Growing up in the south in the early 1900’s can be tough for a person who is a person of colored specialty when there’s Jim Crow Laws and no rights for anybody who is not white. My people just getting torture, kidnaped and even getting killed all because of our color of skin. But also, if you’re a woman, it can be really hard for people to respect you. There’s no rights for women as we can’t vote and do other stuff like men. Sometimes I wished I was white and a male. I could do so much stuff, but only one can imagine such thing. Growing up as women of the church have realized that everything happens for a reason. If the lord made me green or yellow, then it was for some reason and I should be grateful for the person he created.
When going to school, I was so happy to go to school as I would learn so much things especially science class when we learned about space. I was always a big nerd, I would be top of my class, I would also get 100’s on every test. But the class I enjoyed the most had to be science. I can talk endless hours about space and how there’s millions and millions of planets out there but maybe some other time. I always wonder how long it must have taken G-d to create those planets. I always wanted to be a scientist, so I can work and study space.
Coming home was not my favorite part of the day because that’s when reality struck in. I was always glad to see my parents and my brothers, but it was the conditions that we were living that made me hate life. My house was very small and was made out of any material we can use. When it would rain, there would just be water pouring in from the roof but at least we had a roof over my head. We have two rooms, one of the room is the kitchen/living room and the other room was my parents, brother, and me. It was crowed but I like that because I was with my family and I felt save. We also have land where we grow a range of vegetables. We usually grow them to eat but sometimes we have to sell them to make money. I like when we don’t have to sell crops because when we don’t we eat like kings, but that rarely happens.
I love my family as they are the reason they keep me going. My dad is the best dad in the world as, I’m his favorite one. He has taught me so much stuff. But sadly, he is missing one hand. He says that it was an accident, but I don’t believe, I know what really happened. Then there’s my mom who I love and admire. She is a strong woman, sometimes I think she’s stronger then my dad. She works, cleans and cooks. Then there’s my older brother who is the best. When my dad is not at the house he takes the role of being my dad/brother. He dropped out of school to work at the farm. I know I had to drop out of school to work in the farms, but my brother dropped out, so I wouldn’t have to, and for that I’m truly grateful. I always thought to myself that I would be somebody important who would earn enough money, so I would help my family out, but at that time it would be something that I thought would never happen.
After graduating from school with perfect grade, a nice gentleman came to me and asked me to study at their university. But I didn’t want to go because we didn’t have enough
money for college. But he started to laugh, and he then said that it would be paid for free. At first, I didn’t believe him but after asking him 100 times if it was a joke, he said no. I was so happy that I went to hug my family and told them that “You guys are the reason why I keep going”. The day before I left to college, I spent the whole day thinking about my family and I don’t want to let them down. When it was the day to leave I told them “I would not let you down guys”. When I went to school I only saw white males and I just saw everybody staring at me like if had something on my face, but it was just the fact that my skin color was different from them. When I would want to raise my hand, people would just make fun of me. I was upset that people didn’t respect, this one time this person just wrote whore at my door. But that really didn’t stop me as I got every 100 on every test and I would often make my professors happy, but they were too scared to show their feelings for a person of colored. As time pass everybody respected me because they saw who was as a person. After graduating one of my favorite professor had told me they had a job at NASA, I couldn’t describe how happy I was. I accept the job and I couldn’t wait to start.
It was 1950’s and it was the space race. We were in a race with the USSR to see who was the better country. Me and two other ladies were working on how to launch a rocket at right angle. After cracking the answer, we were applauded because of our work and that made me the happies person ever.
After arguing with this ignorant man, I concluded that all people who judges a person because the way they look are really ignorant people. Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I have no talent. They also have no idea what I have done to be where I’m today. The only one who can judge me is G-d.
Javier,
Beautiful work you’ve done here — you’re really challenging yourself to create a fully fleshed out character, with love for her family and her own passions and skills… a really great job!
For now, this reads like a bit of a biographical note — like she’s telling someone most of her life story, kind of summing herself up for someone. And that’s totally, totally amazing. I really love what you’re doing here.
I would also encourage you to explore, though, the power of distilling this into one story — instead of a snapshot of her whole life in summary, perhaps a snapshot of a single moment, taking place on a single day or week or so. You don’t have to go in this direction, of course, but I think it might help you flex your writing muscles even more. That said, this is gorgeous as is. I think you’ve done a really great job constructing this woman.
Have you done some research into women in NASA at the time? That might help flesh things out even more!
Keep going — you’re doing brilliantly!
JP