, she learned discipline, artistry, perseverance, poise, and the ability to communicate through movement. Ballet reinforced lessons she was learning elsewhere about preparation, presentation, grace, and carrying herself with confidence.

As her faith deepened, liturgical dance gave movement another spiritual meaning. What had been developed through classical training became another way she could worship and serve. Through liturgical dance, Archie learned that faith does not have to be expressed only through words. Movement, music, creativity, and the body itself can become instruments of worship. For her, liturgical dance is not simply performance. It can create space for reflection, healing, hope, and connection with God.

She sees this as another example of how God can take a gift developed in one season and reveal another purpose for it later. Ultimately, Archie wants God to use her voice, experiences, leadership, creativity, testimony, and gifts to help someone else keep going.

Leadership as Stewardship

Archie sees leadership through the lens of stewardship. “If God gives me a seat at a table, knowledge, influence, resources, or an opportunity to advocate for someone,” she explains, “I believe I have a responsibility to use it with integrity and purpose.”

The lessons she learned as a young woman, including poise, preparation, communication, respect, discipline, and knowing how to carry herself, continue to influence how she enters professional and leadership spaces. Those early lessons became practical tools throughout her career.

For Archie, however, presence is about more than appearance or polish. Faith reminds her that character must accompany presentation. How she treats people, how she uses her voice, and what she does with the opportunities entrusted to her matter more than a title.

Faith also reminds her to see the person behind the circumstance. Advocacy, she explains, is more than addressing a problem. It is recognizing someone’s dignity, standing beside them, speaking up when necessary, and helping open doors.

She strives to lead with compassion, excellence, integrity, humility, and service, recognizing that “Titles are temporary, but the impact we make through them can live much longer.”

Serving in Different Capacities

Professionally, Archie has spent nearly two decades serving through higher education and the legal field. Her service has also included advocacy, leadership, scholarships, mentoring, community engagement, and worship.

She currently serves as Parliamentarian for the Texas Association of Blacks in Higher Education and Chair of Scholarships for the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Dallas Metropolitan Chapter. Through these opportunities, she supports education, access, leadership, and advancement.

Writing has also become an extension of her service. “There is power in testimony,” Archie writes. “A woman can read about a season you survived and realize she can survive hers too.” That is part of what Seasons of Her represents to Archie. Ministry does not happen only inside a church. It can happen in “a boardroom, courtroom, classroom, scholarship, conversation, dance, community organization, or book.” The setting may change, but the assignment remains: use what God has placed in your hands to serve.

Take the Next Faithful Step

For women who feel called to serve but are still trying to understand where or how God wants to use them, Archie encourages them not to wait until the entire assignment makes sense before saying yes to God. “Purpose is often revealed through obedience.”

She encourages women to start with what is already in their hands. Who can they encourage? Who can they mentor? What have they survived that could become wisdom or hope for another woman?

Archie also encourages women not to overlook the gifts and lessons God has already developed in them. Her classical ballet training, education, and lessons in etiquette, communication, and poise may have seemed like separate pieces of her life, but she now sees how each helped prepare her for spaces she would enter later. Professional experience, creativity, voice, compassion, artistry, education, and personal stories can all be part of how God intends to use a woman.

She also encourages women to recognize the people God has placed beside them. Find women who will pray with you, encourage you, correct you in love, celebrate you, and remind you who you are during difficult seasons. Then become that kind of woman for someone else.

“Another woman’s success does not diminish yours,” Archie writes. “There is room for both of you to become who God created you to be.”

There is also no need to have someone else’s platform to fulfill your purpose. Archie’s encouragement is simple: “Take the next faithful step and trust God with the unfolding.”

God, You Knew…

Archie would remind every woman that her current season is not her entire story. When she looks back over her own life, she sees her family’s generational faith, St. Raymond, St. Mary’s, Sister Timothy, her younger sister, her late cousin Stephanie, her education, lessons in etiquette, poise, diction, and presentation, her classical ballet training, career, liturgical dance, leadership, difficult seasons, healing, and now Seasons of Her.

There are moments when she looks back and says, “God, You knew.”

He knew what she would need. He knew who would stand beside her. He knew the gifts He placed inside her, and He knew that some of the experiences she lived through would eventually become testimony and encouragement for another woman. That is part of the heart of Seasons of Her. “Sometimes we have to live long enough to look back and recognize the thread.”

Archie encourages women to give themselves permission to grow, heal, release, and walk into a new season. What God brought them through does not have to end with them. When women share their stories and extend a hand to another woman, their experiences can become more than memories. They can become ministry.

“Keep becoming. Keep trusting. Keep serving. And keep making room for another woman to rise alongside you.”

God is still writing your story.