{"id":2356,"date":"2019-08-04T02:29:41","date_gmt":"2019-08-04T06:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-220214-918144.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=2356"},"modified":"2020-02-10T06:25:58","modified_gmt":"2020-02-10T11:25:58","slug":"hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daybreakdayton.org\/hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

They said I was born to fail\u2026
\nThey said I would be mentally retarded
\nand that my life was over before it had even started.
\nThey said that I would eventually end up in some type of institution
\nthat would have to give me \u2018round the clock care
\nwith someone to wipe the drool off my chin as I absently sat there.
\nThey said a lot of things,
\nand although the stigmas have always remained,
\nthe only thing that in truth reigned was the fact that I was born addicted to cocaine.
\nTheir words filled the pool in which all hope had drowned.
\nI learned how to swim, and I broke that barrier down.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Then more came along\u2026
\nThis time I was \u201cdamaged.\u201d
\nThey said I would be emotionally unstable,
\nuntrusting of men and, in this patriarchal society, be unable to manage.
\nI was no longer innocent, but the victim of actions so vile, yet all the while,
\nthey forgot about the child who, after six years of sexual abuse,
\nfelt like she was the one being put on trial.
\nThey said I was always going to have low self-esteem, low self-confidence and be insecure.
\nThey built the fence around the pool.
\nI learned how to climb and each chained link became my tool.<\/p>\n

Then even more came\u2026
\nNow, they called me a fornicator and a promiscuous young girl.
\nI was shunned and belittled, put down and degraded to less than a human being
\nthis time because I was pregnant at thirteen.
\nThey told me I\u2019d end up a \u201cWelfare Queen.\u201d
\nThey said I\u2019d have fifteen different kids by sixteen different men,
\nsitting on my butt waiting for a government check to spend.
\nI was ridiculed and called irresponsible for choosing to have my son
\nand becoming a parent so young.
\nThey judged me harshly under their bright light
\nwithout consideration for what was going on in the dark, out of their sight.
\nMy mother was on drugs, my brother ran the streets
\nand we went to school to escape our reality that was so bleak (and because we got to eat!).
\nThey said, at best, I\u2019d end up a manager at McDonald\u2019s.
\nThis time, they put a guard on the other side of the fence.
\nI learned how to be friendly, and eventually, on my way I went.<\/p>\n

Each step drew me closer to freedom and becoming more than a dreamer
\nand I found it true that on the other side the grass was greener;
\nbut they also got meaner.
\nEach time I stumbled, I heard them mumble
\nTo them, I\u2019d become everything they\u2019d said I would be;
\na failure, a victim, a dropout and many other things.
\nThey called me any and everything but my name,
\n\u201cArlene.\u201d
\nIt seemed that no matter how much progress I\u2019d made by getting a job, my GED,
\nand even going to college,
\nthey\u2019d find some way to label me, so long as it was done negatively.
\nThey put up the orange barrels and made sure every avenue was closed.
\nI learned how to do construction. And now, I pave my own roads.<\/p>\n

I refuse to be what they label me, for I have my own destiny to meet.
\nYes, I was a cocaine baby; I was sexually abused,
\nI was a teenage mother, I was a high school dropout,
\nI was HOPELESS.
\nI have had a lot of labels affixed to me.
\nIf you must label me,
\nlabel me for WHO I am, not what I have experienced.
\nI am success.
\nI am a wife, a mother, a sister, an inspiration to others,
\na fighter, a peacekeeper, a writer whose thoughts run deeper,
\na student on the Dean\u2019s List, and a person whose presence can\u2019t be missed.
\nI have broken stereotypes and did everything they said I couldn\u2019t do.
\nI stand here today because someone said,
\n\u201cArlene, I believe in you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

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