Stirred by my grandparents' horrific accounts of "separate but equal" education in Jim Crow Georgia, I learned at a tender age the importance of an education. Because of this, as an undergrad at Cornell, I viewed college as a means of honoring my family legacy by receiving an education, of which my grandparents could have only dreamed. Four years later after securing an Ivy League degree, admission into Georgetown's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and a Fulbright Research Grant to Colombia, I realize that the accomplishments that I have achieved have not been attained by my merits and talents alone but by my sharecropping ancestors in the Jim Crow South who blazed the path centuries ago.
My grandmother, a demure but fervently Christian women, had a favorite saying, "If you've ever seen a turtle on a fence post, you'll know that it didn't get up there by itself." Those pearls of wisdom are deeply humbling and resonant within me as I look upon my past successes as a continuation of a work my predecessors started ages ago.
If this were up to me I would have thrown in the towel a while back, but every time I'm assailed by thoughts of defeat and discouragement, I'm reminded of how selfish it would be to simply stop here and go no further. Although I've tasted the sweet nectar of success, I've also had my share of setbacks and tribulations. Despite the strife and calamity I've had to traverse in this life, God has manifested Himself as faithful and a very present help in a time of trouble. I've learned that opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune or temporary defeat. Although the enemy has desired that I abort the seed of faith that God has deposited within me via discouragement and loss of heart, I'm fully persuaded that God will help me bring all my dreams and aspirations to term. God is able and willing to bring to pass every promise He's made.
As for me, I'm too blessed just waiting on the rest!!!
Are you going to be keeping up with your blog while you are abroad?
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