I moved to this country when I was 14 having finished my first four year of secondary school on the island of St. Lucia in the eastern Caribbean. Being brought up in the British system, I was ahead of my American peers, but showing up with no school records, three days after a hurricane had crippled the island, administrators had me repeat 10th grade due to my age. Three years later and now in my fourth high school, having moved following my father’s career as a surgeon, I prepared to leave Miami, FL, for Boston University. My father had shaken the hand of his 17 year-old son, told him to be a man, and saw me off onto the plane that would take me to a city I had never been to, and in which had no relatives, to make the best of my academic scholarship and college career.
Most of my friends in college understood that my being asked to function well multiculturally, was much more of a challenge than being multiracial and expected to identify as one race or another. At nineteen I dropped out of school, having been asked to accommodate too much, too young. When I refused to move back home, my father cut me off financially, to be a man. The shock of being self-sufficient, of finding my way back to solid ground as I established my independence, taught me more about myself and life than any university program could. It also allowed me to rekindle my relationship with my father, who while keeping his medical practice open took law degree at night at 58 and passed the bar three years later. This is my second masters degree. I remain the only person of African descent to have taught at RSF School, and am also a resident of the community. My path is not anyone else’s right path, but it prepared me to be comfortable with being perpetually and inescapably unique. Many years ago I decided I could either believe that I fit in nowhere, or that I fit it everywhere. I chose the latter. My father’s story is partly my story too, because through him I could envision myself anyone and achieving anything I wanted. It continues to shape my own expectations, and those of my students too. Self-belief, talent, hard work, support, and luck -- those make the elixir!
1 Comment
Emily Halbig
11/4/2016 07:49:38 pm
Thank you for sharing this story, Stephen. What a fascinating and unique life you have lived so far! I love how you close by pointing out that your path is no one else's. I believe that will impact you tremendously as an administrator as you will also recognize that each child's path is unique, filled with challenges, and that he/she brings their own gifts to the school and community in which they live.
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