Excerpt from an essay I was writing:
"I grew up in an underprivileged community in
Karachi, Pakistan. The patriarchal values of the society suggest that the main
purpose in a woman’s life is to become a good housewife- know how to cook food,
clean to perfection, and be obedient. If I remained in Pakistan and did not get
educated, I would probably be getting ready for marriage.
I then moved to a relatively low income neighborhood in
Houston, Texas. Around me, I witnessed kids carrying guns, displaying and
painting gang signs, and getting brutally murdered in drive-by shootings. I do
not know that I would have joined gangs by being in that environment, because
not all kids who witness such frightening activities take part in them. But
when living in such an environment, it is very difficult to recognize that life
does not have to be so formidable.
Living life is parallel to playing a game
without the rulebook. We are brought into earth without the slightest idea
about our purpose, our self-identity, ethics, or society. So the easiest solution
is to learn the answers by what we perceive around us. The environment around
us penetrates our psyche, and it guides who we become. What we see occurring
around us seems like the correct way, and often the only way of being. The fact
is, there is no rulebook to life, and there is no one-way of being. Education
is the tool that empowers us to realize our self-potential and awakens us into
the understanding of complexity in society beyond what we are familiar with. It
is the instrument that helps us understand our immediate society and life along
with broader society and ethics.
Education empowered me to realize not only that
the environments I was raised in was unacceptable, but that I am of much more
value to this world; that I have plenty of talent to share with the world. This
broader understanding of life through education is very liberating but also
comes with great difficulty. Similar to Plato's "Allegory of the
Cave," education has enabled me to view reality outside of the cave's
shadows. And when a philosopher becomes aware of reality, it becomes difficult
to live in chains under the same assumptions of a false and limited reality.
That part is liberating. The difficult and frustrating but essential part is
coming to grasp reality and realizing that you were so limited due to society’s
restrictions for so long. Education is vital to unraveling reality and it
has been crucial in who I am today..."
But what is a puzzling fact is that I was not the only one with the access to education. American kids are very privileged in that they have access to a free quality education. I want to emphasize that yes, I have done my homework, and there are huge disparities in education quality based on socioeconomic class in the US. However, I have also seen government schools in Pakistan, where basic conversations, such as "Hello, my name is ____, and today is tuesday..." were being taught to fifth graders. The gap in education quality in developing countries is significantly higher than that in the US.
But even then, I am gripped by the reality that most of the peers from middle school probably did not end up attending college. So what is so special about me?
Well first, I went to school in Pakistan for several years and I recognized how financially burdening it was for my parents to provide me with a good education so I would not have to attend a subpar government school. And then I came to the US and realized that I could just get educated for free- and the resources provided to me for free were astounding: libraries with endless books to check out, great colored textbooks, qualified teachers and computer technologies.
But I think more important than any other influencer in my life were my parents' emphasis on attaining a top class education. I am indebted to my parents more than anything for their emphasis on education. Even if I was denied other luxuries that other kids might have access to, if I ever needed anything for my education, that was given first priority. Nothing was as important as learning.
It was always emphasized to me that my parents left their lives for a better quality education for me and my sister. This reality, although quite burdening, is also a great motivator as well.
