A Hurdle Jumped

Just yesterday I watched a preacher on tv say something to the effect of "anything worth having is worth working for." It caught my attention because, like many people my age, I find it hard to stay motivated and even harder to push myself. I sometimes like to picture myself years from now in a huge brownstone with a husband and kids that are off in other cities working their high profile jobs and raising my grandchildren. I sit comfortably in my brown leather chair drinking a glass of Sauvignon Blanc before deciding to take a stroll. And as I walk through my home and into my office I can look proudly onto my wall of accomplishments. I want degrees from outstanding schools, awards for creating necessary change, letters of appreciation and pictures of me with important people that have done even more than myself (To the left is the first in my collection).

Dreaming big is important, but over the last couple years of college I've realized that my dream lacks one aspect and that is the accomplishment itself. I have no idea how I will get the things that I want, but I know I want them. Creating change, being recognized and ect. come at a cost, a long life of hard work. I hope that when people speak about me they will be cognizant of my capacity to obtain professional standards. I say this because years ago this would not have been possible for a black woman. My two most obvious characteristics have historically and presently work against me.

I realize that the reason that I able to sit and dream of a life of luxury and accomplishment is because of those who came before me and protested, lost loved ones, were thrown in jail, and even died. While MLK Jr. Day is over, I feel it necessary to engage in a dedication to the people of my race. I am growing and my goals are changing and becoming more clear. I want nothing more than to use all of the resources made available to me by people like Ida B. Wells-Barnett, W.E.B DuBois, Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, Angela Davis (as seen in photo above) and so many others. Years ago my dreams of becoming a professional would have been forever locked in my mind with the certainty that they would never come to frutition. One day I hope to become a professional, in one thing or another, with the aptness to say that I jumped that hurdle.

I guess what I am trying to say is that just as my history has shown, hard work is worth every bit of the outcome. It is something that I've come to understand in my college career. And though I live in a time where young people like myself tend to be lazy, I have a reason (like everyone) to want to accomplish big things even though it means actually doing work.