Satisfying My Soul

Most people in life want monetary or materialistic things, I, however, want to satisfy my mind, spirit, and heart. Of course, I want the typical American dream of a home, car, and wealth, but I also want to be happy in the ways I achieve those things. I want to help people who are struggling as I have experienced the struggle myself. When I die, I want to be remembered as a superwoman who has always ground for her loved ones and for people who I barely knew out of the goodness of my heart. I want to be remembered such as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X. I want to be the black face of the disabled world. 

Black lives matter and a lot of people who are deaf have told me that they wish they had more people that looked like them. Whether it be an interpreter, a speech therapist, or an advocate for them to get equal rights in job opportunities. Knowing that I possess melanin, I want to utilize it to the fullest extent and I want people to feel comfortable with me. I have always been personable and I aim to get better at doing so with all types of people. Currently, I know more about the deaf and hard of hearing community more than other disabled communities, but I love to learn and I plan on fulfilling my heart by self-educating myself constantly throughout my life. I plan on being an entrepreneur in many ways and giving my children a head start in life by exposing them to the difficulties other people face on a day to day basis. I will teach them the importance of learning, loving, and giving and hope that they become successful young men who also continue that onto future generations to come.

I know that I don't have life figured out and that I may not even be certain that anything I say I want to do now will be what I want to do in the future, and that's okay. However, I am already proud of the steps I am making towards getting there. Throughout this first semester being back in college, I have been homeless, pregnant, battling whether or not I want a divorce, and receiving straight A's. I have also FINALLY, conquered homelessness as I have just received great news that I got accepted into a low-income apartment on the same street I lived on when my homelessness began! Wow, how life came around full circle. One day, I hope that I write a book and direct a movie on my life because it is certainly one I aim to share with others in order to inspire. Recently, I have already begun that process by partaking in an interview the homeless shelter initiated for their website and shared my story on my journey of life as a homeless mother. Eventually, that footage can be apart of the movie people watch to remember me by. I also hope to be so wealthy, that I can one day give out scholarships for other individuals with powerful stories for helping them end their homeless journies or helping them go through college. Everyone deserves a chance to thrive and I want to be that unselfish person to help them get there.

Grateful For School

I am a former student of a closed down college called Wheelock College. In 2015, I graduated from a high school called Boston Day and Evening Academy (BDEA), at the age of 19 years old with three scholarships, one of which was a $10,000 scholarship from Comcast.

Receiving a surprise $10,000 Scholarship from Latoya Edwards at the State House.

I got the scholarship for the countless hours of community service I did while also being homeless and getting great grades. Although I wasn't the Valedictorian, the graduation seemed to be mostly about me. The Comcast scholarship got used completely in less than two months just with room and board alone and I ended up dropping out without finishing a semester. A lot of people that surrounded me were upset at my decision for leaving college, but no one took the time to actually ask me why I left. The person who understood me the most ended up being the only person who stood by and applauded my decision and he is now my husband. Years later, the very reason why I left Wheelock College ended up being the reason the school got permanently shut down.

Formally named Marianna McNeil when I got the scholarship, this was the picture taken on the article written about me if one wants to learn more.

This year, the Wheelock College campus is now officially Boston University and the campus. Everything is the same except for the plaque being change to the correct school's name. When I attended Wheelock, there was a race war going on and for someone like me who stood for social justice and went on a Civil Rights Tour the summer before, I was not going to stay at a school that was so disorganized. The president of Wheelock College at the time was a black woman and she chose another black staff member to be the vice president. An anonymous professor became jealous and ran the new vice president's welcome letter through a plagiarizing system only the teachers have access to and sent it out to the press accusing her of plagiarizing a part of Harvard's welcome letter. It was assumed by the majority of the students that a white professor was accountable for this and students began chalking protests on the sidewalks of the campus. The lunchroom also became segregated by race as everyone had their own opinions on this issue. I became depressed by not only that, but I was also being bullied by my own dance teammates as I was apart of the dance team, and sexual rumors were also being spread about me. I became a pothead, smoking marijuana every day as a way to cope with all of this stress and I eventually dropped out for 3 years.

Fast forward to the present and I am now getting A's on all of my assignments at Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC), a college I wish I brought my scholarship to instead.

A photo of the college I now attend.

This school has so many more opportunities and great professors that I connect with of all races at a much cheaper price. I even have the opportunity to take online courses, and with me being induced to have my second son in just 5 weeks, I will be able to take all of my courses online next semester. I wish I was educated more in high school about debt and what I would be getting myself into at a four-year institution, but I am grateful that I now have a smarter plan this time around. I will be attending BHCC for the next two years studying liberal arts and taking as many classes as possible, even though the summers with plans to maintain great grades so that I can transfer to Emmerson College to study communication disorders. With this plan, I will be saving a ton of money since my first two years will be done at community college prices! The staff at BHCC and Emmerson helped me develop this plan and told me which classes would be necessary for a smooth transfer and what grades I would need to get. Not only are the staff great at my college, but the bookstore also enables me to make sure I have my required textbooks on time every semester with my leftover financial aid. I am so grateful for BHCC, and if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be able to be a homeless pupil yet again!