Villanova is Diverse?

The spirit moved me. It’s been a while since i’ve wrote one of my rambling pieces. I was sitting down in the exchange doing some FMR ( o joy) and this just kind of hit me. I’m pretty sure I can predict what kind of backlash I will get from this but i’ve never been one to back down from criticism.

Just for reference when I say you, I mean the people who don’t believe in the diversity of Villanova.

Villanova gets a bad rap for its lack of diversity, the term Vanillanova is thrown out a lot around these parts. I just want to defend my school. I want to say that it is not Vanillanova and that it actually is rich in diversity.

I guess I should define what I think diversity is in the first place. Its having people from all different kinds of backgrounds. Those backgrounds can be from ethnic, sexual orientation, socioeconomic or from the history you have with your parents and how you grew up.

If you think Villanova isn’t diverse take a deep look into the school and you will see that it is quite diverse. I am not asking to you to glean over the outside and count how many darker colored faces there are on campus, because admittedly there aren’t a lot. I think diversity is much more than that. Diversity is your families history, where you are from,  your individual upbringing. Each and every student and professor and staff member here has a story and none of those stories are the same.  If we took the time to stop being so self absorbed and just looked up and listened occasionally we would get a chance to hear those stories.  We have upwards of Six thousand students here at Villanova. If you mean to tell me that every single of their stories in the same then all I can do is shake my head at you.

I’m a black kid here at Villanova, I have white students who have stories that would make even the hardest of people cringe. Students who have strained relationships with their parents, kids who don’t have parents, kids who don’t want to go home because Villanova is their safe haven for them. All of these kids go through a struggle, just as we will have to at some point.

All I really want to point out is diversity is much more than just the color of your skin.

If all you are looking for is more darker skinned faces then you are just as superficial and silly as the people who judge you for being darker skinned.

Now before people get all crazy on me. By no means am I saying Villanova should stop admitting Black, Asian, Indian or Hispanic students. BY NO MEANS IS THAT WHAT I WANT YOU TAKE FROM THIS ARTICLE. BECAUSE I DO NOT AGREE WITH THAT ALL.  I am for having more students from different creeds here on campus but I think people should understand the difference between a lack of different races and a lack of diversity.

On the other hand, there are A LOT of students here at Villanova who need a culture shock  and need to see the world outside of the Villanova bubble. Some of them are my closest friends. There’s a lot that they could learn by just listening to some one else’s story.  Some students live perfectly in the Villanova bubble and have no desire to go outside of it. I mean that is fine, to each their own I guess.  I just don’t think that’s a way to live life anywhere. To anyone who identifies as a student who needs a culture shock. I’m not asking you to go out and try and collect all the Black, Asian and Hispanic friends you can find like we are Pokemon or something.  I’m asking you to step out your comfort zone and at least really really see what life is like for some people. How you do that is up to you but there is a train line into Philadelphia. One trip to the right part of Philly and I think that would be  at least a good start forward.

This a touchy subject and hell I’m sure a lot of people will disagree with how I feel but that’s exactly what it is, its how I feel. This only a representation of what one kid from the 302 thinks and like the title of my blog says.

I am nothing more than a brother with a dream

– Sufficiently distracted from studying FMR

To anyone who reads this thinking what I know you are thinking. Trust me, I know who I am and I know where I came from.

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” RIP Alex Kamara

To Alex Kamara and all the other ones who have gone too soon

With the passing of Alex Kamara Class of 2014.I was Inspired to write this blog.  I started working on this at noon but took a break to gather my thoughts.

Death Happens, and it’s probably going to happen to you..BUT for your time to be taken from you by selfish, near-sighted, naive,insignificant pieces of scum like who did so to Alex…that’s just plain disgusting.

Before people get all on me, I never really knew the kid, I saw him ’round the way in school and I think I spoke to him before, knowing me I was probably clowning with him, I do not know him as well as some of you know him but I could tell he was cool kid, Varsity Soccer player and Wrestler…. he definitely was not a troublemaker and I am sure he had some high plans for his life and should still be alive right now.

Alex and many other young boys and girls just like him have been taken from this world before their time due to ignorant people. These kids have been Black,White, Asian, Hispanic and any other race/creed/ethnicity that I haven’t listed.  These deaths happen here in the United States of America..  The supposed greatest country on earth…. I do not doubt that America is a good country. There are plenty worse places we could live.. but hell if I wanted to be shot at the young age of 16, I’d go live there.

What gets me is that this happened in  at a soccer tournament in Wilmington Delaware yet not even the hood of Wilmington. This happened in Eden park a place where I myself have played soccer in my younger days. How are we supposed to raise children, or grow up as kids when no place at all is safe?

