by Lady Moore-Sabb

Created on: June 25, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

In order to truly have a worthwhile testimony, you must allow yourself to experience growing pains. By growing pains I mean the uncomfortable but rewarding act of opening your mind to new emotions, new people, new experiences, new views. You sell yourself short by sticking your head in a book and just doing enough to get by without applying the new found knowledge to your day to day life. You must incorporate the vocabulary and interact with people whom you know can relate to or who can appreciate the information you have to share. Walking away from Ignorance is like much like quitting drinking or gambling. If you continue in the same circles and perform the same practices in the same manner then you will find yourself soon forgetting what you just struggled so hard to learn and resorting to your former self.

I'm 47 years old and as a returning student, I too want additional honors and have landed a final spot in a speech competition in my College. I've joined the communication club and the debate team. Not only am I making new acquaintances interested in getting more out if life but my resume is looking better by the minute.I owe it to myself and the memory of my late parents and the encouragement of my son and the legacy for my soon to be born grandaughter to fully apply myself in a time when our elders have given up hope and our peers have chosen to settle for surviving while our children worship rappers and drug dealers.

I am fully dedicating myself to making a difference somewhere in this world. The only way to make a greater contribution is to increase my selfworth and knowledge is power. Look around at the programs available for the homeless, with the rate that the cost of living is rising everyone will need a college degree just to maintain a simple apartment.No one has to tell you that the uneducated workers are the weakest links meaning they are the easiest to replace and usually the first to go. How can you plan to be successful with just a job in a time when so much downsizing is going on? any position that pays decently and has any job security or pension and health plan require a college education.

This is my third time attending college but this time is different because this time I will finish. My G.P.A. is 3.56 but it did not come easy. I lost my sight for the first five weeks of the semester but pressed on anyway. after 13 cancer surgeries, a nervous breakdown and incarceration along with the death of both my parents I have made a conscious choice to experience college in it's entirety and make it count. There will always be trials but only if you try will you know what you are capable of. Many people see the glory but very few know the story.

I implore you to become an active learner by equipping yourself with the power to make a change. If you can understand the problem then you can be a part of the solution. Here is something I'd like to share with you so you can see what college experiences are about. http://tourocommunicationclub.blogspot.com/ticle here

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