True grit
“I am ready to fight for what I want, and you may see it as nagging but I see it as someone who cares about me and I can’t thank you enough.”-A.
I received the above sentence in an email this morning from of the exceptional students I coached yesterday in an all day boot-camp… and obviously, it really made my day. As an adult who hugely benefited, when I was in my teens and twenties, from all the generous adults who fought for me when I didn’t know any better, yes, it’s both my privilege and my responsibility to nag mentor the next generation. (Poor thing: she has no idea what she’s getting herself into. Forward to victory!)
Yesterday, I held a boot-camp, helping underprivileged CUNY students get the tools and ideas to commit to their own goals. I was ostensibly in charge but you know what happened: I left there realizing that I was the one blessed to be there, damn! And when I say “underprivileged,” yes, true, many of them came from very rough beginnings, but almost of all of them were valedictorians, with GPAs of 3.9 or (way, WAY) higher. Almost all of them had won countless scholarships and awards for their grades. Almost all of them were volunteers in their community. It was the kind of crowd wherein a 3.8GPA would have been considered “good effort.” Then, these kids would tell me their amazing stories, and I’d be thinking,”…wait, why again am I teaching this course? Shouldn’t they be in charge?” (Christ, I thought I was hot sh*t at Wellesley, graduating cum laude…these kids made me see that when I thought I was busting my a$$….um, maybe not so much.)
So many of these young people were undocumented, working 2 jobs, and still receiving solid As, even as they, on the side, wrote plays, and poems, worked to become doctors, or ambassadors, or actors AND volunteered. Yes, it was extremely inspiring for me to meet them. Yes, it made me hopeful to be alive. (Except when you realize that our “government” (or whatever the hell it is they do) keeps undocumented students from achieving their highest potential. So many morons in DC, playing games with people’s lives. Grrrr….! Have to wonder, if we label and diminish people as “undocumented” to ensure that low-performing Americans don’t feel even less inspired to switch up their game? I’m just suggesting that if we truly believed, as natural-born Americans, in our cultural, god-given superiority, wouldn’t we want to encourage all people to man-up and join the struggle? Oh, sorry, as I bring logic into this racism and stupidity. Silly me.)
For me personally, starting this business was part of my life-long determination to be a positive statistic, as in an educated, focused Latina woman, who achieves her goals. (Keep your stereotypes off my body.) It’s always been extremely important to me to never be a statistic…maybe that’s why those young people yesterday really blew me away. It would have been all too easy and understandable for them to give up…and instead, they never took the easy route, they did what true leaders do: they dug in deeper and committed. #wakeuphungry
