There are different ways to think, dream, and do.
In this project I studied my parents and important figures in American history. I analyzed how their pasts and mindsets contrasted and compared. Through this project I discovered things that will change the way I think about my history and American history forever.
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Imagine being able to put yourself in the shoes of someone you have never met. Even if it was only for a few sentences can you imagine how surreal that would be. I will always remember the quote from To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view […] until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." This quote will always be true. Though I will never be able to walk around in the shoes of Martin Luther King Jr. and Stokely Carmichael through this project I understand their actions a lot more than when I first began. This portion of my project has impacted my views of history in a way Ill never forget.
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I have always loved music. I believe it is an outlet for the soul. When doing the research for this project I began to develop very strong feelings and I thought what better way then to let them out through songwriting. For my art project I wrote a song from Martin Luther Kings point of view and I made sure the instrumentals matched the message of the song.
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Through this project I got to do something I was never very good at which is discovering my history. For my english portion I wrote an essay but no ordinary essay. This essay was about me and my family. Through this project I learned so many this about my self that I didn't know before. I got to interview and question my parents to find out about their past as well.
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History
For my history I really wanted to do something I wouldn't get to do in another class. An idea hit me. When I was younger in Social Studies class I would get so excited when it was journal entry day. My fourth grade teacher would have us read a story about a runaway slave or Thomas Jefferson. Then she would have us write in the point of a view of a person from the story. At a young age this gave me the opportunity to have a perception of someone else. It was an out of body experience. It gave me the chance to dream and learn at the same time. So for my history I did multiple journal entries from the point of view of Stokely Carmichael and Martin luther King Jr. at important event in their lives. With each Journal entry I noticed more and more how they contrasted.
Martin Luther King Jr.
May 18, 1941
It's all my fault. I should've listened why didn't I listen. I thought I could go to the parade and come back without anybody even knowing. I just wanted to see that parade. Now she's dead because of me. My grandma is dead because of me. She helped raise me and love me and care for me and this is what I do to repay her. If I was there watching she would still be alive right now. I don't deserve to live if she can't. There's only one thing left for me to do. I wonder if anybody will miss me when I'm gone. At night I can't sleep. I think of her as the tears roll down my cheeks I remember her love. Papa says she still lives, just up in the clouds. Heaven is the place someone like her belongs. Sometimes at night I go out and try to catch glimpse of heaven between each passing cloud. Even though I never see anything I know she still lives, she will always live. Papa used the word "immortal" I wonder if everybody is that way. I wonder if I'll be that way. I'll see you soon grandma. Real soon, I'll make sure of it.
In May of 1941 MLKs grandmother died while he was watching a parade his parents told him not to go to. He felt so guilty he jumped from a second story window attempting suicide.
December 2, 1955
There's a woman that goes by the name of Rosa Parks. Last night I attended a meeting led by E.D. Nixon, the head of the local NAACP. He spoke of a story that couldn't help but inspire me. This woman, Rosa, after a long day at work refused to give up her seat for a white man. She was arrested and jailed for "breaking Montgomery code". We have to fight this. We can't let it slip through our fingers like the Claudette Colvin case. She was good folk too. She just got caught up in the wrong situations is all. At last nights meeting we devised a plan to do a citywide bus boycott When they elected me to lead it I was of course elated, but very surprised. I'm new to the community I didn't think they would chose me to lead anything anytime soon. But I will answer to this calling no matter what. I truly do believe God has put me on this Earth so I can inspire and lead in times like these. We just have to stick together and never lose faith. This not just one boycott but a step towards a future that holds justice for all.
December 1st of 1955 Rosa Parks was arrested after refusing to give up her seat and MLK was chosen to lead the citywide bus boycott.
February 10, 1959
I have saw the light. The light of peace and unity in times of strife. I traveled all this way to Gandhi's birthplace to find answers. To find inspiration and love because it is becoming so rare. This trip has made me realize that the way to get to the goal in not by violence. Instead the way to equal rights is through nonviolence. If we fight this fight we will only be encouraging it to prolong. But that is not what we want. We want to live in peace and see one another as equals. In order to have peace we must be peaceful. The key has finally been revealed to open a lock that has been closed for over 100 years. Now that I know what I must do there is nothing that will stop me from promoting peace throughout the world. Gandhi has made the way all I have to do is follow it.
