Damiuna Dawson

Damiuna’s Story

My mom has always tried her best to provide for her five children in every way that she could. After being endangered during an armed house robbery, my mom moved us frequently to avoid the violence and crime of our neighborhoods. At this point of my life, I felt like I was always in danger of losing everything and everyone I cared about.

Attending college or a university has always been something major in my life because I’ll be a first generation scholar and it is my way out. I know the importance of being educated. I want my family to understand that where we’ve come from can have a massive or minuscule impact on the places we are able to go. When I was younger I would hear my mom talk about getting her GED online, so I thought in order to be successful I had to get a GED. In 2013, my oldest sister was getting ready to graduate high school, but she was missing one credit and she couldn’t get her diploma. This forced us to have to turn around at her graduation and go home. My mom looked at her and said, “Now you have to go and get your GED.” From that point on I thought getting a GED was normal

I haven’t always been fortunate enough to go to the best schools and get the best education possible, and where I come from many people don’t think I’m qualified to “make it”. My mom doesn’t work and I don’t know my father, so I don’t know what it feels like to have a two-parent household. My mom has always tried her best to provide for her 5 children in every way that she could.

It was unfortunate that sometimes I couldn’t get that new doll I saw in the store or a new pair of shoes every time I needed them. I had to grow up thinking that my struggle was something my mom couldn’t control. It wasn’t until I was in seventh grade and I realized that I had a certain amount of control within my circumstances. I wanted to do great things, and no one could stop me. When I got into the 8th grade I realized I missed a lot of opportunities because of what my mom couldn’t do. At that point I decided that I had to put a stop to everything that ever made me feel limited. I went out for the Softball team and became very successful with the things that I began to learn, but after tryouts our new coach handed us a list of “Spirit Pack” items. On that paper was a list of fees that someone had to pay in order for me to play softball. At that moment I felt betrayed; I felt that I was let down because I knew my mom didn’t have any money, despite the fact that I worked so hard for my position on the team. Eventually, I started to network with people who wanted to see me succeed. I spoke up about my needs, and they helped me with those funds.

Upon graduating 8th grade, I looked back at how much I enjoyed that time and I began to speak up about other things. My voice, my boldness, and my determination, along with my hopes and dreams to succeed in life, pushed me forward. As a senior about to graduate and attend college, I am a living example that it doesn’t matter how hard you get hit—what determines the outcome is how you decide to fight back. I’ve chosen to fight back with my voice and make a choice that massive tragedies will not have destructive impacts on my life. I can remember being in the 6th grade and my teacher had mirrors up in her classroom, above each mirror there was an ideal that expressed what we were responsible for: attitude, happiness, goals, future, etc. Those mirrors had a tremendous impact on how I handled the challenges I face. I decided to allow every disappointment to make me stronger and to strive to go further. College won’t prepare me for life—my life has prepared me for college and every endeavor that this world has to offer.