Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?' Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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1 BIO I was born and raised right in the heart of St. Louis. Although taught by two loving parents and mistreated by two little brothers, I never was a people person. I sort of grew into it when I got involved in the youth ministry at my church. I have gone on six mission trips around the country and to Mexico, and in one of these trips I went as a counselor. While on these trips, I worked with other youths to help build and paint houses in the community and I also helped teach children of the community songs, games, and crafts, and I also interacted with them in other various activities. Even now I am considering becoming an official youth worker at my church, West Side Missionary Baptist Church. I am a devoted church member who loves to see people become better individuals. In addition to this, I have maintained about a 3.5 GPA throughout my educational career, from kindergarten through college. I have played on football, basketball, and baseball teams and have greatly enjoyed these times, but now, I realize I have a greater calling on my life: to be a teacher. I never would have imagined that out of all things I would grow up to be a teacher, but I am. However, I will only be doing this for a season. My main goal in life is to become a pastor of a church that walks in victory through demonstrating its love for both God and man. Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?' Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1

2 This Is Me Culture Essay This Is Me: Under Construction Earnest Wills Final Draft February 10, 2009 Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, But be transformed by the renewing of your mind - Romans 12:2 I have never been the type to let other people and outside influences determine my selfidentity. I believe no one should allow external factors determine who they are. However, I realize that certain entities, namely faith, family, and race, have profoundly impacted my life. My faith secures the assuming role in defining my cultural construct. My faith in Jesus Christ stands as the foundation of my entire life. The desires that He gave me, the desire to help others in need and see people who struggled learn how to prosper, make me want to reach out to students to help them better themselves. Jesus gave me a passion to help young men and women grow and develop into citizens that will generate a positive difference in their community. My relationship with Jesus is not the only aspect of my faith that has influenced me, but church life has played a part as well. Church taught me to be grateful as I worked in mission fields for people less fortunate, yet seeing them smile more often than I do. I have gone on six mission trips, and while I go to bless the poor, they end up blessing me instead. When I saw 2

3 children whose parents could not afford shoes run and jump and play like they did not have a care in the world, it got me thinking about the many times I asked my parents for some new shoes when there was absolutely nothing wrong with the shoes that I had. Their disregard for materialism and unconditional love for life taught me that the things of this world fail in comparison to the importance of family, friends, and faith. I want to impart this lesson to my students. I will expose them to some of the communities and cultures that I have been a part of and show my students how the people of these communities live everyday. I will bring in pictures, read memoirs and news articles, whatever I can do to teach them about other cultures that may be experiencing extreme poverty, and hopefully they will learn the same lesson of gratitude that I learned when I was their age. My pastor, Rev. Dr. Ronald L. Bobo, Sr. is also a part of my church-life that has had a profound influence on me. Around the time I joined West Side Missionary Baptist Church, it was the largest black church in St. Louis at the time, so I saw my pastor as some big-time celebrity who probably does not care about some skinny little kid like me. But one day, when I was about nine or ten years-old, he was walking down the hall and when I saw him, I turned away in pure intimidation. But as soon as he saw me, he stopped me and inquired about my name. As scared as I was, my soft tone still managed to squeak out, Earnest. Then he smiled softly, said, Nice to meet you, and walked into his office and closed the door behind him. I have never forgotten that day, the day I learned the true meaning of humility. Pastor Bobo showed me that no matter how far someone goes in life, to never view another person as insignificant for any reason. Just by saying hello and asking my name, he showed me that because all people are valuable in God s eyes, they all should be valuable in ours. 3

4 I am proud to say that I would not have known Jesus if it were not for my family. Every Sunday, my mom would wake me and my little brother up early in the morning to go to church. She always felt that church and having a relationship with God were the most important things in her life, even more than her job. She taught me to love God and to be kind to people no matter what they do to you or how much you may not like them. My mom and dad have always been there for us (us includes me and my four brothers and one sister). However, family life has had its trouble. There were some painful secrets that my parents had, and I have brothers and other family members with drug problems. Certain circumstances in my family have made me feel like I had to step up and be what my other siblings could not be. This May, I will become the first of my father s children to graduate college, the first out of three previous. It was sort of a chip that I carried on my shoulder for my whole life (so much for not letting others influence me!). Recently, I have come to understand that I do not have to carry this chip anymore because I do not have to prove anything to myself or my family. So slowly, but surely, I have been taking the burden off of my back of being my siblings savior. But for the most part, I grew up in a stable home and always had food and other necessities of life, and then some. But something did make us stand out: I was a part of a successful, middle-class black family. Now that s something that you don t hear everyday. Yea I am black, and my skin color has definitely impacted me. I went to high school at Brentwood HS, a small school in a suburb about fifteen minutes from downtown St. Louis. I got to Brentwood in the 8 th grade. At this time in my life I didn t know much about with people, except for what I saw on TV, meaning I thought they were all rich. Of course, I soon discovered that I was wrong, that my family actually had more money than a lot of white families. My family got to where it is because of hard work and a good education, so my parents made sure that I worked hard in school. When I was a sophomore, I 4

5 heard two white teachers talking about me; one of them was my history teacher. He had recently graded my first test, of which I earned a 99%. He was telling the other teacher, I didn t know he was smart! Her reply, Yea, me neither. The word awe undermines what I was actually feeling once I heard this. I knew that race was still an issue to some extent in this country, but I had no idea that teachers, of all professions, considered it wise to judge another person s ability to perform by the color of their skin. I found this distasteful and flat wrong to view student s capabilities based on skin color. I did not develop a dislike for the white world, because I had both white friends and white teachers who appreciated me for who I was and not what I could do. But I was shocked at what I heard, and I did not work as hard in their classes as I could have because the teachers began to treat me differently, meaning they treated me like I was one of the white kids. This told me a lot about what people see when they look at me. I am a skinny black kid with baggy jeans who is good at sports, so of course I must be stupid. Well, I want to show people, even though I don t say much, that a black kid with baggy jeans can be smart and attain a successful life. I mean, he, or she, could even become president. I know that may seem strange, but my culture has taught me to destroy the status quo, and that is what I am doing right now in my life, one class at a time, one shift at a time, and one decision at a time. So even though your culture makes you, it is also what you make it. And I am determined to make my culture, especially my classroom culture, a status quo-free zone. 5