Educating KattyGirlD… an ongoing process

Key concepts: experience and passion

Thanks to my girl phatsostace for feeling me on the differences between education and school. Quoting her:
Schooling: Reciting lessons, memorizing facts, and doing what your teacher tells you.Education: Taking information and analyzing it, learning to think critically, and questioning the facts you're given.
Right on sistah! For the past couple of days, a lot that I have experienced have reinforced, challenged, or supported my thought process and my educational growth. The same reinforcement, challenges, and support have also had an effect on my passion as well.
This morning, I woke up crying. I woke up angry. I woke up hurt. I woke up still mourning my grandma and being pissed about the situation she had to endure. This Saturday, I went to a conference thrown by the American Cancer Society. I was able to catch up with some great people that do amazing and innovative work in the area of decreasing health disparities in communities of color – particularly with the African-American community. I sat at a table with colleagues, associates, and new acquaintances. I met numerous women who were cancer survivors. One woman had been cancer free for 6 years, another lost both breast and uterus to this horrible disease and has been cancer free for over 25 years, another woman was diagnosed on November of last year, and another woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 27. Their resilience is amazing. I support them. I admire them. But I can’t help but be a little down – how come my grandma and all of her siblings beat this disease too? What could have been done? What was amazing at this event was that everyone was so positive – I sat there thinking, we are talking about death, illness, and disparity – where is all this energy coming from? Then I remembered, a mentor once told me that all this anger and frustration is no good if we harbor it and turn it into negative energy because it will consume us and take us off track. You have to channel that energy into passion, because that is gonna carry you through.
As I embark on my independent projects on cancer and African-American women and the educational process, I am truly happy to do things that I am passionate about. However, these issues can’t help but open up past memories that were painful and sad, yet have helped shaped and mold who I am today and who I will become in the future. Often times I feel that my grandma was cheated – she didn’t even live long enough to see me walk across the stage at the Greek when I got my diploma from UCB. She passed away a semester before I was done – but she did pick out my grad pics and told me that she was proud of me, of all of us. Although she is not here in the physical sense, all of the wisdom that she imparted on me will still carry on. The experiences I had with her are a true testament of how education does not just happen in the classroom – that every day and encounter is a life lesson, so pay close attention and be sure to keep your thinking caps secure.This morning, I am still sad and angry, but I am remembering my passion, which is giving me the strength to carry on throughout the day and throughout life. Soon, I have to go visit my grandma and leave flowers… and pay my respect…