In 2006...

In 2006 I read a book that changed my life titled And Still We Rise written by Miles Corwin, a journalist for the LA Times. It was for my ninth grade English class and my teacher recommended it to me as part of a year-long project. The book follows the struggles of twelve gifted inner city students growing up in South Central LA and the countless structural obstacles that they had to overcome in order to simply pass an AP English exam as well as gain college acceptance. 

Little did I know as I ordered the title I had been recommended over Amazon that this book would in many ways change me. Granted, I was fourteen and I wouldn't say that it changed me as much as it molded my passions. To this book I can attribute several things: my passion for slam poetry, my passion and interest in hip-hop and lastly my passion and interest in education reform. As a suburbanite fourteen year old this book awakened something in me that I had never really known before, it stirred my deep desire for change and I felt as if my eyes had been pried open. I had grown up overseas and while I witnessed disparity in the countries I had lived, there was something about inequality in America that I didn't understand. 

To me inequality was the sight of street kids begging for money on the side of my school bus, a lady selling fruit snacks at the stop light, and seeing prostitutes on the side of the road on a very late night ride home when I was in fourth grade. This was inequality and where I had grown up it was evident, it was there. I didn't have to work hard to find it. But in this country it's different. Depending on who you are you can shut out the rest of the world and just know what you know and never leave. There was something about Miles Corwin's book that shattered this in me and actually caused me to be repulsed by the thought of staying in what had become my familiar and comfortable existence. I wanted to leave and see more, learn more, grow more, and be more than just stagnant. 

Fast forward to now:

A few days ago at lunch my kids were talking about their birthdays trying to figure out who was older. "I am older than everybody up in here!" one boldly proclaimed. "Nuh-uh, I flunked so I'm older,” another said. "When were you born?" a third student interjected. A fourth chimed in, "I was born in 2006!"

All of a sudden I felt old to think that I could vividly remember 2006 as if it was yesterday. I thought back to 2006: I was in high school, I played field hockey, I sang in my school choir, I listened to Yung Juc and I would come late to school some days so I would have to walk and climb the back fence long after they had locked it. 

And then I also remembered, in 2006 I read a book that made me want to be here in this cafeteria in the first place. I read a book that made me want to learn, grow and be challenged and more deeply know and understand others. In 2006 my dreams were born and now they are sitting right in front of me busily chowing away at their school cafeteria lunches and noisily chatting about who is older. Because of them I can say that I did leave and see more, learn more and am more than just stagnant. They are my greatest lessons and have opened my eyes to new joys and sorrows beyond what I ever imagined.