I am the Privileged

So I've been thinking a lot, and when I say a lot, I mean A LOT! I'm at a writing workshop with the intent to write (duh), read, and become a better teacher and writer/thinker, and its been working so far... I feel like I've gained insight, strategies, and new innovative lessons to develop confidence and literacy skills.

But heres my TRUE epiphany:
My whole life I've thought of myself as under-privdledged. Coming from the "lower class", raised in extreme poverty where sometimes we had no food to eat as we looked through our broken windows so, I mean, getting out of that MENTALLY needs to be gradual, not just a train collision shift thrown in my face by some "outsider".

Well, to get to the point, I feel like these last few days have been the culmination of my journey out of poverty, out of the mentality of the poor, out of the victimization of myself and into a world where I have opportunities-- they have now been presented to me in a intricately wrapped package. I am studying and learning along side people from the upper crust of society, I now have the voice, vision and talent to be who I want to be, when only a few years ago, I could never say that because even though I might have been living it, I didn't feel it.

Today, right now, I am studying creative writing in one of the most elite private schools in the USA. Where George Bush Senior and Junior studied, where grand artists, lawyers and visionaries made their way.

I am studying with the best of the best, in the hopes of becoming the best to make a footprint in the world, and not just "educate", because who really am I to educate YOU? I am here to make positive change in the world, to empower young people to be active citizens, and for me to pass on the knowledge that I have absorbed. To make my mark on this world with words and actions and to live faithfully to myself and my environment.

Literacy is a privilege, taking off from work to better yourself is a privilege, following your passion is a privilege, traveling is a privilege... I have become privileged.

I come from the forgotten class but I refuse to let "them" forget me.