Time to Go Back

My motivation for getting my GED came when I had my daughter at 18. Before having my daughter, I was a high school drop out and working a dead end job at McDonald’s. That’s not the future I wanted for me and my daughter, so I knew it was time to stop procrastinating and do what’s best for me and my child.

My Mom and Great-Grandmother where the ones to help me the most. My Grandmother would always tell me that she wanted me to go further in life and get my education because she didn’t have a chance to get her’s. I watched my mother struggle to raise me and my two sisters with no help. I used to tell my mother all the time that I wanted to be like her when I grow up and she would always say, “Don’t be like me T’Yanna. Be better than me.”

I had a cousin who I grew up with in the same household. He was more like a brother to me. He was killed in a car crash when I was in the 8th grade. I was devastated, and at that time I cared nothing about school or the people around me. I carried the weight of his death on my shoulders so much that by the time I was in the 11th grade, I dropped out of school. I got a job at McDonald’s and then I got pregnant. I decided it was time for me to go back to school and make a better future for my child, but I wasn’t fully motivated. Another one of my relatives who I also consider a brother was murdered, and at that moment I knew it was time for a change. So instead of me walking around depressed, I decided to spend all my time either studying for my GED or spending time with my daughter. Now at 19 and a mother of two, I have my GED and I’m in college studying to be a legal assistant! It was all in God’s plan.

I want to teach my daugthers and little sisters that it’s not okay to drop out. Yes it’s okay to have a job, but I’m reaching toward having a career. I want my kids to know that anything is possible when you believe and put your mind to it.