Magnolias, Pt. 2

Magnolias Part 2
For Tia, Jovon, Stephanie, Tomika, Jihan, and Shantal

We stood and watched, as our family’s hopes and dreams rested heavily on our shoulders,

We bared burdens so great that even we didn’t fathom the affect it would have on us

We had to go to college.

See for some of y’all, this isn’t anything great—it’s something you do after high school, no need to worry about your future, because somehow it’s going to all work out

While we struggled and worked two and three jobs just to feed ourselves, waking up early, going to sleep late at night—really no time to study, but somehow through the grace of God, making decent enough grades—not the grades we are capable of, but they ones that show that we are actually smarter than most, because we are making these grades off of pure talent, because like I said we don’t have time to study

We began to wonder why on earth did he choose us?

We watched and listened as rich kids complained about the quality of education that they were receiving or how their mom and dad didn’t get them the car they wanted

Meanwhile, me and my crew were struggling for gas, just so that we could make it to class—we couldn’t afford to live on campus, and couldn’t afford to life off campus, and homelessness wasn’t an option, so we moved into apartments we couldn’t afford, because we have to have a place to lay our heads right?

Some days we entered class so tired, we could barely hold our heads up, yet we managed to participate in lecture—even though our stomachs were growling from hunger.

Struggling for food was an understatement. For some of us, there were times that we couldn’t even afford a pack of Ramen noodles because that bill, that has to be paid, is due

For others of us, familial obligations often interfered with what we were trying to accomplish—for some family included the ones they’d birthed, for others it was the family they were born into

For the rest of us, some combination…funny, some of the same people who we thought we encouraging us, secretly hoped we’d fail, so when we called out for help, the ignored our call and left us hanging, only to find that they would soon need us more than we needed them

Our destinies were chosen for us—we had to be better than those who came before us, because future generations depended on us to break the curses that lied on each of our individual families, even though they’d fed us to the wolves with no tools, we had to come up with something, from nothing

Hope. One simple world that launched each of us into cataclysmic shock—reaching for what was just out of reach for the others that came before us

Reality. Hope leads to faith. But faith without works is dead, and we damn near killed ourselves for your and our dreams.