Yvonne Thorton
-Pulitzer Prize nominated author
Don’t let anyone define who you are.
~
What you can conceive in your mind, believe in your heart, you can achieve with your efforts! Nothing is impossible! It’s just the degree of difficulty!
~
Just keep trying! Never give up, never, never give up! Because the only person that can stop you is—YOU!
~
Someone
once said, "The key to success is hard work and a little luck." I have found
that the harder you work, the luckier you become. What is luck? Luck is when
opportunity meets preparation.
...
I would run
crying to my father saying that when I told my classmates that I was going to be
a doctor, they all told me that they had never had seen a Black doctor, much
less a woman doctor. My father told me, "That’s their problem!" My mother would
say, "Don’t let anyone define who you are." "Let your reach exceed your grasp,
or what’s a heaven for? Let your aims be high, even though fulfillment may seem
impossible." "What you can conceive in your mind, believe in your heart, you can
achieve with your efforts! Nothing is impossible! It’s just the degree of
difficulty!" But, it was this dream of my parents that hardened into a
single-minded determination that fueled our lives for many years to come.
...
If you have
a goal, a dream you must be persistent, remain determined with a laser-like
focus on what you want. My father would always say to us, "If the front door is
closed to you (and it very well may be because you are a Black woman), go around
to the back door and see if that is open. If that is closed, go around to the
side of the house to see if they left a window open. If that is closed, jump up
on the roof to see if you can get it. Just keep trying! Never give up, never,
never give up! Because the only person that can stop you is—YOU!"
Read the full commencement address »
Tuskegee University
Tuskegee, AL
May 11, 2003
Sent in by: admin
Posted on: 00.00.2006