“Angelou refused to be denied. I WOULD HAVE THE JOB. I would be a conductorette and sling a full money changer from my belt, I would.” (Takaki 1993)
To me this quote is very relatable and a great example of human determination. Angelou would not let barriers or obstacles get in the way of her success. When you put your mind to something, the sky is the limit. I think that everyone has experienced situations in their life where they were told they could not do something. In these circumstances, I feel people discover their true colors. In my life, I have had a number of situations in which I was told I could not do something, or felt as if I was not being given a fair shot. This quote brings me back to the summer of going into my senior year of football. It was two days before double session practices, and I was in the weight room. My defensive line coach approached me and started to talk to me about my position. I remember being shocked at how blunt he was in our conversation. He said that he knew I was already going to start at the offensive guard position. He then proceeded to say “unless you are some Javon Kearse, you will probably just play offense this season.” Quite frankly I was pretty upset that he already set his mind on starting another kid before we even started practicing. This lit a fire in me and made me even more determined to win the spot at defensive end. I worked hard and went in with the mind set that failure was not an option. I ended up starting at defensive end and had a great year. There is no better feeling in the world than achieving your goal in the face of adversity. Although football is just a game, this is one situation that taught me a valuable life lesson. When you really set your mind to something, you can do anything, not just in the game of football, but in life.
“We got scared. We went to an American building where a lot of Americans and their Vietnamese associates were ready to be picked up by helicopters,” recalled the refuge. (Takaki 1993) The Vietnam War was without question one of the most demoralizing wars in the United States history. The war took its toll on U.S. soldiers, citizens, and on the Vietnamese people as well. The quotes talks about the chaos happening for everyone on the soil in Vietnam. The Vietnam War always reminds me of my father. He was growing up during the war and always told me stories about it when I was a kid. My dad told me how scared he was during that time about the possibility of being drafted. Luckily, the war ended right when he turned eighteen. Two of his best friends that lived on his street, had older brothers that were in the war. His friend Dave’s older brother came back psychologically messed up from the war. Dave’s brother was always outgoing and funny, but when he came back he was really depressed and withdrawn. One day Dave’s brother went out to the bar, so my dad and Dave snuck into his room. They found a box full of awful pictures from the war. There were pictures of dead, bloody, decapitated Vietnamese soldiers. He said that to this day he will never forget the pictures that he saw. There was also a tragedy of a boy down the street named Jim. My dad and his friend always looked up to Jim growing up. Jim was a helicopter pilot over in Vietnam. On the last day of the war, he was flying out of the country and saw three Vietnamese children on the ground below waving their arms. Jim began to fly towards them to pick them up, but did not see the man that was knelt down behind them. This man came into Jim’s vision at the last second, but it was too late. This man shot a rocket and blew up Jim in the helicopter. This was a terrible tragedy and my dad told me how it affected the whole street. I have heard about the Vietnam War from my father and from others. From what I can tell, it was a very tough time for the people in this country.
“ Everybody remembers the first time they were taught that part of the human race was other. That’s a trauma. It’s as though I told you that your left hand is not part of your body, said Tony Morrison.” ( Takaki 1993.) Ignorance is one of the biggest problems in our society today. Often ignorance can be taught by older generations. If a parent is an open racist for example, a child grown up can easily be influenced by such behaviors and ideas. I feel that there are a couple ways to combat this kind of behavior. A couple of these ways are through education, having an open mind, and life experience. It can be easy in today’s world to stereotype and put people into categories. In my predominately white high school, there were a group of racist students. They sat behind me in history class and made racist comments and off color jokes. It did not take a genius to realize where their views and prejudices came from; their parents. Furthermore, about a month later, a small “race war” broke out between these four white kids and four black kids at my school. This kid named Tommy called my one friend Maurice a nigger and the fight went down. It got pretty bad, and Maurice was beating up Tommy until the fight broke up. The police came to the school and their was an announcement over the PA the next morning. The principal said fighting and racism would not be tolerated at the school. Anyone who broke the rules, would suffer the consequences of suspension or expulsion. Needless to say, Tommy was expelled and Maurice was suspended. This all happened during my sophomore year at Brunswick.
Do parents realize how much their words and actions influence the behavior of their children?
