Some Thoughts before Graduation by Julia Koprowski

There have been three women who have impacted my life more than anyone else: first, my mother. I will always remember her quirky sense of life and black hair that was streaked with gray. This woman lived through the death of her parents, her children, and the possible death of her husband, one right after another. She bore five children and raised them to be individuals—and, oh, what individuals we are. She showed us how to live, with dirt under our nails and virtue in our hearts. She gave me the gift of dance and showed me it was okay to be eccentric, even if the “cool” girls didn’t like me for it. She loved us so much, she gave us all her trust, even when we didn’t deserve it. This woman, my mother, never gave up. She tried for seven years to have her children, and she walked down the graduation aisle at 57. My mother has never stopped.

Mrs. Gerard is the second. She was a woman I thought I would never understand, or who would never understand me. But she cared. She cared so much, she didn’t let me go. I’ll never forget what hell I raised in her class at age 15. I was just a scared little teenager who thought she knew which way was up, but Mrs. Gerard  knew who I really was. She took me on a walk around the school track one day during class. Though that walk was part of her curriculum, she taught me something bigger. I learned through her the value of my talents, and how to raise my standards. She showed me how to apply the morals and virtues that had been upheld in my home. She was the first one to believe in me, the first one to bring me up to my capacities. It’s thanks to her I went to college.

Mrs. Gerard’s influence may have gotten me to college, but there is a third woman who took that experience to the ultimate. This chocolate woman showed me what real diversity means. This beautiful African queen showed me how to accept myself and how to learn about others. If it wasn’t for her chance encounter with Madonna, I would still be that cooped-up, scared little girl riding down the path of mediocrity. Tanisha McIntosh showed me how to stand up to my bullies—the greatest one being myself. She pushed me to my potential, and loved me when I reached my limit. She never gave up, not even when I threw in the towel. She showed me that my passions were not just quirks, that my drive was not just juvenile dreams. I learned how to love people through Tanisha, and I learned how to forgive.

I don’t know if any of these women will know just how much they have helped formed me. I don’t know if any of these three will ever receive the right amount of thanks they truly deserve for the work they have done. These three women have not just impacted my life, but the lives of so many others. And through them, I will be able to show the young, scared, unsure girls I encounter just how beautiful they are, too. Had it not been for my mother, I would be dead—killed by my poor choices and naivete. Had it not been for Mrs. Gerard, I would be inept, completely unaware of my talents, and completely unable to apply my interests.  If it wasn’t for Tanisha, I would be stuck, glued to a world of denial and ignorance. I would still be bound by my stereotypes and useless to myself. I thank these three woman for the world they have shown me and the life—and the abundance of it—they have given me. I will never be the same.