Chapters

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Yesterday, I was reading about a woman— I think she was Jamaican— who was seeking opportunity a long time ago (in Jamaica). Maybe three generations ago. It talked about one scholarship available sponsored by the British government. If you weren’t chosen, you had to expense the rest of it yourself in real time. There were no student loans or additional help.

Reading this perspective flipped something in my mind. Student loans, for those of us who have them, are the bane of our existence. But wow would life be different without them. For many (not from wealthy families), upward mobility and education would be a far away dream. How fortunate are we to have a system, while imperfect, that allows us to chase our dreams and chase them hard, no matter our skin color, background or family? Looking at other countries and other times certainly highlights what we take for granted or even complain about.

In that moment, as I was reading, I thought “How lucky am I? How lucky were my parents?”

It takes responsibility and hard work to manage them, but they have certainly made crazy things possible. In that same book, I read about how just seventy years ago, if you weren’t a Nordic male attorney responding to an ad, you probably weren’t getting a good legal job.

It’s a country filled with opportunity and enough self-awareness and correction to evolve.

I am excited see its next chapter.