In 1959 MLK took a trip to Gandhi's birthplace which founded his nonviolent efforts.
August 28, 1963
They said the American Dream was not for people like us. I believe we are set out to make our own dreams. Today I will be bold enough to say out loud "I have a dream". I will speak of this dream to the congregations. A day will come where the color of our skin won't matter. I believe in America and the power we have to change it. We can't stop now we are so close to reaching what we came all this way for. All of that persecution and pain we endured will pay off. August is the month that farms collect their harvest. After months and months of tending the crops those farmers finally get to taste the sweetness of the food they have produced. Those crops rise from the dirt. We shall rise from the dirt as well and taste the sweetness. Let us harvest fruits of love, peace, and unity. Along the way we have lost many followers. Those who wanted a change at a faster pace than peace. Those whose anger over ruled their patience. But just as a preacher doesn't let empty pews change his sermon I will not let those who left change me. I will continue to dream this dream.
MLKs famous I have a dream speech on August 28th 1963.
April 2, 1968
The death threats have been piling up at my doorstep. But I will not be scared and I will not fear any man. To be afraid is not what God called me to do. I have no reason to be afraid because I have never been more sure that things are about to change. Life for every black man and white man will never be the same in America. I have seen it, God has revealed it to me. Things are going to change. It is so easy to get discouraged and to be convinced that things aren't ever going to get better. I'm not going to lie sometimes I lose hope when I see how slow everything is moving. But I refuse to give up and let this hatred win. This segregation and bitterness is against God's will and his plan. My own kind thinks I am ignorant and naive with this belief of peace. But my father always told me not to fight fire with fire. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. And all may not believe but I believe in a God that speaks of love, hope, and peace and that is the land I want to live in. All these death threats and criticism mean nothing to me. I am simply answering God's call for me in this life and when I'm done, I'm done.
MLKs "I have been to the mountain top and I have seen the promise land speech." When researching I found at this time he was starting to lose hope in the nonviolence and was growing tired of all the death threats. Two days later he was assasinated.
Stokely Carmichael
February 27, 1952
Finally I am going to join my father and my mother in America. I hear it is is the land of opportunities. Though I am only 11 I plan to take advantage of every opportunity I come across. I am going to miss my grandmother though. I wish I didn't have to leave Trinidad. But my father says we must work hard and believe in God to overcome adversity. I wonder who I will become when I'm here. Will I be led to work as hard as my father does or will I be able to fight for something more? I've noticed the people here take the color of skin very seriously. I find it odd. Are we not all just people when we look deeper? Mama says to keep quiet and to keep my nose in books and one day I'll end up somewhere nice despite the color of my skin. I hope she's right. I want leaving my home to be worth it.
Stokely Carmichael joined his mother and father in America at the age of 11 in 1952.
May 20, 1960
A couple weeks ago I saw one of those "sit ins" on television. It was a bunch of young black boys about my age. They were being pelted and beaten. They had sugar in their eyes and ketchup in their hair, yet they always got back up and sat at the "whites only" counter. They never retaliated or responded to the hateful things being done to them, they just got back up. I can't really describe the feeling I had after seeing this. It was as though a fire had been made in my stomach. I needed to be there with them fighting for equality. It just didn't feel right me sitting here comfortably while other people are out there, enduring so much pain to get me my rights. That exact thought is what compelled me to join CORE(Congress of Racial Equality). Recently I have also traveled to a "sit in" in South Carolina. I will join this fight against injustice. I just graduated high school. In the mail there are many letters and scholarships from prestigious white colleges. But I will not accept any of them not after I saw all the work that is yet to be done on my television screen. I will be attending the historically black Howard University. It just feels right.
In 1960 Stokely became active in civil rights movements and graduated high school. Though he got many scholarships from white prestigious colleges he chose the historically black Howard University.
