Dream Alive In Spokane

I work at the Martin Luther King Jr. Family Outreach Center in Spokane and the desk where I sit faces a portrait of Dr. King. Every day, I see his face. He’s serious in the picture, but his eyes are filled with wisdom. Beneath his portrait are these words: “I may not get there with you but I want you to know that we as people will get to the promised land.”

When I am feeling down, or trying to figure out a problem, I look at the picture and the words below it and they help. If it weren’t for Dr. King, I believe I wouldn’t even be sitting at this desk doing this job I love. I was born in 1978, 10 years after he died, but his message of hope has allowed me to dream.

I first heard about Dr. King in kindergarten. They separated us kids into black, white and Hispanic groups for a few minutes. Then they put us all back together and said: “The reason you can learn together is because of Dr. Martin Luther King.”

I was raised poor, very poor. I was hungry my whole childhood. I know what it is to live without electricity, to live in a shack. When I was 13, my family moved to Spokane from California. My father had heard from a friend it was a nice place to live. I cried the entire first month after we arrived. The first day at school, kids pushed me and called me names. My mother finally told me: “If you stop crying and give the place a chance, you’ll probably like it.”

But things didn’t get better for me. I got pregnant at 15, and dropped out of school. At one point, I realized I was going to have to grow up. I took parenting classes and I got my GED and when this job at the center came up, I felt so lucky.

I answer phones, do paperwork, work with the children and with parents and clients. I hear a lot of sad stories, and I can empathize because I’ve been there. At the center, we try to help people in any way that we can. The one misconception is that we serve only black people in our community. But anyone in need is welcome here.

I have two dreams now. I’d like to go to college and eventually get a master’s degree in social work and run a center of my own someday. I also love to sing and would like to pursue that. I believe both dreams are possible. I know because Dr. King encouraged me to dream, no matter how big that dream.

MEMO: Your Turn is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion pages. To submit a Your Turn column for consideration, contact Rebecca Nappi at 459-5496 or Doug Floyd at 459-5466 or write Your Turn, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210-1615.