Black Men The world needs YOU: Follow YOUR calling

Being a senior broadcast journalism student, I have  spent the last four years of my life in cultivation for the journalism world.  I've transformed from an eccentric freshman; expressing myself through fashion, hair cuts, photography and art, to a poised senior that can now express myself through words... A Voice... writing. 
I must say a glimpse around my classroom today, which was the first day of class, baffled me. We never think to go around counting heads and calling role wherever we go, but oddly I did. In a class of nearly 20 students, there was only 3 black males; I was the only one sitting in the front, the others were back row. As soon as I got home today I checked my e-mail and I received a follow-up e-mail from an interview I did this past October; It led to a brief daydream. Thus the writing of this blog entry...

As any senior would do just months away from the real world, I prayed and asked God to lead the way. Looking out for signs, that next step, I stumbled across an opportunity to work for Teach for America. I met with the recruiter, she was awesome, very encouraging and even inspiring. Though i've had my mind set on going straight to Hollywood after graduation, I entertained the idea of being a contribution to the country's desperate need for black male educators. I called my mom and told her about it and surprisingly, my mom said,

 "that would be nice but don't give up on your dreams just yet."

In my mind, I was thinking, job security, health benefits, and still having the option of requesting Los Angeles as my location to teach.

I went ahead and applied for the program, but one day something hit me. I was like, "how productive will I be in my Hollywood pursuits on down time if I'm tied down to teaching?" Epiphanies of lesson plans, getting attached to the kids, staying after everyday because I know I will end up starting some type of after-school program..... All came to me at once. Granted these are not bad things at all, in fact these are great things that I'm sure these kids need. However, I made the decision that at this point in my life, it wasn't for me.

"If we lost sight of our goals at every opportunity that came our way, we would never make any more than 3% progress on 100 different pursuits vs. 100% Progress on our master plan." Brandon McCaskill.

I had to ask myself, "In what way do I want to impact the world?" My next question was, "who is the most influential teacher in the world?" Sadly, my response was, "the media." So many kids learn the words of rap songs before they learn their vocabulary words for spelling tests. Strangely, my intuition leads me to believe I have a greater calling in life. It could be looked at as I'm selling out, thats fine, but in my mind I think, "if the media is where every American gets their perception of beauty, self-esteem, success, etc. Why not be a positive representation of what a black man is supposed to be on a large scale? Right now kids are going home after school, dropping their book bags at the door and racing to the television until their parents get home; thus subconsciously serving as "daily homework" for kids across the country. Their incentive for finishing homework is to get back to the TV screen. Who are their black-male role models? Lil Wayne, T.I, Soulja Boy and Kanye West. Will Smith can't do it on his own.

The moral of the story is, I believe we all have our purposes in life. I believe mine is to replace the black males current representation in the most powerful teacher in the world; the media, with substance and an African American Gentleman.

I just got a email reminder about the Teach for America deadline tomorrow, January 8, 2010. Though I feel this opportunity isn't for me, I would love for all of my black males to at least go to the website and see if it might be for them: http://www.teachforamerica.org/ . If you're a senior and have been trying to figure out your next stage in life, this might be your answer.

I'm going to end this with a quote of mine and a link:

"Just because we're capable of doing something doesn't make it our calling. God put billions of people on the earth for a reason; if everyone did THEIR part so much work wouldn't need to be done. Find your calling by listening and that call will lead you the rest of the way."

Lastly, read this article:  Obama’s win could have effects within classroom