May 10, 1966
I have just been elected the national chairman of the SNCC(Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). I should be happy, but I am too tired to be happy. I am tired because I have been running from the white man recently. I've been enduring the white man's beatings without a sound. Nonviolence is just not working. We should've gotten somewhere by now! In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. We are fighting enemy that ain't got nothing but hate. As chairman I say away with the whites. Get them out of our assemblies and marches. They can't relate to us they can't fight for us I don't know why we pretend they can. They don't even know what we are talking about when we say justice. But I guess neither does Martin. This nonviolence is so slow. It's not working for a reason. Nonviolence is moving us in the wrong direction, towards the wrong goal. I'm starting to think justice isn't freedom or integration. It's something else entirely, black separatism.
In 1966 he was elected chairman of the SNCC around the exact time he began to lose hope in nonviolence. He grew irritated with its slow pace.
June 16, 1966
I'm fed up I'm with this I'm not taking it anymore. I thought this was for me I was wrong I was dead wrong. I am not the type of man to sit and let someone disrespect me and never defend myself. I have grown up now and it is no longer something I will take lightly. For 6 years, for 6 years we having been crying for freedom and peace. No more. Now we are going to say black power. We are always going to be intimidated by the white man. They only way to have freedom is to separate from them completely. Malcolm X has got it right and it's about time that everyone realizes it. We are wasting our time trying to be their friend. It's about time that we start defending ourselves and let them know we aren't going to sit here and take this. I think the most blood chilling part of it all is that it isn't even the everyday white man that are the worst, it's their policemen. The people who were hired to protect human beings beating one down like a rabid pack animal just because of a darker melanin. And we are just expected to stand down and take it? No, no I don't think so. Black panthers here I come.
In June of 1966 when James Meredith was taking his "Walk against fear" he was shot 20 miles into Mississippi. Carmichael asked the SNCC volunteers to continue the march in his place. This march is when Stokely said "We have been saying freedom for six years, what we are going to start saying now is 'Black Power'."
January 17, 1969
I think I'm done with this "civil rights" stuff. I don't know whether what we need is equality, integration, or black separatism. I'm done trying to figure it out. I had a realization the other day. The reason all of this is so hopeless is because America does not belong to the blacks. How can we take something back that isn't and never was ours? No answer because it's impossible. I now reside in Guinea. Now pan-African unity is a possibility. That's what we need. We will one day share the same destiny. We would have never beaten the white man because we were playing his game. I am changing my name to Kwame Ture to honor African leaders in today's day and age. I wish I would have known how stupid we were being so I wouldn't have wasted my time trying to fight it.
In 1969 Stokely quit the Black Panthers he moved to Guinea. He also changed his name to Kwame Ture. He was quoted saying "America does not belong to the blacks." I interpreted this as a sign of defeat and surrender from Stokely.
Martin Luther King Jr.
May 18, 1941
It's all my fault. I should've listened why didn't I listen. I thought I could go to the parade and come back without anybody even knowing. I just wanted to see that parade. Now she's dead because of me. My grandma is dead because of me. She helped raise me and love me and care for me and this is what I do to repay her. If I was there watching she would still be alive right now. I don't deserve to live if she can't. There's only one thing left for me to do. I wonder if anybody will miss me when I'm gone. At night I can't sleep. I think of her as the tears roll down my cheeks I remember her love. Papa says she still lives, just up in the clouds. Heaven is the place someone like her belongs. Sometimes at night I go out and try to catch glimpse of heaven between each passing cloud. Even though I never see anything I know she still lives, she will always live. Papa used the word "immortal" I wonder if everybody is that way. I wonder if I'll be that way. I'll see you soon grandma. Real soon, I'll make sure of it.
In May of 1941 MLKs grandmother died while he was watching a parade his parents told him not to go to. He felt so guilty he jumped from a second story window attempting suicide.
