Make Way for the "U"

@Willychinremix @Ultimate_Rejects

Do we really think youth are the future?

Why is it that a young person making a stand in a political forum creates a national discussion of whether this is child abuse?

Why is it that a policy on cellphone use is seen as potential for distraction rather than potential for teaching youth how to focus?

Right now we (In Barbados) have a problem – and it is called being left behind and being brek.

What is easier - creating opportunities and support for youth or pointing out the problems which our elders and decision- makers are responsible for?

Either way, regardless of which is easier the ideas, short-comings and energy of the youth is our window to both what our present and future looks like.

This resonates with me and this is why I can’t shut up when I see people generalizing about the youth, not really listening or tuning it or worst yet elders not taking responsibility for the fact that YOU created the environment for youth to be one way or the next….. based on YOUR decisions.

Time and time again I feel not only rejected by the older generation but rejected by fellow Barbadians.

Is this because I reject old festering ideas and new phangled mess which serves us no purpose?

Is this because I value historical wisdom and emerging technology which was built from both information and intuition?

This rejection of the youth resonates with me because I have been living an Ultimate Reject life in HD. Quite frankly it is like we don’t know what we really want in Barbados. People want to complain about brain drain, say youth need to get experiences out of Barbados for the betterment of themselves and Barbados, we say we need investment from the diaspora but then when it happens we like we not ready……

My life in a series of questions…..

Who tell me to go and get an education overseas? Who tell me to go and play tennis overseas? Who tell me to try and come back to intern with government agencies so that nobody could say that I dunno wha gine on bout here? Who tell me to do my research funded by the U.S. Federal government and try to apply it to Barbados? Who tell me to go and do my PH.D? Who tell me to try to redefine what a doctor, scientist and teacher looks like and does in Barbados? Who tell me to move back home 6 months after I graduated?

Truth is – YOU did. Then when I did and I do what I prepared to do, was trained to do, was paid to do and what my experiences in Barbados tell me to do – I get an ultimate reject response.

I’m tired.

I wanted to play tennis in Barbados – Rejected not enough girls playing here.

I applied for a scholarship to go to UWI for grad school – Rejected no funding and never received acceptance letter. Received a full scholarship to do my Master’s at FAMU funded by NOAA.

I sent several letters, emails etc to the CZMU and Ministry of Environment - Let's just say I haven't been accepted yet.

I wanted to come back to work in Barbados after finishing my Master’s – Rejected and instead given a scholarship opportunity to finish my PH.D in the U.S.

Still I decided to come back to Barbados anyway to work, crazy maybe but I did it anyway because I wanted to.

Missing home and working hard from a distance just wasn’t making sense to me anymore. Then I moved home and thought once I put in the hard work then things would work out. This is what practicing a sport teaches you – to an extent.

Four years later….finally I accept -

You can work really hard and things still don’t work out. That is what being an Ultimate Reject is about. It’s a Caribbean Reality. But, we find a way to keep doing and shift to working smart - #wejamminstill.

How – Stop worrying about what people think so much, observe what they do and just do what you envision doing.

#wedohbusiness

In the business of teaching and learning, I’ve learned that the development of your student is the ultimate goal not necessarily that they “get” what they need to learn at the exact moment you deliver it. This is why teachers plant seeds whose success can’t be measured by instant gratification. Literally we teachers can’t get hurt feelings and stop what we do because people aren’t listening.

This is a hard lesson to deal with as a teacher who should care about what and how people think.

This is a hard lesson when as an environmental and social scientist, people’s attitudes and thoughts about problems is half of the problem which prevents us from resolving issues and making all our environmental/health issues worst, so yeh I’m trained to tune into that.

Yet and still, I need to tune into something else more than that what people think now. Initial rejection always happens when we are doing things differently because literally everyone is not comfortable because they haven’t really seen that different “thing” before or they can’t place who you are, your ideas and what you do in a defined box. However if all of the boxes we have put people in or all of the things that are familiar create problems – sooner or later change will have to happen.

The question is will change happen for one day or a few people and then digress (one step forward two steps backward) or will change actually attract other change that progresses us towards a less miserable future?

The only way we know is if we tune in……recharge… observe…respond….act…then do it all again.

We need to make way for ourselves now, learn from the rejection and continue moving forward, even if it is cyclical.

Hope for the better, patience for the present and visions of the future carries us forward.

That is where we are going and I want you to come for the ride rather than watch from the side.

Ariana Marshall Ph.D - Adjunct Instructor, APUS based in Barbados trying to figure out why U.S. institutions value my skill-set more than Caribbean institutions.

<---- Pensive and slightly upset self-made emoji.