Living the Dream

What am I doing with my life, where am I going, what kind of impact do I want to make on my community around me and eventually the world. These are the questions that were presented to me during the living the dream assembly. This was a thought provoking assembly full of black history stories, facts, and dreams come true.

Anthony Mclean, the speaker of this event, brought me through his life experience of being a black child in a white neighbourhood and with a white mother. He talked about his childhood and his difficulty trying to find his true identity in the midst of stereotypes. He also took the audience through a journey of the civil rights movement and made known the past struggles our ancestors had to face.

Anthony also talked about what it means to be black in today’s society. This question seemed simple but actually opened my eyes to the “new racism” in this world. It is racism that states black are uneducated, ghetto, and gangsters. If a black person doesn’t fit that mould, they are considered “white washed”. Unfortunately this stereotype is negative and it can sometimes force people to adapt to it and eventually become what they weren’t destined to be.

From this assembly, I started to think about my future and what I am doing with my life now. I looked at the people that were before like Martin Luther King Jr. and I see the impact he made on his community and on other places in the world. This inspired me to revaluate my life and my goals. I want to be talked about in the future generations and inspire other young people to do great things.

I realized that I need to live out my dream. In order for that to happen I need to start to dream big dreams, and make a plan that will lead up to my dream. I need to be persistent, and determined to reach my full potential.