December 2, 1955
There's a woman that goes by the name of Rosa Parks. Last night I attended a meeting led by E.D. Nixon, the head of the local NAACP. He spoke of a story that couldn't help but inspire me. This woman, Rosa, after a long day at work refused to give up her seat for a white man. She was arrested and jailed for "breaking Montgomery code". We have to fight this. We can't let it slip through our fingers like the Claudette Colvin case. She was good folk too. She just got caught up in the wrong situations is all. At last nights meeting we devised a plan to do a citywide bus boycott When they elected me to lead it I was of course elated, but very surprised. I'm new to the community I didn't think they would chose me to lead anything anytime soon. But I will answer to this calling no matter what. I truly do believe God has put me on this Earth so I can inspire and lead in times like these. We just have to stick together and never lose faith. This not just one boycott but a step towards a future that holds justice for all.
December 1st of 1955 Rosa Parks was arrested after refusing to give up her seat and MLK was chosen to lead the citywide bus boycott.
February 10, 1959
I have saw the light. The light of peace and unity in times of strife. I traveled all this way to Gandhi's birthplace to find answers. To find inspiration and love because it is becoming so rare. This trip has made me realize that the way to get to the goal in not by violence. Instead the way to equal rights is through nonviolence. If we fight this fight we will only be encouraging it to prolong. But that is not what we want. We want to live in peace and see one another as equals. In order to have peace we must be peaceful. The key has finally been revealed to open a lock that has been closed for over 100 years. Now that I know what I must do there is nothing that will stop me from promoting peace throughout the world. Gandhi has made the way all I have to do is follow it.
In 1959 MLK took a trip to Gandhi's birthplace which founded his nonviolent efforts.
August 28, 1963
They said the American Dream was not for people like us. I believe we are set out to make our own dreams. Today I will be bold enough to say out loud "I have a dream". I will speak of this dream to the congregations. A day will come where the color of our skin won't matter. I believe in America and the power we have to change it. We can't stop now we are so close to reaching what we came all this way for. All of that persecution and pain we endured will pay off. August is the month that farms collect their harvest. After months and months of tending the crops those farmers finally get to taste the sweetness of the food they have produced. Those crops rise from the dirt. We shall rise from the dirt as well and taste the sweetness. Let us harvest fruits of love, peace, and unity. Along the way we have lost many followers. Those who wanted a change at a faster pace than peace. Those whose anger over ruled their patience. But just as a preacher doesn't let empty pews change his sermon I will not let those who left change me. I will continue to dream this dream.
MLKs famous I have a dream speech on August 28th 1963.
April 2, 1968
The death threats have been piling up at my doorstep. But I will not be scared and I will not fear any man. To be afraid is not what God called me to do. I have no reason to be afraid because I have never been more sure that things are about to change. Life for every black man and white man will never be the same in America. I have seen it, God has revealed it to me. Things are going to change. It is so easy to get discouraged and to be convinced that things aren't ever going to get better. I'm not going to lie sometimes I lose hope when I see how slow everything is moving. But I refuse to give up and let this hatred win. This segregation and bitterness is against God's will and his plan. My own kind thinks I am ignorant and naive with this belief of peace. But my father always told me not to fight fire with fire. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. And all may not believe but I believe in a God that speaks of love, hope, and peace and that is the land I want to live in. All these death threats and criticism mean nothing to me. I am simply answering God's call for me in this life and when I'm done, I'm done.
MLKs "I have been to the mountain top and I have seen the promise land speech." When researching I found at this time he was starting to lose hope in the nonviolence and was growing tired of all the death threats. Two days later he was assasinated.
Stokely Carmichael
February 27, 1952
Finally I am going to join my father and my mother in America. I hear it is is the land of opportunities. Though I am only 11 I plan to take advantage of every opportunity I come across. I am going to miss my grandmother though. I wish I didn't have to leave Trinidad. But my father says we must work hard and believe in God to overcome adversity. I wonder who I will become when I'm here. Will I be led to work as hard as my father does or will I be able to fight for something more? I've noticed the people here take the color of skin very seriously. I find it odd. Are we not all just people when we look deeper? Mama says to keep quiet and to keep my nose in books and one day I'll end up somewhere nice despite the color of my skin. I hope she's right. I want leaving my home to be worth it.
Stokely Carmichael joined his mother and father in America at the age of 11 in 1952.
