Lawanda Watson
As a single mother with two children, a 14-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter, I always stress to my children how important getting a good education is. There are many benefits to attaining the highest education possible.
I was pregnant with my son who is now a teenager, when I graduated from college with my Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration/Accounting in May 1994. I had so many obstacles that I had to overcome throughout my life and particularly during my college career that almost kept me from succeeding, but I continued to persevere despite the many setbacks. My junior year I almost lost my life to complications from Sickle Cell Disease which led me to a month long hospital stay, of which 11 days where spent in an intensive care unit on a ventilator; however, by the grace of God I survived that ordeal and soon thereafter became pregnant with my son, who I called my lifesaver.
I returned to school however, against my doctor's strict advisement, I was advised that I could only take no more than 2 classes per semester, which would extend my graduation date out another year. Needless to say, I took that route only to be hit with another obstacle in my last year wher I learned my father, and best friend, was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given 6 months at the most to live. My dad lost the battle to cancer 3 weeks before I graduated from college which devastated me beyond words; however, because I was 5 months pregnant with my son I continued to press my way on and graduated despite the fact that I could barely walk due to what I later found out was another complication from my Sickle Cell Disease, which ended me up having to walk with a 3 prong cane, while 5 months pregnant in the heat of one of the hottest summers ever.
After I gave birth to my son in August of 1994, I was diagnosed with avascular necrosis of my right hip, which was causing the unbearable pain I began to experience in my last trimester of my pregnancy. Needless to say the deterioration of my hip was so severe that the only option I ws given at the time was a total hip replacement of my right hip. At the age of 23 and 3 months after I had given birth to my first child I had to have a surgery that was very rare for someone my age. After the surgery the long recovery period of atleast 12 weeks was an exteremely hard task to handle with a newborn baby to take care as well. I am thankful that I did have the support of my mother and family to lean on doing the process.
These are just a few of the struggles that I have had to endure and overcome in the 14 years of motherhood and 37 years of living. I did not have the help of a partner to assist me in the role of parenthood, because my son's father was incarcerated for the majority of my son's 14 years on this earth and he is till incarcerated to this day which has devastated my son in ways that I never imagined. I don't regret any of the sacrifices that I made for my children and I am grateful for every day that I wake up and want to be able to give someone else hope if I can. The one thing that I always continued to be hopeful about was that one day I would be able to continue to pursue my higher education by attaining my Masters's Degree. Now that I have a 5 year old daughter as well who looks up to me and thinks that I can do anything, the one thing that I want to do for myself is to go back to school to pursue my Master's so that I can show my children that nothing is impossible as long as you continue to persevere.
I am no stranger to adversity and I can't even begin to tell you everything else that I have endured in life because it's just not enough time. The one thing I am thankful for in life is my children and I want to make a better life for them and myself because I want them to know that giving up is not and option. Having a B.S. in Bus Adm/Accounting is a plus and the fact that I have over 12 years of experience in the Acounting field, I still have a desire to go higher. Over the years I have justified many reasons as to why I couldn't go back to school and attaining that goal such as time, money and my daily responsibilities that go along with being a full time mom, while working full time and coping over the years with the medical challenges that I have also had to face. One of my passions in life is to help hurting people to achieve their dreams. I want our youth to know that there are opportunities out there for them that don't include incarceration or death.
I want that single mother out there to know that she can overcome any obstacle despite the challenges that may come . My desire is to help strengthen families and the community particularly those who may have encountered trouble along the way and ended up on the wrong side of the criminal justice system. I want them to know that there is help out there and to make the right choices so that they don't have to end up on the wrong side of the law. However, if they do end up on the wrong path for whatever reason I want them to know there is hope and help out there for a brighter future if they just reach for it. That is why I have chosen to pursue my Master's in Criminal Justice, so that I can hopefully be that beacon of light to a lost and hurting generation.