Journal #4
Never did I thought that my childhood friend Judy would have considered St. Lucians as just functionally literate. Judy and I established a friendship when her mother moved to Dream Island for work leaving Judy with her dad and grandmother. We attended the same high school, but Judy was and argumentative by nature. We would about the most handsome boy in class, the shorter way home, the best church songs just to name a few.
Judy later moved to join her mom and shortly afterwards our argument had added new topics. This time we went back and forth about fashion, education, and what occupation we wish to hold when we grow up. Although our friendship was prevailing, Judy was now comparing her hometown with her new settlement. she constantly referred to my level of intelligence at every opportunity. She blatantly complained that my English was sub-standard to the extent that when I texted and referred to words like, centre, flavour, behaviour, labour, colour [ British spelling] she would text back with words corrections [American spelling] as if she forgot she was British. That infuriated me but I was not prepared to jeopardize our friendship over misconceptions. In Judy’s opinion, Dream Island is so developed that even their dialect is better than my English. I tolerated Judy’s indiscretion for years, and during that time, I equipped myself with relevant information to debunk her allegations.
During one of our conversations, the subject of literacy came up and I was ready for battle in that regard. I clearly stated that our level of education is immense but have limited opportunities to excel. I back my claim with evidence, telling her that Although Faced with these challenges, my country has produced two Nobel laureates. Sir Arthur Lewis for Economics and Sir Derek Walcott for Literature and Sir Arthur Lewis’ image is on the Eastern Caribbean Dollar. She could not respond so I proceeded to state that Dr. Winston Parris, a native of my homeland was the Director of Clinical Research at Anesthesia Pain Care Consultant in Fort Lauderdale. Also, George Odlum who was one of the world’s best orators represented oxford university in a debate, plus he delivered a speech at a United Nation Assembly for one hour without a script. All those people attended Universities here at home. In a subsequent conversation, Judy acknowledged that based on her research, she discovered that she was wrong, and have expresses the desire to visit her homeland soon. Since then, Judy has never mentioned literacy in any of our conversations again. Our conversation became more dynamic, and I am excited to reunite with my friend of 25 years.
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