Capturing the Precious Things: A Reflection from Malkia
Hi everybody! Emma here. Malkia, my great friend who I interviewed (click here to read that!), wrote a reflection on education, one of the most important things in her family’s life. This is so beautiful and am so excited for you to read it! I hope you enjoy:).
written by Malkia
I was born in a big family
I have five adorable siblings
Since we were kids we all enjoyed going to school. I was the curious one and liked to ask questions.
School was my favorite place ever because there, I could read all kind of different books that made me see the world differently as I was growing up.
My mother was a secretary and an accountant at a high school in my country.
It was all good
My siblings and I went to a private school. Our mother was the only person who was taking care of us and the school fee was very expensive.
Can you imagine how she had to pay school fees for six kids?
So we worked hard as always.
We wanted to make her feel proud of us.
We all are really smart and we try our best.
A few years later the system of the country changed, and they started firing people who did not speak English.
My mother is a French speaker, so she lost her job because she wasn’t an English speaker.
Things started to get hard. Mom wasn’t able to afford our school fees anymore.
But the school principal said we could study for free for 2 years because we really were hard working students. We even helped our classmates.
Then after those two years
My big brother Walter, my little sister Esther and I stopped to go to school so Mama could at least keep paying the school fees for the three little ones.
My big brother started working in a studio, my mother started selling jewelries, and my little sister Louise (Esther) and I started taking care of the house and tutoring our little siblings after school.
Even though we couldn’t go to school anymore, we’d stay home reading books and revising things that we studied 3 years ago because we always kept our notebooks.
We would teach our siblings things we learned.
Taking care of our little siblings was really fun, amazing, and easy because they listened.
Even though we couldn’t go to school we still would read books everyday and watch the news.
I once was walking in the neighborhood and I met 6 kids. It was around 11am and I asked them, “Aren’t you supposed to be at school?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be at school?”
And one of them replied
“Our parents can’t pay our school fees, they already have a hard time feeding us. How can they pay for our school fees?”
Tears start running into my eyes
And I realized how privileged some people are
Some people really want to be educated while others don’t care and waste their time.
As Koffi Annan says “Education is the premise of progress” and I knew that if you are educated you really do have a lot of opportunities in life
I grew up with a lot of dreams and goals. When I realized that my mother couldn’t afford my school fee I felt like my dreams were falling apart.
I really felt bad.
But that didn’t stop me from dreaming and working hard. I always had a positive attitude. I just like to look at the bright side of things
One thing I knew about school was
Of course school is difficult
It’s always difficult to capture the precious things. To succeed in life we must sacrifice ourselves sometimes. We have to work hard and sometimes we work hard to become the kinds of people who parents can be proud of, who friends can be proud of, who brothers and sisters can be proud of and above all whom you must be proud of.
And that’s what I wanted but what I wanted more was to be happy.
Sometimes I’d be desperate
And then after one month we got a call saying that we were going to the United States of America. All I could picture in my mind was me going to the library to get books and me in class. It really was the best feeling knowing that I was going back to school. I went in my room and I prayed and thanked God for everything he has done for me.
Now I’m going to school for free. I really am focusing on my education because I know how important education is and especially now because I know how lucky/blessed I am.
Even if it gets hard, I still am going to work hard to achieve my dreams.
Some people are not educated and they wish they were. I really don’t want to give up on anything. I still am going to keep doing my best.
We have to work hard and sometimes we work hard to become the kinds of people who parents can be proud of, who friends can be proud of, who brothers and sisters can be proud of and above all whom you must be proud of.