Category: Unit 1 Homework (Page 5 of 33)

Homework 9/12

I made it to the top of Mount Everest, and I felt like I was literally on top of the world. St. Francois Girls College (which was one of the most prestigious all girls high school in Port-of-Spain) was the high school I passed for in the Common Entrance Examination. The first child in my family to pass for an “elite” high school. In that moment I felt like I accomplished an educational milestone, I felt as though the ugly duckling showed she was ‘bright’ so maybe she could have a good future or one better than mine, I thought, this might be what my haters were saying, maybe I silenced them but for just a short time. My greatest rivals/ haters were sometimes my siblings, older cousins, aunts and great aunts, some teachers, classmates and even friends but for just this moment they could say absolutely nothing negative about me. In my new high school this was the beginning of me feeling like I was a part of something greater, a group of teachers and girls that felt like family and they were all inclusive and welcoming to me. As far right and as far left as I gazed during morning assembly I saw girls like me of every shade, race and color all with the same goals to work hard, succeed, and have fun doing it. My teachers were, loving, challenging and very invested in every girl. They went above and beyond as a teacher but they also taught us about etiquette, manners, how to be an all rounded young lady and to remain humble, how to dream and dream big and don’t stop till we accomplished it, how to be trailblazers, how to be humanitarians and lastly how to be a true St. Francois girl wherever we went. My five years in high school was the best and most memorable years of my educational journey.

Life is an uphill battle and I feel the same way about my educational career. After high school I moved onto starting my working career instead of continuing my studies at St. Francois doing my A ‘Levels. This was because I was the second oldest child of five siblings with the youngest being one year old at that time. I couldn’t ask my parents to continue to finance me to continue my education when I saw the struggle, they endured every day to educate my siblings and I. My future was dismal, I knew I did great at my high school leaving exams and I could land a job with these qualifications, but it would be minimum wage or just above it. God has always been my guide and strength and in this moment, I trusted Him to make a way for me. A few crappy jobs came and went like being a worker at Burger King and a clerk at an insurance company but then my luck changed, and I got a job as an ‘on the job trainee’ for the telecommunications company of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT). Everyone knew if you got a job there you were set for life, they paid extremely well. But I was a trainee, so I only got minimum wage. My mother, father, and boyfriend (now husband) encouraged me to hold onto the trainee job, work hard, be discipline and be punctual and maybe they will keep me on after my contract ended. But I had my doubts because as soon as I got paid my salary felt like it vanished and I wanted to move on, but I preserved. After working two years as a trainee and one year as a temporary staff, I was offered a permanent position as a Wireman I (a predominantly male dominated field) and this was the moment my life completely changed. I could finally afford a good life, but I was not fulfilled until I gave back to the people who helped me to succeed. I worked for twelve years at this company and accomplished my lifelong dream of building a comfortable home for my mother and father and a separate home for myself, husband, and daughter. I was determined to end the cycle of poverty and make my parents happy and to give my daughter (Kendra, she is fifteen years now) everything I never had.

Life, what is life actually and what is all about? Life can be broken down into two separate definitions. There’s life in the definition of science and all living things. But then there is life in the definition of the human experience. In this case I’m really talking about the human experience, and I would like for you to imagine the day you were born how at the time your birth impacted the people around you. There you are as a baby who then grew into a toddler followed by an adolescent child, then a teenager, and then finally an adult. You would say that your life has a been going ok even up until now however I want you to go back to the years from being a toddler to a teenager and ask yourself what that mysterious feeling or desire was and how difficult it was for people to understand the feeling and/or desire. Did you figure out what it was? If not, I can tell you that the desire you were feeling at the time was curiosity but not curiosity in the simplest terms. When I say curiosity, I mean the knowledge to understand the mysteries of the world around you and not even just the world but the universe as well to discover the ultimate truth. I can tell you two separate incidents that really had an impact on me which furthermore influenced the way I was already thinking at the time ever since toddler years.

The first incident happened when I was very young and I’m talking about in the years of me attending kindergarten. Kindergarten is like the first place you would go when you’re ready to start school unless you attended preschool first. I attended preschool and then went onto kindergarten. This was around the time where I was introduced with magic and from what I can tell you even till now it has an impact on me as I’m really interested in magic and will forever be. The classroom was rather small but not like cramped but more of a modern-day studio apartment. The floor had like hard tile, and it was white with a little bit of black spots in it, so it sorts of had a little polka-dot pattern in a sense. There was a carpet that was green on the outside but in the middle had the design of a street or road of some sorts with a bus that went all the way around. There were cubbies that pre-occupied the corners of the room and there was a door to the right of the classroom that allowed people to go use the bathroom which also served as a mini hallway. Anyways besides the small class room it was a special day as the school hired a magician to impress the kids and I could definitely say I was impressed. The way the cards vanished or how he made a quarter appear behind my hair really amazed me. Even after I asked could we hold onto everything to had to prove that he didn’t have things in a separate place and yet he still was able to pull those tricks off and that’s when it hit me that magic really satisfied my curiosity to know more and truly understand because the reality is you just can’t. Magic is miraculous and that is what I have learned from the first incident. The second incident occurred in my freshman year of high school and this is another event I could remember clearly. It was September 10th,2019 the first day of my freshman year of high school. After second period ended it was time for me to attend my government class which was on the other side of the building, and it was very difficult to navigate as the halls were crowded with students. Everyone trying to adjust and adapt eventually though I made it to class. The teacher had a bright smile on his face and was excited to see the students that he would grow to love over the next four years although he expressed some sadness over the seniors who were in their final year. The room itself seemed to reflect the overall attitude of the entire class. Bright with light coming from all directions the sun, the projector which had the teacher’s computer screen illuminated onto the wall, and the ceiling itself where the lightbulbs were. 21 tables set into 7 groups of 3 almost all but one group was complete. There was two people who would later become my closest friends and down the line introduces me to other people whom I eventually became close with. Finally, after I sat down all of the tables were filled with students and the teacher happy ready to present the topic about how the government created cereal to advertise milk while potentially exposing the benefits of milk as a lie. The floor itself was messy after class ended however the teacher was happy that the students left retaining some interesting information. This incident furthermore influenced how I want to discover more about the world around me and what secrets that the government keeps hidden from the general public.

In my opinion I think it is okay to remain curious and question everything around you because the world may not always be as it seems. People who are meant to watch over and protect their citizens often have hidden agendas or overall, just fail to protect them. Things that may be good for our health could be the opposite such as how vapes were better than cigarettes although the reality is that they are just as bad even e-cigs. There are some phenomena in the world that are just too difficult to explain and better to experience see or to be left alone. Curiosity is a great thing wanting to know more about the world is wonderful as it opens up many possibilities that haven’t been explored.