Olivia McLean – First Place Winner
12th Grade
Forest Hills Eastern High School
Liberty
In 1953, a zealous young 22 year-old African American woman graduated at the head of her class from Hampton Institute in Virginia, an all-black university, with a Bachelor’s degree in education. She was well aware that the only jobs available for African American women in the 1950s were cooking, cleaning, and looking after children: housekeeping. Yet she was determined to interact with people, and she felt her degree should allow her to do that through teaching. As she set out on her first job interviews, she expressed a fervid love of interacting with people to each potential future employer. However, the deeper she delved into her job search, the more her determination began to dwindle, and her attitude swung from impassioned to frustrated to discouraged. “We don’t hire people like you” they said. “We don’t employ niggers” one man said. Disheartened and somewhat-defeated, the woman settled. She settled for working as a secretary, she settled for a being paid a fraction of what her degree warranted, she settled for a career she did not choose.
Ten years later, the year was 1963: the beginning of the era of civil rights, the era of liberty. Once she was endowed with an array of possible opportunities by way of the growing civil rights movement, the woman returned to school. Knowing that her passion was interacting, connecting, and assisting people, she acquired a Master’s Degree in Psychology. Finally, she seized an opportunity to finally do what she had wanted to do 15 years before, and took a job with the federal government aiding in doing psychological evaluations and therapy for soldiers returning from war zones. Finally, she had succeeded. My grandmother, Marion Staton, had succeeded in capturing the career she had relentlessly, fiercely—and at last—effectively worked for.
Walking through the halls of Forest Hills, most students have never missed a pool party, a school dance, a meal. Often times the modest essentials of life are overlooked as automatic amenities. The opportunity that is presented to you for an education, career, and future can frequently be taken for granted just as the necessities of life are. But personally, I have recognized education and success as a liberty, not a given right. My grandmother is a daily reminder of the opportunity I am being given to be educated in one of the best schooling districts in our state. Through her inspirational example I am encouraged to actualize what I see for myself in the near future. The obstacles and encumbrance my grandmother had to overcome in order to not only get a job but also an education are a reminder of how much liberty I truly have today. Nearing the end of my high school career, I am able to attend any college or university I’ve been ambitious enough to get accepted to, choose any career I see fit, and choose any path of life I see pleasing. To me, liberty is the freedom to refuse to settle.
