I was told it CAN’T be done.

That my future was stuck in the cold dark streets of my neighborhood.

That my voice will forever  be stifled and and my mind would be nothing but,

a waste on the earth

I was told that I was NOTHING

Absolutely NOTHING

And you may ask how did I feel?

Angry? Sure.

Depressed? A little bit.

Stagnated in the beliefs that I heard from people since I was little girl? Oh No!!!

I became the liberated child, with an imagination like no other, of flying

Flying through the trees to my destiny

Nothing can stop me, not even fate itself

Soaring! Soaring through all those words of chastisement

Soaring through the expectations of falling

Soaring through the temptations of falling

Soaring to my success

So when I  was told that I, an African American woman living in Brooklyn, NY could not

accomplish the task of becoming an astronaut,

the thought sunk in for a while

but it did not get to take root in my pure young soul. I remembered all the people that supported me: my parents,my friends, and all my close relatives.

So I began to forget that thought and believed that It CAN be done

Becoming an astronaut

And that I would get there one day and no one or anything is going to stop me.

Many years later, I'm still living the reality

Seasons change and life goes on without a stop

I am here all grown up

Still facing the fact that I am black

and that now at this moment being a black female engineer to others is quite abstract

But I never gave up and never will

Until I know I have got my full share

Aerospace engineer is what I want to become \I could literally taste the success coming near

Others might say that now I am just a so called geek

who just thinks they are going to be something in life

But I know that I am not only a geek but a visionary that has to speak

To tell  the people who can't  understand

That its all right

I know the truth

I am black and you are caucasian

But we both have the same dreams and same legacies we would want to leave behind

You are no different from me inside

For we have the same organs, the same bones,and possibly the same eyes

Okay sure the eyes are on the outside of the body

But what if we never had eyes ?

Could we see the differences in body type facial flaws or skin color

COuld we judge people based on the sole matter of them being a different race?

How would you tell if the person beside you was your color and

HOw would you know what color you are anyway?

No one ever think of these questions

For if they did, the world would  be a little bit kinder

But I realized that the only way this world would change is through me

If Oprah Winfrey still has struggles with race in this world

Then I am no different

Yes I know I am black and I am proud of it

And because of this, I know that change CAN be done and

that my future world is solely up to

ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!