What do all these letters mean to you? Probably nothing. They mean more than just a huge amount a student loans I have racked up over the course of ten years, they mean sacrifice. Now you may be wondering what I mean by that, well here is my best explanation.
I am the descendent of slaves on my mother's side. If, I have all my number of "greats" correct, that would make my sisters and myself, the great, great, great granddaughters of a slave. That may shock some, based on my appearance, light skinned, straight nose, blue eyes and curly hair...yeah, it gets people all the time. I do however identify as a black woman of mixed heritage, multiracial if you like. (Please don't use the term mixed, I was not blended together like a bucket of paint at Lowes.)
When I state that these letters, that I could place behind my name mean sacrifice to me, I mean that in the true sense of the word. Webster's Dictionary defines sacrifice as: the act of giving up something that you want to keep especially in order to get or do something else or to help someone.
Now, how does this definition correlate to my degrees? Let's break it down; my great grandmother x3 was a slave, she did what she had to for survival. IF that meant having children without her consent because her master wanted to bed her, then so be it. I come from a long line of what many southerners would call "high yellow" woman. Meaning my great grandmother x 3 would have more than likely been a house slave. She would have been in direct contact with the plantation owners family. Which ultimately means, she was in direct contact with the master that could do anything he wanted to her and she had no say. She gave up, what today we would consider a basic human right of consent, to better the lives of her children.
My mother's side of the family, comes from strong women as you can tell from the narrative above. Fast forward to my great grandmother, Ms. Mamie Davis. She apparently is the woman that all our female descendants get their "I will eat you up and spit you out," mentality from. According to my mother, who happens to be named after her grandmother, Mamie Davis was not a woman you wanted to cross. This is no coincidence that all the women in our family, have a fiery part so deep in us, but if crossed, it will appear in a matter of seconds. We are all fierce at protecting those closest to us and refuse to let anyone walk over us. Just like the women before her she was not awarded the gift, the chance of a free, and most importantly equal education in this country. Mamie Davis could read and write, but the writing she was not that great at. My eldest aunt wrote for her most of the time. The pattern of how important an education was started early in this bloodline.
By the time my grandmother had children, she had instilled in them the importance of an education. She knew that it was their way to have a better life. She had only completed the 8th grade and taught my grandfather how to read and write. She was sending her children to segregated schools, even though by the time all my aunts and uncles were born, Brown v the Board of Education had already passed through the Supreme Court, essentially stating that the Plessy v Ferguson verdict of "separate but equal" did not apply to government/public entities. Even with this as a hurdle, my mother and her brothers and sisters were taught that education was important. My grandmother may have only had an 8th grade education, but she did not allow any of her children to stop their education. She would work as hard as she could, so that they did not have to quit school, to get a job.
My mother, entered the Air Force at age 18 and got her college education and Master's thanks to our military. She worked full time, took care of a family and still got her degrees. This and the stories above are the examples I and my sisters had when it came education and how to take care of yourself. We were told we can be anything we wanted to be with an education. We were not allowed to have jobs while in high school, learning was our job. We were students first and foremost. My sisters and I have all taken different paths when it comes to education. I am the one that just can't seem to get enough of it, I am and will always be the student in the family.
I worked three jobs, while taking roughly 18-20 hour course load in college during my undergrad. I worked full time and got my Master's Degree in Education. I worked full time and got my Certification to Teach with a Middle School Endorsement. I will be finished with my Specialist in Curriculum this December. I start my Doctorate in Education in January. I do not say this to boost my ego, or to brag. I say these things and am proud of my accomplishments, simply for the fact that the women I mentioned above sacrificed so much in order for me to have the opportunity to be able to get these degrees. In my first education class, we had to write a paper on who we were getting our degree for...I said "any and all degrees I get will be in honor of my great, great, great grandmother who was a slave and sacrificed so much for me to be here." I now must revise that statement and say any and all degrees I get will be in honor of ALL the women in my family.
Be Kind.
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