To the hoodlums who do stuff like this, this is the kind of crap that destroys our country. If i was a more vindictive man I would wish death upon you…. but I am not a more vindictive man, it is not my place to wish death upon anybody.   But what I can hope is that one day people like that can see what they are doing to the country. Because I can see what is going on.

They are killing the innocent youth and with that they killing the foundation of this country. WE ARE THE FOUNDATION and I am talking to you the 14-25 year olds, we are that next generation and it is a shame to see one of our own taken down before its their time.  What this country needs is a comprehensive change, whether it be in ideology, attitude, physique or education. A change needs to be made. The Older generations are doing what they can to do so but in all honesty. It starts with me. And by “me” I mean my generation. When you read this think about yourself  and realize that if you want change it need to starts with you. Mahatma Ghandi  has quote I am sure you have all heard.

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”   This needs to be our motto as a generation. not YOLO.  As fun as YOLO can be there is nothing enlightened about it at all.  We have to be that enlightenment.

Sam Cooke has a song “Change Gonna Come”  the change that needs to come in this world should be engendered by our generation, I am not saying become serious adults right now or even ever but while we are out having fun on Friday and Saturday nights  remember that we will soon be in the driver’s seat for this country.

And as for the  scum who end lives like Alex Kamara, Natalee Holloway or Trayvon Martin’s or kidnap innocent girls like Elizabeth Smart.

I ask you one thing……..

Why?

The sad thing is I already know the answer.  Alfred says it best.

R.I.P

Alex Kamara and the many others like him

Silence All Doubters

What’s up world?

The names Willy, I am not going to drop my last name cause frankly I see no reason to do so. If your reading this blog chances are you know who I am.  I was inspired to do this blog by Khary Anderson with his blog “Brown Skin Big Brain.” While I was reading his I just thought.. why not me? Why can’t I voice things I think out here on the interwebs? So I created a WordPress and Kablam here I am. By the way, the grammar and punctuation isn’t gonna be perfect so bear with me, I plan on getting these out weekly or whenever the spirit moves me

This first blog post is about the origin of my mantra of “Silence All Doubters”.

Thinking back on it, me coming up with this motto and abiding by it has  gotten me to where I am today ( Sophomore at Villanova.)  It started about my sophomore year in HS. I was taking two honors classes and the rest were CP classes and I would get A’s with minimal effort and I was always the smartest kid in the room. For some reason my freshman and sophomore year I would limit myself. I was scared to challenge myself with more honors or AP classes.  That is until one day my sophomore year.. I remember it so vividly, we were sitting in there talking not doing work cause it was a CP English class and some girl was complaining about the little work that we had to do. She said something along the lines of “why do I have to do this? I am never going to have to use this, I just want to become a waitress.”  Shoot. When I heard that I thought HOLD ON PLAYA!!! How are you gonna sell yourself that short and have no ambition or goals? It was at that moment I realized I was too damn smart to be in classes like those. So I upped my game up and started taking all AP’s and Honors.

This is where Silence all Doubters comes into play, along the way into takin better classes I had a few people call me out saying that I didn’t have it in me and that I was only gonna stumble. I was determined to prove them wrong… (Quick side note: The easiest way to get me to prove you wrong is to challenge me….Never challenge me, I am extremely competitive.) This was during the summer time. Junior year comes around and im doing alright in my classes but still nothing out of this world.  New Years comes and I am doing some soul-searching and I just got fed up with everything. I promised my self to never let anyone doubt me again and if they do doubt I promised myself that I would do every single thing in my power to shut them up. That promise I made to myself, actually turned around my life. I may have been around a 3.4 student up until  my sophomore year. When I made that promise I probably averaged around a 4.5 GPA.

Silence All Doubters stretched further than school. It stretched to sports and family and friends and even the lovely ladies. I also promised myself to help out anyone who struggled the same way I did. I guess that’s kind of why I started this blog off with this post. So that people would hear my voice or at least the 2 people who read this will hear it.  So I guess if I have to relay a message to the kiddies out there. Stay in school, don’t do drugs and have confidence in yourself.

Confidence was a big player in me developing Silence All Doubters but that’s a different story for a different day.

I have to make one shout out. I am not gonna use her name cause I ain’t about that life but I’d like to thank the dumbass girl who made that comment about being a waitress. You changed my life.

My journey is far from over. I still have doubters. College is brand new ball game and I have to prove myself to a lot of people. Including myself.

-Silence All Doubters