May 20, 1960
A couple weeks ago I saw one of those "sit ins" on television. It was a bunch of young black boys about my age. They were being pelted and beaten. They had sugar in their eyes and ketchup in their hair, yet they always got back up and sat at the "whites only" counter. They never retaliated or responded to the hateful things being done to them, they just got back up. I can't really describe the feeling I had after seeing this. It was as though a fire had been made in my stomach. I needed to be there with them fighting for equality. It just didn't feel right me sitting here comfortably while other people are out there, enduring so much pain to get me my rights. That exact thought is what compelled me to join CORE(Congress of Racial Equality). Recently I have also traveled to a "sit in" in South Carolina. I will join this fight against injustice. I just graduated high school. In the mail there are many letters and scholarships from prestigious white colleges. But I will not accept any of them not after I saw all the work that is yet to be done on my television screen. I will be attending the historically black Howard University. It just feels right.
In 1960 Stokely became active in civil rights movements and graduated high school. Though he got many scholarships from white prestigious colleges he chose the historically black Howard University.
May 10, 1966
I have just been elected the national chairman of the SNCC(Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). I should be happy, but I am too tired to be happy. I am tired because I have been running from the white man recently. I've been enduring the white man's beatings without a sound. Nonviolence is just not working. We should've gotten somewhere by now! In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. We are fighting enemy that ain't got nothing but hate. As chairman I say away with the whites. Get them out of our assemblies and marches. They can't relate to us they can't fight for us I don't know why we pretend they can. They don't even know what we are talking about when we say justice. But I guess neither does Martin. This nonviolence is so slow. It's not working for a reason. Nonviolence is moving us in the wrong direction, towards the wrong goal. I'm starting to think justice isn't freedom or integration. It's something else entirely, black separatism.
In 1966 he was elected chairman of the SNCC around the exact time he began to lose hope in nonviolence. He grew irritated with its slow pace.
June 16, 1966
I'm fed up I'm with this I'm not taking it anymore. I thought this was for me I was wrong I was dead wrong. I am not the type of man to sit and let someone disrespect me and never defend myself. I have grown up now and it is no longer something I will take lightly. For 6 years, for 6 years we having been crying for freedom and peace. No more. Now we are going to say black power. We are always going to be intimidated by the white man. They only way to have freedom is to separate from them completely. Malcolm X has got it right and it's about time that everyone realizes it. We are wasting our time trying to be their friend. It's about time that we start defending ourselves and let them know we aren't going to sit here and take this. I think the most blood chilling part of it all is that it isn't even the everyday white man that are the worst, it's their policemen. The people who were hired to protect human beings beating one down like a rabid pack animal just because of a darker melanin. And we are just expected to stand down and take it? No, no I don't think so. Black panthers here I come.
In June of 1966 when James Meredith was taking his "Walk against fear" he was shot 20 miles into Mississippi. Carmichael asked the SNCC volunteers to continue the march in his place. This march is when Stokely said "We have been saying freedom for six years, what we are going to start saying now is 'Black Power'."
January 17, 1969
I think I'm done with this "civil rights" stuff. I don't know whether what we need is equality, integration, or black separatism. I'm done trying to figure it out. I had a realization the other day. The reason all of this is so hopeless is because America does not belong to the blacks. How can we take something back that isn't and never was ours? No answer because it's impossible. I now reside in Guinea. Now pan-African unity is a possibility. That's what we need. We will one day share the same destiny. We would have never beaten the white man because we were playing his game. I am changing my name to Kwame Ture to honor African leaders in today's day and age. I wish I would have known how stupid we were being so I wouldn't have wasted my time trying to fight it.
In 1969 Stokely quit the Black Panthers he moved to Guinea. He also changed his name to Kwame Ture. He was quoted saying "America does not belong to the blacks." I interpreted this as a sign of defeat and surrender from Stokely.
