Wanting It!

Recently I watched a show where Oprah discussed how she only wants to help kids who "Want it." In Africa, she explained that children there are fully aware that EDUCATION is the only way out. There are rare exceptions of course, but the real ticket is your contuniued education in any field of interest. While interviewing young girls around Africa for entry into her private school, the children pleaded with her for an education. Otherwise, they would be subject to a life of poverty.

In America, we forget the value of certain privileges because we are spoiled as a country. We forget the value of our VOTE even though people gave their lives for it. We forget the value of a free education even though we have a history where only the wealthy were able to attend school at one time. We often expect things to come without the hard work, but they won't. Every successful person will tell you one thing, they worked hard for their success. But this society is trying to trick you...trick you with tv, with music videos, with magazines, with video games. They want to distract you from your goal and save the good stuff for a chosen few. You have to put up a fight. Don't let them bury your true talents.

Education is not about achieving wealth. It is about giving you choices that free you from entrapment. Opening parts of yourself that you don't even know yet.

Education is freedom of the mind. You don't see it now, but your investment in your mind will bring you rewards in the future (not just monetarily). If the average life span is around 75 years, and schooling plus college is around 18 years, that means your time now will influence the next 55 years of your life approximately. That is a pretty good return on your investment and everyone knows that you have more fun in your twenties and thirties than in high school. It's our secret.

BUT...You have to want it. We are ALL here to help you do it. Put us to work for you. The SAT is around the corner...Good Luck! And I know college isn't for everyone...but that doesn't mean your education stops there. Education can be found everywhere, in everything. Learning is our responsibility, bettering ourselves is always our challenge.

Intelligence plus character--that is the goal of true education. --Martin Luther King, Jr.
A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. --Henry Adams

~Lisa