I do believe that I am living the life of privilege each and every day that I wake to see another morning. I live in a country that is full of freedoms. I have a roof over my head, food on my table, a good job, and family and friends that love me and make my life complete. I am privileged to be a woman who has given birth to one child and that said child has made his presence known and positively touched the lives of many in this crazy world in which we live in. I have the privilege of showing endless amounts of compassion and empathy to all those that I meet. I get the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of children, to be a trusted adult, to have a helping hand in making them strong, educated, decent human beings that will be our future leaders. That to me is a privilege. I have also been marginalized. I was a teen mother. I had my one and only child, a son, my senior year of high school. I wasn't supposed to make it as statistics show that teen mothers tend to drop out of high school. That was never an option for me nor did the thought ever cross my mind. I knew that I couldn't become a statistic. I had this new tiny human depending on me. I had a very supportive family, and the faculty of my high school was amazing. My son was eight months old when I graduated. I immediately went to work instead of going to college after graduating. I did receive WIC and had Medicaid for my son early on in his life. People are marginalized for factors such as those too. My son is now twenty five years old and very successful. Everything that I did from the moment he was born, I did for him. I feel that women are often marginalized when they become mothers as well. I may not have done things the traditional way and by that I mean go to college, land the perfect job, get married and then have kids. I wholeheartedly feel that everything happens for a reason. I feel that my life wasn't headed in the most positive direction and that my son was given to me to guide me. While him and I may have met a little early in life, I get to love him so much longer. We don't have to accept marginalization. That is what I want my students to always know and understand. There are always options and we choose our destiny. There isn't any amount of education that can prepare one for the unknown. We give our students the tools and knowledge to keep in their toolbox for the what-ifs and how to fix life's many problems. Sometimes that is all we can do, the rest is up to them.