Art
Guitar Intro: C G Em D
C
Standing in Lincoln's Shadow
G
We are not blinded by the white
Em
We remember the light of hope
D
And all the flames we didn't ignite
G
100 years has passed by
D Em
On an island, set free, but no one's teaching us how to swim
C
This is not what we should be living in
Em
Rise oh you dark nights
C
And fight with your hands tied
G
Be one with those who strike
D
Be love in times of cries
C
Do you see the promise land
G
We can't get there on our own
Em
We must walk hand in hand
D
With those who see past our melanin
C
Dreams like this are for the brave
G
Only few will be safe
Em
I don't blame you if you don't say
Em
If you don't say it with me
G
I have a dream
Em
That no one can contain
C
I have a dream
G
That injustice will be safe
Em
Rise oh you dark nights
C
And fight with your hands tied
G
Be one with those who strike
D
Be love in times of cries
Em
Don't stop until the badges aren't burning
C
Don't turn back, jails are still housing
Em
I can see the fear in your eyes
C
But the freedom still cries
Em
Rise oh you grey nights
C
And fight with your minds wide
G
Be one with those alive
D
Be love in times of strife
Em
Free at last, free at last we will be
C
Let freedom ring freedom ring throughout eternity
G
Let them see our prosperity
D
This song was written in the point of view of Martin Luther King. I chose acoustic and a soft sound because I wanted it to be peaceful and passionate just like he was. My inspiration was some of the songs they would sing as they marched like "we shall overcome" I added the humming at the end because a lot of times the people marching would do that. Also I got the inspiration for a peaceful strumming pattern from "Never Think by Robert Pattinson".
C
Standing in Lincoln's Shadow
G
We are not blinded by the white
Em
We remember the light of hope
D
And all the flames we didn't ignite
G
100 years has passed by
D Em
On an island, set free, but no one's teaching us how to swim
C
This is not what we should be living in
Em
Rise oh you dark nights
C
And fight with your hands tied
G
Be one with those who strike
D
Be love in times of cries
C
Do you see the promise land
G
We can't get there on our own
Em
We must walk hand in hand
D
With those who see past our melanin
C
Dreams like this are for the brave
G
Only few will be safe
Em
I don't blame you if you don't say
Em
If you don't say it with me
G
I have a dream
Em
That no one can contain
C
I have a dream
G
That injustice will be safe
Em
Rise oh you dark nights
C
And fight with your hands tied
G
Be one with those who strike
D
Be love in times of cries
Em
Don't stop until the badges aren't burning
C
Don't turn back, jails are still housing
Em
I can see the fear in your eyes
C
But the freedom still cries
Em
Rise oh you grey nights
C
And fight with your minds wide
G
Be one with those alive
D
Be love in times of strife
Em
Free at last, free at last we will be
C
Let freedom ring freedom ring throughout eternity
G
Let them see our prosperity
D
This song was written in the point of view of Martin Luther King. I chose acoustic and a soft sound because I wanted it to be peaceful and passionate just like he was. My inspiration was some of the songs they would sing as they marched like "we shall overcome" I added the humming at the end because a lot of times the people marching would do that. Also I got the inspiration for a peaceful strumming pattern from "Never Think by Robert Pattinson".
English
“Think of three things, whence you came, where you are going, and to whom you must account.”
My Founding Father and Mother
I am not just a teenage girl. I am not just a student. I am not just an American. I am Ghanaian.
In 1999, at just 3 months old, I flew across the Atlantic Ocean leaving Ghana's golden shores behind me. Eyelids drooping, I began to fall asleep in my father's warm arms. My father has always been the type of man that won't let himself confuse fate with coincidence. He believes everything happens for a reason, and that only a force bigger than us knows what that reason is. He had won the "green card lottery" that year. This gave him and his whole family free green cards and visas to America. He held so many hopes for the future: who his children would become, who I would become. And he always reminds me of the roots I have beyond the American borders. On that plane ride 16 years ago, the warmth of my father's arms encouraged me to dream, to dream in the same moments he flew towards his.
My father was born a farmer. Tamatoku, the village in which he grew up, had never ending fields of flourishing crops of sugarcanes, corn,and cassava. Though the crops were sweet, life left somewhat of a sour taste in his mouth. The village had a population of 50,000 and was characterized by poverty. There were days where food was scarce or not attainable at all. Growing up he had seen the sorrow that life can bring. As a child he ran away for three days. No one noticed his absence. Being invisible in a poverty stricken village pushed him to dream bigger. He began to envision a life in a land with opportunities that grew like crops he harvested.
