The Importance Of My Life

Since I can remember, my family has reminded me that I can become whoever I want to become. Never did I think any different throughout my grade school and high school years. Teachers and administrations, alike, reiterated the possibilities that my family had instilled in me. Graduating high school a semester early, I believed all that I had been told. It was not until mass tragedy struck that I began to question if I could really become whoever I dared to become. In essence, society has and continues to shape my perception of what my future really can become.

Witnessing the first inauguration of an African American on January 20, 2009, encouraged my belief that my future held endless avenues for success. At the young age of 13, I was excited to watch the milestone in which the African American race took pride. As I sat in my sixth-grade classroom watching the inauguration ceremony, we African American students were in awe of Beyonce 's flawless performance. Though we knew that history was made that day, we did not fully understand the importance of the milestone. All we knew is that an African American family would enter the White House for the first time. All we really knew is that we would watch and model after African American first daughters for the first time. Like the rest of the world, we saw the tears of

Watching CNN and seeing that in Charleston, South Carolina at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church (a historically African American church) nine church members were dead of a fatal shooting really scared me. To make matters worse, the shooting took place on a Wednesday night during Bible class. The news transcript explained that twenty-one-year-old, Dylan Roof, sat through entire church service before opening fire on innocent victims (Tauber 4). Roof 's trial was set for July 11, 2016, where he could face the death