"Mommy, I want to go to college" said the six year old little boy to his mother, while she was in the kitchen preparing dinner. "Well son, your father can't afford college so you're going to have to do really well in school or get athletic scholarship of some sort in order to afford it" she says to her son. Thinking nothing of it the little boy says "No problem Mommy, I'll make you and Daddy really proud of me!" That little boys grows up and makes straight As in high school and ends up getting a scholarship to the University of Florida and graduates with his Bachelor's Degree in Secondary Education. His entire college tuition paid with financial aid and academic scholarships. God bless that young man. But for every one of these kids there are one hundred kids that have trouble making the grade and sometimes some who make the grade but are not granted a academic scholarship and have no way of paying for their college education. What happens to that young man who's parents didn't help put away that money or perhaps start a college fund for him when he was born? Does he just forfeit his opportunity to get his degree. Many of you have already said to yourselves "He could pay his own way through college." I can't necessarily argue against that. But why is that burden being placed on him?
I feel from the day a child is born it is the responsibility of the parents to see to that their child is afforded each and every opportunity to go college. When you become a parent, life is no longer about your wants and needs. You may disagree and that's fine. This is only one man's opinion and in my opinion if you aren't ready to to sacrifice your wants and needs for the sake of your child then you are NOT ready to be a parent. Your child needs to come first and foremost. Most of us heard the same saying from all of our parents growing up "I don't want you to struggle the way I did. I want you to have everything I didn't." Keep in mind I said most of us. Not all of us were blessed enough to have parents with that mindset. But I digress. The point I'm trying to make is that we all want our children to have what we didn't have growing up. We want them to have a better life and understand the value of hard work. With that said, if your parents did not attend college like mine didn't, one would think that if there was only one thing they wanted me to do in the world it was to attend college and graduate with my degree. Which is exactly what they hammered home to me from the time I could comprehend what they were trying to tell me. I didn't grow up in a high income household. I was brought home to a studio apartment in the hood when I was born and we never had much at all. For as long as I can remember my parents always told me that I would have to earn a scholarship of some sort because they didn't have any money to pay for my college. So I picked up a basketball and never looked back and earned that scholarship which I would later go on to lose. Why and How I lost it is irrelevant in reference to this blog. But I did and now I'm having to find a way to pay for college. I'm not blaming my parents for this. I made many choices leading up to my losing the scholarship that I earned. I am simply stating facts.
I am very hard on our parents in today's society and I maybe holding them to a higher standard than many of you. But I believe that it is the responsibility of parents to see to it that their child is afforded every opportunity to attend college. I know that when my child is born he/she will immediately have a college fund in their name. I don't care if that means that I have to work a second job just to pay for it. It is important to me that my child has that opportunity when the time comes. I understand that shit happens and we don't live in a perfect world. But the moment you accept that a college fund is out of your hands you are putting your child at a very big disadvantage. My children will work, they will know what it is to work hard for everything they want in this world and academics will be of the utmost priority in my household. But I will NOT put it all on them to get a scholarship whether its academic or athletic. They will be working towards that goal and IF they so happen to fall short I would have done my part as a parent to see that although they may have fell short, he/she still has the opportunity to attend a University of some sort. It pains me when I see children having to pay for the mistakes that their parents made. I know some people that I love more than anything right now who have done absolutely great for themselves and did it all by themselves. They bust their ass to get to where they are and there is a great sense of accomplish on their part. However, they should not have had to kill themselves the way they did. But their parents weren't there for them and they did what they had to do. I applaud them and have a tremendous amount of love and respect for them. (They know who they are).
In conclusion, this subject happens to be near and dear to my heart and I feel very strongly about education and college. Others may feel differently and this may not be as high up on your priority list and I'm not knocking you. We are all different and that is what makes us all unique. But our children are our future and our grand children will be their future and so on. I feel we must lay a strong and solid foundation with emphasis on the importance of education and see to it that we don't just talk the talk but we also walk the walk.
This is just one man's opinion and I hope you all enjoyed this blog.
1Love
AV
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