Missing Story of Ourselves
Heather Adair
I was brought into the world destined for poverty. Poor, without
support from my father and without hope, my mother applied for welfare
when I was born prematurely. For the first two years of my life we
lived on the meager funds the angry taxpayers sacrificed to us while my
mother struggled to persevere.
Despite what little we had, my mother spent all of her energy
fighting to keep me as safe and without need as possible. As soon as I
was well enough to go into day-care, my mother immediately looked for
work. She found out early on, however, that there were few jobs
available to single parents who held no post-secondary educations.
Realizing that a minimum wage job would not support us and resolving
that she needed stability for her family, my mother enrolled in college
as a welfare mom, when I was two years of age.
This is where my life began…and my mother's life too. It is safe to
say that without an education, neither of us would exist as we do
today. When she first attended college, my mother was discouraged by
harsh words concerning her status as a poor single mother. Soon though,
she was able to grasp her work through education. She reveled in the
complexities of science, philosophy, literature and art. When
participating in the classroom, she saw herself as a person capable of
contributing to the society around her in innumerable ways. Education
gave her a way out.
My mother carried home a passion for education
that could not help but make an irrevocable impression on my young
mind. I can remember at the age of eight having the most detailed
discussions with my mother about everything from the cosmos to concepts
of truth and reality. In me she fostered a reverence for knowledge and
education that I clung to in the wake of material want.
My mother's determination gave me hope for our future and a belief
that we were worth more than what society credited us. Every night I
would go to sleep knowing that she was awake, preparing for her classes
and working to pull us out of the poverty we had both been born into.
What began as an attempt to improve our lives turned out to be a
transformation in every way imaginable.
Today I am a high school
senior who works in our community to pay back those who helped us in
our time of need. Recently, I received a Rotary International Exchange
scholarship and was accepted to Smith College, one of the finest
liberal arts colleges in the nation. My mother's short stint on the
welfare rolls virtually eliminated any possibility of my ever going
though the system of aid that was at once so instrumental and yet so
damaging to our lives. Unlike so many people born in poverty, I have
been given a renewed vision of life. In addition to the obvious
economic, cultural and social benefits of our transformation, I have
gained an intense respect for education, civic responsibly and moral
engagement that will aid, shape and inspire me throughout my life.