What's Your Story

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As a child, access to books was scarce. When I read stories, the princesses and princes living in castles were always white, far removed from my reality growing up in Haiti. I desperately wanted to look like them and felt that beauty was synonymous with having a certain look. 

What a privilege it is now to watch my grandchildren, both Black and mixed-race, access books with characters who look like them and reflect their lifestyles. They have a much stronger sense of self than I ever did growing up. Standing today as a retired RN, wife, mother of two, and proud grandmother of five, I am all the more aware of the life-changing impact that educational access and storytelling have on children’s life trajectories. 

Stories have saved me. Literally. In a childhood where life was turbulent and less than stable, I was always able to fall into books into worlds that swept me away. I would time skip into discovery, fun, joy, community, friendship and love. 

One of my favorite memories as a child was in elementary school having afternoon story time. I can remember it like it was yesterday - the round threadbare burgundy carpe littered with flowers in Mrs. Major's 3rd grade

class. We would flop our sweaty growing bodies onto the carpet after recess. I had a favorite spot on top of a faded sunflower next to my bestie, Amoret. Mrs. Major would pull the shades and dim the lights and settle into her wooden chair with the lumpy yellow cushion, and Amoret and I would sit tracing the outline of our very own sunflower...one frayed petal at a time. 

Mrs. Major's soothing voice would then lull us into the latest adventure. Each time, no matter what kind of day or week we were having, we were suspended in time for 30 minutes and transported far away. And each time we returned restored, full of passion, longing, laughter and possibility.