Week 8

Jacqueline Novogratz mentioned that the problem and question that I also had noticed was how poverty is defined. I can speak from personal experience, my mother did not finish her college degree due to health issues. Her mother and father both worked but they couldn’t afford health insurance, like anesthesia to numb the pain while the doctor burned the tumor off the skin of her back. Growing up on the east side of I35 and witnessing domestic violence at home sure made a difference. Although we had a place to live, food, water, and clothes, the limited choices and lack of freedom took charge of our lives.

My mother always said to be thankful that we live in America and not in another country sleeping on the dirt with no food and water or the opportunity to go to school/work. But now I am realizing how wrong "America" has been and I don't know how to look at it anymore. I have lived in a low-income household for 27 years which can be depressing, depending on the way I look at it. The future looks brighter with plans to ensure I build the foundation for my children that they need to have prepared for them. I struggle but my life is nothing compared to what I know many others endure. My mother never gave up on me, taught me the importance of getting a college education, so that I would not struggle with my children as she did with my sister and I. Being where I am now makes me not give up, I want to serve others in some way, somehow.

I am most passionate about the horrors and tragedies that have been committed against Native Americans and African Americans. Aaron Huey’s discussion about greediness of white people have once again proved to me I am not imagining things. Tan Le’s immigration story is another one that truly touches the heart. I still find it shocking that this is the world that we live in, how millions of people are still fleeing a place that is supposed to be a home, to find another home, to be only lacking what people deserve; justice, complete equitable harmony, opportunity, and peace.

When Jimmy Carter mentioned the religious misinterpretation of holy books that belittle women to be secondary compared to men in the eyes of God is another reason why I think there is something wrong with religion. When we moved from the place where we lived for 18 years, we found a church next to the new home. Wanting to find somewhere to raise my kids in church thinking that it is a good environment, I looked it up on the website and it had mentioned how women were below men and that it would stay like that. Once again, absurdness draws the line around life and I try to make sense of it. I feel like Love is the right religion, if anything.

It was encouraging to hear, “Then I realized, the first step to solving any problem is to not hide from it, and the first step to any form of action is awareness.” I am becoming more aware everyday although I find it difficult to talk about it, in the best way that I feel like I should know how. I guess it takes practice, and finding that spark that lights me on fire. I am still shy, afraid, and nervous to speak out. But I plan to take action to advocate as much as I learn how to do so.

Tears came to my eyes when Mellody said that her mother told her, “Mellody, you can be anything." And because of those words, I would wake up at the crack of dawn, and because of those words, I would love school more than anything, and because of those words, when I was on a bus going to school, I dreamed the biggest dreams. And it's because of those words that I stand here right now full of passion, asking you to be brave for the kids who are dreaming those dreams today.” This made me think of my kids. Sometimes I feel like I am not doing enough for them or for me. I am so caught up in classes and trying to get through what I need to do, it feels like I have no time for them, and they live in their own little world, without the attention that I feel like I am not giving them. I want them to know that they can be anything too. I want them to love school, but I want them to be taught the truth. I want them to be successful. When I find myself stressing about these things, I think of others, ALL THE TIME. Am I being selfish and greedy thinking about how hard my life is, what I want and need? What else can I do right now to help others? Knowing about the wrong doings in the world just kills me. But that is why I majored in social work, because that is where my heart is, besides my kids and creating a better life for us, I wish to help others have a better life too. Although we might all be on our own path, we all walk and cross paths together, which means that I can’t just look the other way regarding injustice.