In His Shoes

The life of Fredrick Douglass in his autobiography Learning to Read and Write was an extraordinary story of his life and his accomplishments that he made as a child. Fredrick Douglass was born a slave in 1818, and he taught himself how to read and write. In the 1818 that was not expected for slaves to learn how to read and write or even be seen with a book in their hands. While learning about Douglass, I feel that I experienced the same painful times as he did as a child. The challenges that Douglass faced as a child, I too have experience similar challenges.

My painful challenges faced as a child growing up, are similar to Douglass’s challenges. While growing up in the ghetto of Watts, a mostly single parent home, I faced plenty of challenges becoming a woman of color. I was always told that I was not going to make it out of the ghetto and I was even told by my own family members that I will become pregnant at the age of fourteen years old. Nevertheless, I proved all my so called friends and family erroneous. Basically, I have no support from my family, for the reason that you can expect that from a family of all males. By graduating from Montebello High School and to be the first in my family to attend an eminent college.

The pain that Douglass indulged as a child, I have felt all my life and still do today; just knowing that your family does not support you, or even acknowledge that you are present is similar to being invisible. Do I extremely dislike the way they treat me, certainly. Sometimes I do get off my life goals and accomplishments, because of them but I learned how to deal with the pain instead of leaving it bottled up inside I let it out. While reading about Douglass’ life story, I find similar feelings and emotions that he felt at a young age. I feel that no one should feel that way at a young age, when your family does not acknowledge you as a child and you are just trash to others.