Education: A Personal Journey that is Still Difficult to Travel

From Ms. Smith’s education to mine the one thing that correlates more than anything else is the statement that “My education, whatever shape it took, would be a lifelong process and would become a tool with which I could do the necessary activist in my community.” (Smith, 183) To be black, female, literate, and from another country must have been a hard journey to travel for Ms. Smith. In the same fashion to have these same qualities and be from America is just as equally difficult. Yes, we as Black woman are given opportunities to further our education; we still have certain discriminations that we will face along this journey to find “the key that will open up the imaginary door to our success.”

One important thing to mention is that the journey to success is still a rigid one in our society today because we still have certain boundaries that surround to us to try to limit our success, certain stereotypes we have to contradict to show that we are different, as well as certain bars that are set too low that we must raise in order to qualify and compete for the success that we each one to achieve. Furthermore, as black women there even more labels placed upon us and certain factors in our life determine whether or not we will be able to break the mold. For many of us, especially young black mothers the road to success had been barricaded and we no longer feel that it is the right road to travel in order to reach our dreams because the responsibility of being a mom is such a heavy load in itself. For those young mothers, if they don’t get convinced that education is the right road even though to travel it now would be twice as difficult, this could mean low rate jobs and living from pay check to pay check to survive.

For others of us, young mothers included, who have chosen to attend college, we are now starting on this journey to success. Its difficulties vary, from feeling alienated, to putting yourself in debt to fund a college education; we have some burdens to deal with. On top of all those worries we must worry about keeping our grades at a competitive standard and developing the skills needed in order to be able to compete in the real world with other people from all other walks of life. And even as we achieve a bachelor’s degree, we must constantly further our education so that can continue to sustain our competitiveness and survive in the real world. To be frank the reason I quoted that first statement from Ms. Smith’s writing is because I feel that my education at Spelman College will help to start my life long process of education and will be the first tool that I can use to do the necessary activist work in my community. Also, I believe my education from Spelman College will prove itself to be a durable one, one that will me book smarts as well as life lessons that will be concrete foundation to build the rest of my literacy and education on. Though it wasn’t my first choice, God has placed me here for a reason and I am happy I came. I know that this road will still be a difficult one to tread upon but I feel that the end of it there will be a key waiting for me that will open multiple doors have success waiting behind them.