Malika Freeman

Malika’s Story

My story is of perseverance and strength and begins when I was in the first grade, a quiet little girl that kept to herself. I learned early how to hide my hurt and loneliness, living like a zombie by giving off the semblance of life, but mute in will. Many times I would hear voices in my head telling me to get rid of myself since I was a “waste of space with no purpose.” This continuous mental torture slowly drained me of life until one day I decided to take a handful of Children’s Vitamins in an attempt to rid myself of all the pain. Thankfully, I was naive and unharmed, which led that experience to give me the will to try to live on. As time passed, I struggled more and more as the piercing voices grew relentless, and one day decided again to attempt suicide by taking a bottle of my Papa's medicine. After I took the pills, my mom asked me if I wanted to have a movie and crafts night, and though I agreed, I felt terrible about my previous actions since I didn't want her to witness me dying. A little bit later, my body started fighting the overdose of the medicine and my mom rushed me to the hospital in hopes of saving me. As I was fighting the medicine, I heard a voice telling me to “Fight, Fight, Fight!” Hearing this encouraging voice gave me the will to fight to stay alive. After this attempt, I learned that my mom and younger siblings did love me and that I was being tricked by the spiteful voices in my head. I am proud to say that I have learned about depression, my personal triggers, coping mechanisms, and resources to assist me in fulfilling my God-given purpose.

I have used my obstacles to help me find my purpose and to form the Gentrification Awareness Program, as well as the start of a Girl’s Engineering Program in Birmingham, Alabama. I have noticed when I surround myself with positive, encouraging people who assist me in making my programs a success, I feel better about life and feel a need to finish my purpose. For example, my mentor, David Dada, first set me up with a meeting with my city’s leaders in order to inform them of our gentrification problem and some solutions on how we could fix them. Once I presented on the physical and mental harms of gentrification on minority families by providing my own back story on the difficulties of being apart of a low-income family that faces gentrification, I was able to persuade them to assist me in building my program to make a change for my community. I also made a website on gentrification and provided images, videos of people describing the hardships that gentrification put on them, and multiple examples from books, peer-reviewed articles, and even blogs to back up my claims. Even though a lot of people wonder how I am able to balance my program, my academics, and my job, I always find pleasure in doing them all because it makes me a well-rounded person for other people’s benefits. In addition to this program, I have begun to form another group for minority females who are interested in Engineering. My vision for my life is to study Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering in order to gain and comprehend the terminology and logic behind Aerospace Engineering and lend this information to my community. Being an African-American female in a low-income area, not many of my peers have aspirations as I do, which makes me want to be that inspiration to the young women that will join my program. Using my hardships to become a stronger, independent woman will not only result in my personal growth but will be an example to all I come in contact with in my educational and professional journey.