This week, I am not writing about an article that I read or something I heard on the news because nothing that I saw/ read really inspired me to write about and I’m not going to write just to write because that will be boring for you an me. Today my civic issues blog is based on some personal feelings I have about education.
Two weeks ago I got the extreme pleasure to sit and listen to a “story” that was told by a Mr. Fiston Kahindo. This name is most likely meaningless to you and it was to me until I heard him speak. The story that Mr. Kahindo told was his own story of how he came to the United States and how he’s gotten to where he is today. His story is one of tragedy, trials, tribulations and… education.
To not go into too much detail, Mr. Kahindo lost both of his parents at a very young age. Due to the unsafe environment of his native country the Congo, he was forced to flee on foot to Kenya with his brother. There they lived in various slums and refugee camps until Fiston proved himself to be a good scholar and earned a scholarship to a boarding school far away from the camp. From there, Fiston’s soccer coach put him in contact with a young American women who got him an application to a prestigious high school in the New England area. He applied and got accepted, including a full ride scholarship to the school. That, I might allow myself to say, seemed like the easy part of the journey. Then he had to arrange travel and find the money to do so. Fiston put all of his energy into getting the documents necessary to fly to the U.S. This included a passport from the Congo, which he did not have and he couldn’t go back to the Congo to get it because it was too dangerous and a Visa which required all sorts of documentation that he did not have. But he tried anyway with what he did have: his student I.D. card from the high school and a piece of paper proving his scholarship. He eventually obtained a passport, visa and plane tickets. He packed up the few possessions he had and he left his brother behind in Kenya. He arrived in a country where he didn’t know anyone and didn’t speak the language and he started going to school. His first semester he barely passed because of the language barriers but he kept trying.
Today, Mr. Kahindo has both an undergraduate and graduate degree and he works for the International Rescue Commission.
Hearing this story made me re-realize how much I undervalue and take for granted my own education. Since I was five and even before, I have never not gone to school and I have never had to “fight” to go. Instead, I spent my high school years wishing for snow days so that I could sleep in and complaining about the workload or “stupid” things teachers did (don’t get me wrong, I really did enjoy school… but still). I never thought about the fact that I know how to read and write and how important that is. I never really considered that some never had the chance to learn those basic skills because they didn’t have the chance to go to school. For me, school has never been a question mark. It’s been a constant. I didn’t think about how fortunate I was because of this.
Education is a privilege and I treat it as if it were a right. I need to start respecting it more and appreciating it more for how truly fortunate I am to be here at this desk where I am writing this blog post.