Well Check you out Star City!

My ultimate goal when I was younger was to just get out of Roanoke, VA. So I applied to all of these schools 1 1/2 hours or more away. I felt that if I attended a school far away that would allow me to grow,learn, and experience life. To some extent I believe that was true. I did grow and learn a lot about myself and others. I always felt that Roanoke was a dead end street and if I stayed there I would never accomplish anything. To some extent that was true.,but to some extent that was false as well.

I graduated from high school 5 years ago, and I graduated from college last year with two degrees. I have been going through different people facebook pages from my hometown and a lot of people are making me proud to say that I am from Roanoke, Va. A lot of young adults, I wanna say 25 years of age or younger are doing really well for themselves. Many are graduating from colleges and universities. I know this sounds bad, but there are some that people in the local neighborhoods that many did not have faith in went on to shock many with degrees and gr8 jobs.There were young teen mothers that could have given up and dropped out of high school from my hometown because of how society looks at teen pregnancy, but I know 2 young women in particular that graduated high school AND college with honors. Another young mother from my hometown, became a LPN and the other became a RN.  A young man who was a teen father graduated from a prestigious college and landed a gr8 job in DC. That makes me proud to see an intelligent, educated, black man that not only is making a difference in the world,but also in his child's life as well. Another young woman from my hometown was not a teen mother, but she had a illness, but I admire her drive because she didn't let her illness stop her from continuing her education, and she went back to school, and from the looks of it she is doing really well. A couple of old classmate have gone on and gotten their cosmetology license and are doing phenomenal in their field. One of my really gr8 friends, after working in the cosmetology field for almost four years, decided one day to apply to college and she got accepted. She is now a rising junior and thriving. I admire her because to pursue a degree after being out of school for almost 4 years is not easy. I am very proud of everyone for accomplishing or making progress to their goals. A couple of people have joined the military and are doing gr8 and even making ranks. Some are even traveling the world. I know of at least 7 young couples that have gotten married and about 4 that are engaged. That's always wonderful to hear and see. I love seeing the African American population receive their college degrees to become future leaders of America. And I love reading about the young people from back home that are becoming first time homeowners at such young ages. That's a task that I hope to accomplish in the next couple of years.

I am really proud of all the young adults from Roanoke who are doing so well. Shout out to the ones who are/have graduated college, those that have gr8 jobs, those that found a trade, those that joined the military, and those that are homeowners.. If your doing something positive with your life its something to be proud of and shout out loud about.