Journaling on the New Layout
If anyone happens to be reading this, I'd appreciate feedback.. too cheesy? Too over-the-top? This is the journaling for the layout mentioned below.. still working on the actual layout, but I feel like I have this finished..
"I need to ask you some questions," I tell him. "It's about your personal history. I have to do a layout, and it's kind of going to focus on you."
Not one to be embarrassed, he tells me to ask away.
"I need to know about your involvement in the civil rights movement - not from a historical perspective -" I have to say this, because the man is a history major, for crying out loud; it goes against his entire being to give a "personal" account - "but from your own perspective."
"I came of age during the 60's. It was a time of great personal sacrifice; it was a good time to be alive."
We begin to talk about the day Martin Luther King, Jr. died. His voice is a deep growl, and it has a calming effect on me as events take shape that happened before even my mother was old enough to remember.
"I was on a bus full of students who all came from historically black colleges. Everyone was riled at first, but the bus driver, who was white, began to hum a spiritual -" he wanders off on a sidebar explaining that black people put so much stock in music, it's everything to his people, all the way back to the slaves - "and we all joined in singing it. It took the tension away from the situation, and we all became very calm."
After attending Central High School, an all-black school in Kansas City, he was offered a total of sixteen scholarships. He had opportunities to attend some of the best schools in the country, and ultimately decided to accept a complete scholarship offer (all tuition costs, room and board) from Lincoln College in Jefferson City, Missouri.
He explains that he graduated in the top 20 students in his class, and received no help or encouragement from his counselor to attend college. He did this completely on his own - no small feat for a 17 year old kid, let alone a black kid in the 1960's.
He eventually lost his scholarship for protesting rampant paternalism at the college, but this paved the way for him to attend Harvard and Yale for a summer.
He did graduate from Lincoln, and became the only black employee in the division at the Exxon Mobile Corporation. The biggest lesson he learned there?
"Blacks that succeeded conformed on every level - every level," he stresses.
I watch this man - my father-in-law - as he interacts with my son. They adore each other; there is absolutely no question of that. I think quietly about the sacrifices he made in his lifetime, never knowing that they would pave the way for his beautiful grandson to exist.
This is why I preserve these memories. My son needs to see his legacy. He needs to understand the completely selfless acts that went into making this world a place where his mother and father, two people from different ethnic backgrounds, could fall in love and deliver him peacefully into this world. These people had no idea that they were fighting for him - no idea that one day, they would be standing in a hospital waiting room wondering what color his hair and his eyes would be - and that he would belong to them so compeltely that it would never occur to them to question his ethnicity.
They had no idea that they were fighting for something they would one day hold so precious and so dear, but I am so truly and eternally grateful for them, and for the sacrifices they made for my family.
End of journaling.. here's the pic:
"I need to ask you some questions," I tell him. "It's about your personal history. I have to do a layout, and it's kind of going to focus on you."
Not one to be embarrassed, he tells me to ask away.
"I need to know about your involvement in the civil rights movement - not from a historical perspective -" I have to say this, because the man is a history major, for crying out loud; it goes against his entire being to give a "personal" account - "but from your own perspective."
"I came of age during the 60's. It was a time of great personal sacrifice; it was a good time to be alive."
We begin to talk about the day Martin Luther King, Jr. died. His voice is a deep growl, and it has a calming effect on me as events take shape that happened before even my mother was old enough to remember.
"I was on a bus full of students who all came from historically black colleges. Everyone was riled at first, but the bus driver, who was white, began to hum a spiritual -" he wanders off on a sidebar explaining that black people put so much stock in music, it's everything to his people, all the way back to the slaves - "and we all joined in singing it. It took the tension away from the situation, and we all became very calm."
After attending Central High School, an all-black school in Kansas City, he was offered a total of sixteen scholarships. He had opportunities to attend some of the best schools in the country, and ultimately decided to accept a complete scholarship offer (all tuition costs, room and board) from Lincoln College in Jefferson City, Missouri.
He explains that he graduated in the top 20 students in his class, and received no help or encouragement from his counselor to attend college. He did this completely on his own - no small feat for a 17 year old kid, let alone a black kid in the 1960's.
He eventually lost his scholarship for protesting rampant paternalism at the college, but this paved the way for him to attend Harvard and Yale for a summer.
He did graduate from Lincoln, and became the only black employee in the division at the Exxon Mobile Corporation. The biggest lesson he learned there?
"Blacks that succeeded conformed on every level - every level," he stresses.
I watch this man - my father-in-law - as he interacts with my son. They adore each other; there is absolutely no question of that. I think quietly about the sacrifices he made in his lifetime, never knowing that they would pave the way for his beautiful grandson to exist.
This is why I preserve these memories. My son needs to see his legacy. He needs to understand the completely selfless acts that went into making this world a place where his mother and father, two people from different ethnic backgrounds, could fall in love and deliver him peacefully into this world. These people had no idea that they were fighting for him - no idea that one day, they would be standing in a hospital waiting room wondering what color his hair and his eyes would be - and that he would belong to them so compeltely that it would never occur to them to question his ethnicity.
They had no idea that they were fighting for something they would one day hold so precious and so dear, but I am so truly and eternally grateful for them, and for the sacrifices they made for my family.
End of journaling.. here's the pic:
posted by SevenHappyScrappers at 9:57 PM
3 Comments:
That is so awesome. Ive got tears in my eyes. I can't wait to see your lo after your done!
Sara - That journaling is great, as usual. Your eloquent words are touching ... heartwarming ... motivational. And, that picture is perfect. Post the LO when you finish it!
Your journaling made me cry also.
I loved reading it.
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