I am a hamster on a wheel, this is how I felt for many years. Term after term, year after year, my major concern was to keep my parents and family pleased with me, so I kept up my grades. But I really didn’t know why I couldn’t just stay home and read my favorite storybooks and novels. And not think about homework, assignments, running to class on time and combing my hair every morning. We were told by adults and teachers that education is the key to success, education is the only way out of poverty and when you educate yourself you can become anything. I was still puzzled, my question was am I doing it, am I doing it now, how is it that I don’t have a better home with my own bedroom, with all the fancy store bought snacks, why I don’t have cable TV or endless outfits and shoes for every occasion? Why didn’t my parents have cars and are not professionals? I soon came to learn, however, that education was an ongoing process. It was a concept and idea that could become a reality if you are dedicated and if you invested your best efforts studying over years and years. The higher the level of education you attain the more rewarding, financially, the job opportunities for yourself in the future. My view on education continued to shape as I grew older for example, I learnt that you could have an education and all the qualifications but as a woman you need support, you need to reach out for assistance because the birth of a child, or two or three becomes/ requires your immediate and undying attention, financial support and love which can be all encompassing. A situation like this can derail your education or your ability to work even though it could be your dream job, if you don’t have support, it can seem impossible to move forward. This is not an issue that affects only women, but men too can be affected however I feel that women feel the brunt of childcare the most.

 

In the early years of my life, I thought attaining an education would give you the power to change the world. I remember doing Social-Studies in standard one and learning about Dr. Eric Willaims, the founding father of my home country of Trinidad and Tobago. Dr. Eric Williams was born and bred in Trinidad, he attended a prestigious high school called Queen’s Royal College, (an all-boys school and I attended the sister high school). He graduated with distinction and went on to study law. In his very last job before he fully migrated back to Trinidad and Tobago, he was a professor at Harvard University. He was responsible for petitioning the Queen of England, with the help of others, for our country to become an independent twin island state. This tumultuous journey ended on the 31st of August 1962 when we gained our independence from the Queen. So, I thought at the age of seven I had to do something as great as this to be considered a success, but education still felt very elusive to me. Soon after this he went on to be our first Prime Minister. At the age of seven this led me to think I had to do something as great as this to be considered educated and a success but the whole idea of an education was still elusive to me. It wasn’t until around thirteen years when I learnt that one of my older, second cousin who was a lawyer was offered and she accepted a job for the State as a Judge in the High Court. But what stirred my soul and stained my mind was that she was a woman, a woman who had a child in her last year of her graduation from high school. A woman who was born into a poor family, who was determined to succeed and despite all her adversities she endured, she overcame and became a true success. I examined her, (Pamela is her name) her life, her past and right there and then I told myself if she can do it so can I.