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Strength

Meyasha Clemons - Lanphier High School
WUIS/Illinois Issues

What do I believe in? The answer is the strength within a woman. I have been blessed to witness the personification of "strength" throughout my life, as I watched and learned from my mother, Sharon Deon Williams. My mother gave birth to me on October 9th, 1991, when she was but a child herself. Yet, she filled her heart with not only love, patience and understanding, but with focus and persistence.

As a very young child, I was introduced into a world filled with confusion and chaotic behavior. It started with the continuing physical and emotional pain that my own father brought into our home. An observer would believe my family was the perfect picture of "young love making it work." My father was an all-star collegiate point guard, in two of the most successful sports programs in the nation. My other was young, beautiful, and intelligent. However, in her usual selfless manner, she stayed in the background for love of my father and the belief that he would fully provide for our young family.

I encountered, at a very impressionable and young age, strong, goal-oriented African-American women who knew their worth, and understood that you have to take advantage of opportunities.

Her faith in my father led her to forsake her own college plans. My mother should have a degree because scholastically, she was the one achieving as my father focused only on his basketball skills. Our family members, such as her sisters and brothers, along with my grandmother would constantly stress to her the error in her ways. My mother had tunnel vision. She gave so much of herself to my father while she supported his dreams.

As my mother finally came into her own, she realized that she had forsaken her goals and, to an extent, her children's development. As I reached school age, my mother decided it was time to focus on her life. She enrolled in a university as a non-traditional student. I watched my mother find her way as a woman within the world. She drew strength and sense of traditional pride from her sorority. I encountered, at a very impressionable and young age, strong, goal-oriented African-American women who knew their worth, and understood that you have to take advantage of opportunities. It was the "realization" stage in my mother's life that ushered in my love of education. I began to imitate my mother's actions. As she read, I read; when she wrote, I wrote. Education became my "guiding light," and I am currently watching it pay off as I receive honors, awards, and most importantly, knowledge of the world and myself.

I look into the future and I see my successes, yet, there will be many obstacles. I am strong and with all I have been through in my life, failure is not an option. I have the audacity to believe in not only my intellect, but in my spirit as a whole. I will attend Clark-Atlanta University and successfully major in Pre-Medicine. I will attain my Doctorate in Pediatric Medicine and surely, I will return to my hometown of Springfield, Illinois and open my own practice. Persistence has guided my life and the strength, I believe, I inherited from my mother and watched her exemplify, will sustain my focus despite the obstacles. I tell the fates "Do your worst, for I will surely do my best, and in doing so, victory is already mine. For this I believe in: strength."

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