The fields of Tamatoku are not the only place my roots lie. My mother smiles from ear to ear when remembering Agbozume. Agbozume was a village of simpler living. Everything was so natural and authentic. It was place of comfort and community. My mother was well known; her father was a soldier. Soldiers are loved and cherished in Agbozume. Being the daughter of one guaranteed food on her plate and clothes on her back. There were late nights where she and her friends would wander around town. During these late nights there was no fear because everyone knew everyone. There was a sense of family that no one questioned. This comfort made my mother content, satisfied with her life before ever boarding that plane.
One thing they had in common which lead my mother and father together to create such a balance was their their love of God--their love for that force bigger than us. Neither of my parents really experienced what the other had because both of them had grown up in two completely different worlds in the same country. But they found themselves united under the same God. And just a few years later, they found themselves sitting on a plane headed to a land named for its zealous opportunities: America.
I have my father's dreams and my mother's heart. I have his ambitious sights but her reserved content. And because of both of them,I have the trust and the love of a community. I am aware that in a nearby neighborhood there is poverty and invisibility. I dream of white houses and capitol hills that will unify human beings with different backgrounds such as my mother and father on a global scale. But my heart lies in my community and I see the work that is yet to be done on a local scale. I want to be in a position where I can help so many lives that I forget the trivial details of my own. When the time comes for me to venture on, I will avoid the mistake of confusing fate with coincidence. I will go wherever that force bigger than us leads me.
My Founding Father and Mother
I am not just a teenage girl. I am not just a student. I am not just an American. I am Ghanaian.
In 1999, at just 3 months old, I flew across the Atlantic Ocean leaving Ghana's golden shores behind me. Eyelids drooping, I began to fall asleep in my father's warm arms. My father has always been the type of man that won't let himself confuse fate with coincidence. He believes everything happens for a reason, and that only a force bigger than us knows what that reason is. He had won the "green card lottery" that year. This gave him and his whole family free green cards and visas to America. He held so many hopes for the future: who his children would become, who I would become. And he always reminds me of the roots I have beyond the American borders. On that plane ride 16 years ago, the warmth of my father's arms encouraged me to dream, to dream in the same moments he flew towards his.
My father was born a farmer. Tamatoku, the village in which he grew up, had never ending fields of flourishing crops of sugarcanes, corn,and cassava. Though the crops were sweet, life left somewhat of a sour taste in his mouth. The village had a population of 50,000 and was characterized by poverty. There were days where food was scarce or not attainable at all. Growing up he had seen the sorrow that life can bring. As a child he ran away for three days. No one noticed his absence. Being invisible in a poverty stricken village pushed him to dream bigger. He began to envision a life in a land with opportunities that grew like crops he harvested.
The fields of Tamatoku are not the only place my roots lie. My mother smiles from ear to ear when remembering Agbozume. Agbozume was a village of simpler living. Everything was so natural and authentic. It was place of comfort and community. My mother was well known; her father was a soldier. Soldiers are loved and cherished in Agbozume. Being the daughter of one guaranteed food on her plate and clothes on her back. There were late nights where she and her friends would wander around town. During these late nights there was no fear because everyone knew everyone. There was a sense of family that no one questioned. This comfort made my mother content, satisfied with her life before ever boarding that plane.
One thing they had in common which lead my mother and father together to create such a balance was their their love of God--their love for that force bigger than us. Neither of my parents really experienced what the other had because both of them had grown up in two completely different worlds in the same country. But they found themselves united under the same God. And just a few years later, they found themselves sitting on a plane headed to a land named for its zealous opportunities: America.
I have my father's dreams and my mother's heart. I have his ambitious sights but her reserved content. And because of both of them,I have the trust and the love of a community. I am aware that in a nearby neighborhood there is poverty and invisibility. I dream of white houses and capitol hills that will unify human beings with different backgrounds such as my mother and father on a global scale. But my heart lies in my community and I see the work that is yet to be done on a local scale. I want to be in a position where I can help so many lives that I forget the trivial details of my own. When the time comes for me to venture on, I will avoid the mistake of confusing fate with coincidence. I will go wherever that force bigger than us leads me.
