in my feels: graduation season
cw: sadness, jail, oppression
it's graduation season.
as a mentor and an old ass cousin/sibling, i attend a lot of graduations and i love it. a graduation is a a type of success. it takes a lot of work and overcoming obstacles to reach a success, so i wholeheartedly love celebrating people who do that™.
today i attended the graduation of two of my lil mentee sibs and a graduation/end of year party at the "village" that i mentor at. today has been a day filled with so much emotion for me. so much happiness at being in the space with the youth again. so much happiness and pride and thrill at all the success in the air and for my mentees reaching a milestone in their lives. i'm proud, in the truest sense of the word; there's no other way to say it. watching my mentees grow over the years has been amazing and beautiful. to know where they come from, to see where they've made it, and where they want to move forward teaches me so much about how to live. i'm excited to see how they grow next and to continue to grow with them 🌱 ✊
i wouldn't be honest if i didn't say that today wasn't also little bittersweet for me. at the party tonight we spoke with one of our village siblings over video chat from jail. i have hilarious memories with him, many of which are of him being quite annoying, as many memories of younger siblings are. i was so happy to see him healthy and doing as well as anyone can be in jail. our sibling is succeeding in his own way, despite his circumstances. seeing him grow over the years and even in these past few months has been heartwarming and makes me so proud.
but speaking with him also reminded me that there are people who couldn't reach this milestone with us, for so many reasons. the road to success is a winding one and today reminds me of the people who are left behind, locked in cages at a young age, people who are pushed off of that road, and who have so many obstacles put in their way, because the people who have power can't stand to see us shine. seeing our sibling today reminded me of the systematic oppression in place that makes it that much harder for youth of color to succeed.
tears fell from my eyes as i felt proud of our sibling for his accomplishments, as i saw that he was healthy and smiling, as i missed him on the outside. tears fell from my eyes as i thought back to those who came before me. my cousins and aunts and uncles dropped in the unfamiliar usa at a young age, demonized and criminalized by a system meant to protect them and blaming themselves for society's faults. tears fell from my eyes as i saw the cycle repeat itself. the road to success could have been so much easier. my tears weren't just for today, these tears go back much farther than that.
it's graduation season.
as a mentor and an old ass cousin/sibling, i attend a lot of graduations and i love it. a graduation is a a type of success. it takes a lot of work and overcoming obstacles to reach a success, so i wholeheartedly love celebrating people who do that™.
today i attended the graduation of two of my lil mentee sibs and a graduation/end of year party at the "village" that i mentor at. today has been a day filled with so much emotion for me. so much happiness at being in the space with the youth again. so much happiness and pride and thrill at all the success in the air and for my mentees reaching a milestone in their lives. i'm proud, in the truest sense of the word; there's no other way to say it. watching my mentees grow over the years has been amazing and beautiful. to know where they come from, to see where they've made it, and where they want to move forward teaches me so much about how to live. i'm excited to see how they grow next and to continue to grow with them 🌱 ✊
i wouldn't be honest if i didn't say that today wasn't also little bittersweet for me. at the party tonight we spoke with one of our village siblings over video chat from jail. i have hilarious memories with him, many of which are of him being quite annoying, as many memories of younger siblings are. i was so happy to see him healthy and doing as well as anyone can be in jail. our sibling is succeeding in his own way, despite his circumstances. seeing him grow over the years and even in these past few months has been heartwarming and makes me so proud.
but speaking with him also reminded me that there are people who couldn't reach this milestone with us, for so many reasons. the road to success is a winding one and today reminds me of the people who are left behind, locked in cages at a young age, people who are pushed off of that road, and who have so many obstacles put in their way, because the people who have power can't stand to see us shine. seeing our sibling today reminded me of the systematic oppression in place that makes it that much harder for youth of color to succeed.
tears fell from my eyes as i felt proud of our sibling for his accomplishments, as i saw that he was healthy and smiling, as i missed him on the outside. tears fell from my eyes as i thought back to those who came before me. my cousins and aunts and uncles dropped in the unfamiliar usa at a young age, demonized and criminalized by a system meant to protect them and blaming themselves for society's faults. tears fell from my eyes as i saw the cycle repeat itself. the road to success could have been so much easier. my tears weren't just for today, these tears go back much farther than that.
I always feel bittersweet at graduations. I’m there to celebrate the achievements of folks near to my heart that I know have overcome some really tough shit, but my thoughts always trickle away to those who weren’t so lucky. I saw lucky because the choices we as brown and queer and woman and other marginalizations make aren’t the only factors. Systemic oppression gets in the way of so many people getting to that point of graduation. So I honor the persons accomplishment and not the graduation in and of itself. Success looks different and I try not to attach intrinsic worth to systems that weren’t made for us to succeed.
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