humansofnewyork:“I called our neighborhood ‘The Bermuda Triangle.’ A lot of talented people never ma
humansofnewyork:“I called our neighborhood ‘The Bermuda Triangle.’ A lot of talented people never made it out. All three of my older siblings dropped out of school. I really wanted to graduate from college, but I wasn’t the best student. And my parents didn’t speak English so they couldn’t help me with applications. Only one college even accepted me, and I missed the deadline for the interview. A few weeks later our assistant principal Ms. Effinger stopped me in the hallway. She asked me where I was going to school. I explained that I’d been accepted to SUNY Purchase but had missed the deadline. That’s when she grabbed me by the arm and said: ‘Come to my office.’ She called the admissions office and asked them to give me another opportunity. But she didn’t stop there. She asked my mom for permission to let me sleep at her house. Then the next morning she drove me to SUNY Purchase. The interviewer said that I must be special if my principal would go through all that effort, and I ended up getting accepted. But the story didn’t end well. I just wasn’t ready. And after a year, my GPA fell so low that I was dismissed. I felt horrible. I asked the school if I could come speak to new students, and inspire them to make better choices than I did. I still do that today. But I felt most badly about Ms. Effinger. I never spoke to her again. I couldn’t face her. This woman had gone out of her way to do something for me, and I’d ruined it. But she still changed my life. Even though I didn’t graduate, I never moved back to Harlem. I ended up finding a good job at a wholesale center, and my children were given opportunities that I never had. A few years ago I enrolled in night courses at SUNY Purchase. My boss couldn’t understand why I was going back to school, but I was carrying such a huge burden. I felt like I owed something to Ms. Effinger. I finally graduated this year, and I found her on Facebook. I gave her a call. I told her everything that happened over the years. I said: ‘You changed my life. And I don’t understand why you did it. I don’t understand what you saw in me.’ She replied: ‘I did it because you had potential. And I couldn’t understand why you didn’t see that in yourself.’” -- source link