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so my baby sister Proly will be pursuing law. I am soo proud of her. She told me everyone in  the family discouraged her. They told her  there has never been a lawyer in the family, there’s no way she could make a decent living out of it… hey hold on.. she is not here in the USA. I know lawyers here make  good money. She is in Tanzania, East Africa. This is where am originally from.

You have to understand the story… see i am considered one of the lucky girls  from generations and generations of women in my  family. I was the first female to hold a degree in this family. I remember one of my dad’s friends came to our house and tried to discourage dad from sending me to college. He told him high school was enough that sending girls for higher education was a waste of his money . What was that he said then?…He said, it was a shame that he was going to make another man rip all the benefits that come with education. That i was going to get done with school get a decent job, maybe, and then get married. He  asked my dad , what was the point of  all that? .  See,  there are still some folks in Africa that truly believe women are inferior to men and that their place is in the homes as wives and caregivers.  They view women as prices, in that when you do get married, dowry gets paid to them , and this mainly is seen in primitive tribes.

I have to give praise where due though… Tanzania has come along way. We now have a generation that has been educated and have gone through social-economic changes… major changes. We have a generation of families that want to see their children ( both girls and boys)  succeed. They are spending a high chunk of their savings into putting their kids in good schools.  They are supporting their children’s dreams to the fullest, whatever they are.

We have women in politics, respected positions, and enterpreneurs as well. I shouldn’t just say Africa, i guess it is this case worldwide. So we are starting to get accepted. I mean Hillary Clinton was running for presidency!  Now that is progress.

So,  my baby sister will go for law, and all i can say is you go girl!!! We could definitely  use a lawyer in this family for sure :)

You know when you were young and had your own imaginations, dreams, things that you would want to try. Things you would love to do…Then we grow up and we are finally at the point we can make our own minds and go for it, but we don’t. We start killing those dreams, one by one. we  start building a mountain between achieveing those dreams till they start to become impossible. Wouldn’t you want to go back to the moments as a child, be that naive again, if you have to, and tell yourself that you can do it, you can do anything you want. You can wake up  one morning and just go for it. I guess if you really fight all the voices in your head that tell you it can’t be done, you just may.

I am going to laugh here…My dad’s first house had calendars of these beautiful women all around the living room. They used to be actresses with perfect makeup and hair and when i looked at them i always thought… mmmh when i grow up i just want to be an actress. I want all the glamor and popularity that came with it, lol. So i made sure i joined all school plays and theatre.. It was so much fun. I was always glued  to the TV.. my dad always used to say, so are you going to be an actress, i would say yes, and he would look at me and just shake his head and walk away.  Then i grew up.. when it came time to choose what major i wanted to study my dad kind shut down anything close to theatre or so. He had my successfull uncle make me see the big picture… I was told there was a difference between reality and fantacy. So being an actress became a fantacy.

Now..My husband would say, it is never too late to try , at least you will have done something about it. I tell him maybe someday…for now it still sounds like a mountain. There are many reasons to justify the risk of waking up one day and going for it. Now i have my kids…I hope when they grow up, i will encourage them to pursue their dreams, regardless of what anyone else says.

Maybe someday…or maybe not…life is full of surprises.  I hope you can go for it. Go pursue your dreams whatever they are !

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