When I
was a kid, I could never come to terms and figure out why the majority of my
family was always struggling and burdened by things that I was so unaware of at
the time. Every time we came together, there would always be at least one
person that was under the weather or in dyer need of support, financially and
emotionally. Whenever my elders would begin to talk about things that “weren’t
for kids ears,” they would always shoo the kids out of the room, all of them
except for me. They didn’t want us to see or hear their struggle. But me being
the youngest at the time, I was considered the special one or the “favorite.”
It was ok for me to be in the room because of course a little naïve kid like me
wouldn’t know how to piece together what they were saying or comprehend the
strong discouraging emotion that was reflecting on each and every one of their
faces. Little did they know, I was very observant and had what some would call
an overly active memory.
So as I grew older and began to notice more
and more, things started to become clear to me. In my school system, we were
introduced to the idea of college at a very early age. By the time second grade
rolled around, I was convinced that college “makes people happy” and “gives
people money” and “makes life easy” and will one day help me become the “doctor”
or “scientist” that every little kid wanted to be. And then it hit me… “Why
hadn’t the majority of my family gone to college? Why would they do such a
thing? Is this why they are always so unhappy? It has to be! They didn’t go to
college, so they didn’t have a good chance at becoming successful, so they
don’t have that much money so life is hard for them.” I noticed that with the
exception of my mom and one out of 10 of my aunts, no one in my family had
achieved any form of higher education outside of high school. It all started to
make sense to me. Watching some of my cousins being taken away from the family
because their parents couldn't provide a suitable living place for them because
of their lack of education and money, and also seeing some of the things my
family members were doing to try to survive quickly made me realize that I did
NOT want to follow in their footsteps and live my life like they were living
theirs. I had to find a way to become more than what I was surrounded by. So,
for me, college was my way out. I chose to go to college because I figured that
if I kept pushing myself, and kept striving to be better than my best, then I
would get to a point in life where I could live FREELY, without burden, and
could eventually help my family build themselves up. I’ve always strongly
believed that knowledge is power, and if I were to ever come to a point in life
where I lost all my possessions, I would still have my knowledge, and with it I
can create a better world for myself and even others at any time.
photo credit: Brett Jordan via photopin cc
photo credit: Krissy.Venosdale via photopin cc
photo credit: Brett Jordan via photopin cc
Good post. It's good you came to realize that you didn't want to follow your family members footsteps. Most people will just settle for a high school diploma, but you didn't you are applying yourself and looking for brighter future.
ReplyDeleteI got really happy reading your post. Everybody has something that motivates them to come to college and like you said, you chose it so you could break the cycle your family created! And I completely agree about the knowledge thing you said at the end. My dad would always say,"Get it here (points at head) 'cause once you get, they can't take it away from you."
ReplyDeleteI loved your post! The design itself is creative and funky! I agree that while in college you do get to enjoy lots of freedom. And not the kind of freedom expressed in songs like "I love college"
ReplyDelete