KANDANCE FERRARI

Never let anyone steal your dreams. Never let the word can't stop you. The old saying that every parent has said to their child, "You can do anything you set your mind to" is a very true statement.

All of that advise I just gave you I did not follow and to a degree I regret that I didn't follow it. From as far back as grade school, I've always wanted to be a journalist. I would tell my mother all the time, "When I get to high school, I'm taking all classes leading to journalism. And then College.

Fast-forward to High School the journey begins. The paperwork for entering High School has arrived and my mother and I are sitting at the kitchen table choosing what courses we think would be good to begin my life in Journalism.

My high school years were in the times of busing black students to white schools. When I entered into high school it was September 1974. towards the beginning of the busing situation. The integration of the students was beginning to adjust to the change, but still knife-cutting tension in the environment but better.

My ninth grade year was good, as good as a first year in anything new in life. It didn't take long for the tide to begin to turn. I prided myself in being a great student. Keeping great grades I was told will get you a long way. Half way through my tenth grade year I began to have problems. Grades started to come up among the missing mysteriously. Dates that I was in class were marked as me being absent. Their problem was they weren't expecting my family to be intelligent enough to keep records of everything we do. My father was a police officer, as a matter of fact the first Black Captain on the police force of our Capital City of our State. I kept all of my test papers, essay, homework assignments, etc., and I also kept a journal of my days in school. My journal was going to be one of the books that I was going to write in the future. At a meeting my father arranged with the Superintendent, I was able to get my grades back and my attendance corrected.

Needless to say the next year and a half would be extremely rough. They kept nick picking at me for every little thing until they thought would give good reason to put me out. I was called into the guidance councilor's office one day for her to ask me what I wanted to be after graduation. I told her to continue my education working to become a Journalist. She told me that I would never become a journalist because of the Era in which we live. Also not being attractive enough for television.

I became pregnant (which is another story) and they finally had their reason to put me out my eleventh grade year. I went to summer school all day for a little over three month and was able to obtain the credits I needed to still be able to graduate in my senior year with my class. That was a great feeling, to be able to graduate with all the obstacles placed in my way. That message I received from that experience was "Don't Dream It's Over"