Golden Nuggets: I Should Be Dead Or In Jail
I was hanging out with some of my friends recently when it struck me like lightning. By all rights, as a Black Man in America, coming from where I come from, I should be dead or in jail. A sobering thought indeed! But why am I still here? Well, for a few reasons, but I must say that paramount among these is the fact that I have an education. An EXCELLENT education. And I must admit, it saved my life.
I’m from the SouthSide of Chicago. Born and raised. I grew up in the notorious Robert Taylor Homes. A housing project that stretched several miles through the heart of the city. At one point I believe it may have been the largest housing project in the country. Definitely one of the largest of Chicago’s Housing Authority. It’s been since razed to the ground. Like it never even existed. And indeed, many of my peers seem to have disappeared like they never existed. Vanished to an early grave, prison, or a life of poverty.
So what was the difference between them and me? An education. A TRUE education that provided me with focus, hope, and a way out of what surely would have been a fate similar to the ones so many of my peers have faced throughout the years.
I should have attended the local public school right downstairs from my project building, but my Dad had the foresight to enroll me in a Catholic school, Holy Angels, which was offering education to hundreds of other inner city school children for an unbelievably low price at the time. The state of parochial schools had changed drastically since those simple days due to the horrible sexual abuse claims which has been well documented, but back then, it was a markedly superior education than what was received by many of those same students in Chicago Public Schools for many reasons. Education was SERIOUS to them and the students and families that attended had to take it seriously too. Because of this I had a chance to focus on education, and that focus (I attended from child-care to eight grade!) would encourage my natural love to learn and an opportunity to focus, at least some part of the day, on learning and growing as opposed to the poverty, violence and drugs I would otherwise see in my neighborhood.
My education gave me hope that there was a way out, a possibility of a better life. A life away from gangs, poverty and violence. The school I went to took my class early on (5th grade!) to a trip to Washington, DC where we took a college tour to Howard University, a historical Black college. I had never seen anything like it before up close and in person. It blew my young mind! I saw and experienced so much during that short visit, but the thing that stuck with me the most was this concept called a scholarship. I learned that If you showed enough academic potential, schools would pay for you to go there! For a young boy from a poor family that didn’t have a lot of money, that was life changing news! From then on, I treated my studies even more seriously with the hope that maybe, just maybe, I could qualify for a scholarship and go to this great school…far away from the projects, the shootings, killings and gangs. And learn how to make money and lift me and my family out of our poverty. That hope was small back then, but so many days and nights, it was all I had to hold on to. It motivated me and gave me a vision that transcended the depression I would experience at times as I came of age. Hope that life was good and that the good life wasn’t just for other people, but was possible for me! Without that hope, I almost certainly would have started gangbanging, or started having children at a young age like so many of my peers did at that time. Possibly limiting, or cutting off any future opportunities I may have had.
Education provided a way out of the ghetto I grew up in. Chicago is one of the largest, greatest cities in the world. Tourists come from all over the world to visit the sites and enjoy the multiculturalism that belongs to this wonderful city. But, to be honest, I couldn’t say I had even been to many parts of the city that I called home and grew up in. So, what would have been my chances of escaping the poverty that I came from? Well, through education I had the opportunity to go to school in Washington, DC. I did attend the Mecca of Black education, Howard University, through a full scholarship as a National Achievement Scholars and from the Congressional Black Caucus. This scholarship not only paid for my education, but my school books and fees, housing and food, enabling me to concentrate on my studies in the school of Business. Imagine! I went from one world class multicultural city to another one…a few miles away from the White House! The lessons I learned and the people I met, from all over the world, changed my life and helped me grow from a young boy with all the potential in the world, to a young man who had grown and changed from the child that grew up in the slums in poverty and violence. All because I had received an education.
I just wanted to be accepted to college and go away to school: I wasn’t sure if I could hack it and actually graduate. But once I got my footing and became confident I could indeed graduate, the combination of those two changed my life forever. I believed (and still do, no more so than ever!) that you can achieve anything you put your mind to in this great country no matter where you come from or who you are! It impacted me so much that I started to transition my focus from business to education. You see, I wanted to give back to my community and help provide an education to those who, like myself, education was perhaps the only thing that stood between them and jail, poverty and eventually death!
And so I formed my own non profit organization (that business degree came in handy after all!) and I’ve dedicated my life ever since to helping my community (and communities like mine) overcome the poverty, poor health, failing schools and violence that unfortunately plague so many Chicago neighborhoods. And today, many years later, I’ve only become more convinced that education is not only a saving force, but the only way to make our country, and all its citizens, live up to the great ideals that America was founded on.
So, in conclusion, you who read this, if you are as passionate about education and its power as I am, I invite you to get in touch with me and share your journey with me! Poor? In jail? Dead?... Or educated, prosperous and free? … to me, it’s obvious and not a choice at all! And I remain forever grateful to all those individuals who helped me to have access to this knowledge and take it as my sacred duty to devote my life to doing the same for as many as I can!
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