Last Night

Last night was like any other night. Had home-made chicken burritos with Ashley, watched an episode of Bones, and then saw Spike Lee and Minnie Jean Brown-Trickey discuss the Little Rock Nine crisis.

Wait what?

What a way to celebrate black history month. The shortest of the year. Spike Lee came to campus last night and of course I had tickets to it. He was pretty great. He was real though and I think that rubbed a few people the wrong way.

When a television show tells you, "follow your dreams or you'll be sad," and then the character never does, and they are sad, so then they follow their dreams and it works out and somehow they make a ton of money doing it. Ya that's always nice

but unrealistic

But here was this man, who did just that. He was going to direct films. And he did. And you know what he told us, "follow your dreams." :). That is who needs to be telling me this. A man, who despite "more african american males go to prison than graduate from high school," he graduated from high school, then college, then film school. A man who despite, "two percent of teachers in the United States are African American," is a professor at NYU and before that Harvard. That is who needs to tell me to follow my dreams.

but here's his controversial statement of the night. The statement that even though mothers throughout the audience audibly praised him the entire night, were silenced when he said it. Followed by the applause of, in my opinion, semi-ignorant students.

He said, "parents are the number one destroyer of dreams." I hope I didn't misquote him as he went out of his way to say it three times, "because we're in Arkansas." :)

I can't imagine how heavy the hearts of the parents in the audience felt while their kids sat next to them applauding. It makes me realize how fortunate I am. My parents never made me be anyone. I was left to decide who I was. Yes their opinions were known, however the decision was ultimately mine. What I wanted to be in college, high school, even that awful mop top hair in middle school. My parents knew that ultimately I had to be who I wanted to be and all they needed to do was love me. When I got to college they didn't care that I had no major freshman year, or that I ended up changing the one I picked. When I decided this year to be a fifth year senior they told me, "We're paying this off together, do what you gotta do." They always told me, "these couple years are nothing compared to the length of the rest of your life. Make the best decisions for you, because you have to live it."

So I guess I don't really know what it's like to have parents who squash your dreams. I am blessed for that. Thank you Spike Lee for that revelation.

I think I'll go call my mom :)