“You can never unlearn something,” said professor Cammilleri, my English 101 teacher. One doesn’t realize the power of education until one is educated. I’ve always been hungry for knowledge. Not because I crave power, but because I consider myself caring. The popular saying “Ignorance is bliss”, signifies the state of serenity that ignorance gives you; not knowing about something, therefore not worrying about it. I want to be a journalist because I want to make people care. I want to dig and find, then share those discoveries with an audience, with the world. Once an audience discovers the dirt under the gold, that can’t be unlearned. I want to be a journalist because I want to be a source of education, to awaken society from obliviousness and ignorance, and use that as a source of impact for collective growth.
Change is progress, and progress is necessary for growth. All successful movements of change in America began with an educated leader. Malcolm X wrote in a section of his autobiography, “Learning How To Read”, “My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness, and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America” (3). In this excerpt, Malcolm X reveals the impact education had on his leadership and initiative as a human rights activist in the civil rights movement, a movement that impacted America’s government and society as a whole. The Civil Rights Act, added to the constitution in 1964, outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and ethnicity in America. Change is a result of education.
Worrying and caring are not the same thing. Being aware and conscious is not directly, and shouldn’t be, a cause for worrying. One can learn and be educated and still be in a state of serenity while caring about the truth. Once we learn the truth, that truth can’t be unlearned, and then we are forced to care. Learning and caring are interrelated. One ought to care, to be aware and conscious to then generate change and progress. Education is the Enlightenment Era, and ignorance is the Gilded Age.
I discovered I was a writer when, at eight years old, my dad told me and my brother that he loved his girlfriend more than he loved us. It was a rough night. After this impactful event, my mind was in turmoil. Undecipherable thoughts and emotions that once written down turned into a lyrical quality I denominated as poetry. And then I knew, this is how I am meant to speak my truth, through my written word.
I am a writer. Despite my attempt to be greater for a greater cause, I am still just human. I write for passion and self-fulfillment. In my introduction, I mentioned my hunger for knowledge and the world. Every word I write is influenced by a word once read. Through my writing, I educate myself, and hopefully, I’ll get to educate others one day. I aspire to be a journalist to make an impact. Once we find the truth, that can’t be unlearned. Through my writing, I want to be a tool to end ignorance. Once we learn the truth, we can fix what’s been broken.
