"Promise"

        
     School has started and I couldn't be more pleased. Being back on campus, wearing boots, sipping hot beverages, and the anticipation of beginning projects has put me in a wonderful mood. After coming home from a pleasantly long day at school, I sat down to do my reading for a women's and gender studies course that I am taking this fall. As I have taken other classes in this subject before, I had a fairly good idea of what to expect in regards to the reading material. And since this current course is specifically geared toward understanding the Feminist Theory, I went in with the assumption that readings would be very dense and dry. That is not to say that the Feminist Theory is dry, but simply that my personal experience with discourse on this topic has been rather unexciting. I said all that to say that I was pleasantly surprised when I began to read, I Am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde. All of the segments are brilliant, but one specific section really spoke to me. During her commencement address at Oberlin College, given on May 29, 1989, she stated,

   "You are strong and intelligent. Your beauty and your promise lie like a haze over your faces. I beg you, do not waste     it. Translate that power and beauty into action wherever you find yourself to be, or you will participate in your own destruction." -Audre Lorde 

 I love this quote for many reasons, but the first is that Lorde is not only targeting women here. This is a concept and a truth that can be applied to any person; of any race, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status, background, etc. The second thing I love about this quote is that she uses the word, "promise." And she uses it in such a way that guarantees that every person will achieve something. Instead of using a word like, "potential," which is limiting, she uses a word that solidifies a person's accomplishment even before they have fulfilled it. Out of curiosity, I looked up the literal definitions of  "promise" and "potential."

Promise, n: a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing, or that guarantees that a particular thing will happen.

Potential, adj: having or showing the capacity to become or develop into something in the future.

The use of the word, "promise" in this quote assures the listener/reader that what they need already lies within them. It does not limit them by saying that, "one day you may turn into something great." It secures them with the knowledge that they are already great; that they already have the tools to make a change, and do something worthwhile.

The last point I'd like to come to is that the ending is what stood out to me the most. She eloquently asserts that if one does not use the promise that they have, that it will not only go to waste, but also that it will consume them. This is how individuals become the designers of their own failures. Many of us humans do not realize the power and strength that we have within us, and therefore, we do not accomplish the things that we are meant to. We are equipped with the right tools, and the intelligence to make this world a better place, but we don't always know how to use these tools.

I wanted to share this today because after reading this, I felt inspired. I realized that I was born with promise. As are you. You have the tools to accomplish something extraordinary. And we are all in this together, learning how to use the unique and individual tools that we have.

If you'd like to read writings by Audre Lorde, I would encourage you to. There are so many other beautiful quotes waiting to be read by eager eyes.

Here is the information for the specific book I am reading:

I Am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde
Edited by: Rudolph P. Byrd, Johnnetta Betsch Cole, Beverly Guy-Sheftall
Oxford University Press.