100 Day Challenge
Day #2
Prompt: “She twisted her fate between her fingers…”
Fatima was twelve years old when she began school. Her parents were too poor to send her to school. The village often only sent the boys to school while the girls stayed home to cook and clean. She always envied her older brothers who could go to school--her parents seemed to have enough money for them, just not her. Even her younger brother had managed to enroll in the kindergarten class.
Everyone, but her.
It wasn’t fair, but she accepted her role in the family and in her society. She was to be a servant to others. She was to be the housewife who kept the place clean and the food prepared--as was the way most women in her village lived.
But she wanted more. She wanted to be more.
Whenever her brothers came home from school, she would sneak and pickpocket one of their notebooks so she could learn by herself. She taught herself to read using the picture alphabet books used by her younger brother through kindergarten, and then began teaching herself math and history.
She struggled to understand without a mentor, but every day she secretly nabbed one of her brothers’ books and isolate herself in the bathroom or kitchen. When she swept the floors, she practiced her math. When she chopped vegetables, she practiced her reading. Her soul was eager to learn more so she could transcend her ascribed role.
Her efforts to grow in academics wasn’t met without any obstacles. When her brothers found out, they mocked her. When her father found out he beat her. When her mother discovered her secret passions of learning, she wept.
Fatima was resilient.
With every sneer, she read more. With every strike, she learned quicker. With every tear, she gazed more fervently into the future, striving to become her destiny.
One day--a hot day, she would remember, because she had to wash dishes just to remain cool--she heard rumors of a couple from the city who came to start a new school. She had no idea where the school would be because the village was already teeming with shacks and other buildings for residential occupancy and businesses. But the thing that intrigued her the most was that the headmaster was a woman and many of the teachers were supposed to be women as well.
Throughout the week, she listened to her brothers speak of this headmaster woman who thought she knew more than a man; how she planned to start a school just for girls. “What a joke! Girls being taught by girls!” jeered her father.
Nevertheless, the school came together. It wasn’t a building, but rather groups of benches underneath the big tree by the lake. Slowly word spread enough that everyone was talking about the roofless school for girls taught by girls. What more, the school was free for any girl in the village who would like to attend. The headmaster even provided materials for the students at no charge.
It wasn’t easy convincing her parents to let her go, but after a month of proving she could get all her chores done the night before school, she finally made her way to sit under the tree looming over the lakeside.
Headmaster A’isha passed through the rows of benches with a smile as wide as the lake. She greeted each girl seated in the different groups. Her joy was contagious and her triumphant spirit was infectious. Other teachers followed behind her with equal the enthusiasm, passing out pencils, books and papers.
“I’m thrilled to see you here,” Headmaster A’isha clasped her hands around Fatima’s own. “I hope today brings you to your first step down the path of your bright future.” Her eyes glinted hope into Fatima’s soul.
A teacher greeted Fatima with a stack of school materials shortly after A’isha passed on to the next student, offering the same genuine blessing. Fatima flipped through the books on her lap. She could recognize many of the words like Mathematics, Science, and History. She was excited by all the things she didn’t know but could now absorb.
Fatima lifted the bright blue pencil into her fingers. Her gateway into her future. Her key to a better life. She twisted her fate between her fingers and began to write her name as the teachers started their lessons.
Her first step down the path that would become her new identity. Her first stride into her independent, successful future.
- (c) Kevin Barrick
Day #2
Prompt: “She twisted her fate between her fingers…”
Fatima was twelve years old when she began school. Her parents were too poor to send her to school. The village often only sent the boys to school while the girls stayed home to cook and clean. She always envied her older brothers who could go to school--her parents seemed to have enough money for them, just not her. Even her younger brother had managed to enroll in the kindergarten class.
Everyone, but her.
It wasn’t fair, but she accepted her role in the family and in her society. She was to be a servant to others. She was to be the housewife who kept the place clean and the food prepared--as was the way most women in her village lived.
But she wanted more. She wanted to be more.
Whenever her brothers came home from school, she would sneak and pickpocket one of their notebooks so she could learn by herself. She taught herself to read using the picture alphabet books used by her younger brother through kindergarten, and then began teaching herself math and history.
She struggled to understand without a mentor, but every day she secretly nabbed one of her brothers’ books and isolate herself in the bathroom or kitchen. When she swept the floors, she practiced her math. When she chopped vegetables, she practiced her reading. Her soul was eager to learn more so she could transcend her ascribed role.
Her efforts to grow in academics wasn’t met without any obstacles. When her brothers found out, they mocked her. When her father found out he beat her. When her mother discovered her secret passions of learning, she wept.
Fatima was resilient.
With every sneer, she read more. With every strike, she learned quicker. With every tear, she gazed more fervently into the future, striving to become her destiny.
One day--a hot day, she would remember, because she had to wash dishes just to remain cool--she heard rumors of a couple from the city who came to start a new school. She had no idea where the school would be because the village was already teeming with shacks and other buildings for residential occupancy and businesses. But the thing that intrigued her the most was that the headmaster was a woman and many of the teachers were supposed to be women as well.
Throughout the week, she listened to her brothers speak of this headmaster woman who thought she knew more than a man; how she planned to start a school just for girls. “What a joke! Girls being taught by girls!” jeered her father.
Nevertheless, the school came together. It wasn’t a building, but rather groups of benches underneath the big tree by the lake. Slowly word spread enough that everyone was talking about the roofless school for girls taught by girls. What more, the school was free for any girl in the village who would like to attend. The headmaster even provided materials for the students at no charge.
It wasn’t easy convincing her parents to let her go, but after a month of proving she could get all her chores done the night before school, she finally made her way to sit under the tree looming over the lakeside.
Headmaster A’isha passed through the rows of benches with a smile as wide as the lake. She greeted each girl seated in the different groups. Her joy was contagious and her triumphant spirit was infectious. Other teachers followed behind her with equal the enthusiasm, passing out pencils, books and papers.
“I’m thrilled to see you here,” Headmaster A’isha clasped her hands around Fatima’s own. “I hope today brings you to your first step down the path of your bright future.” Her eyes glinted hope into Fatima’s soul.
A teacher greeted Fatima with a stack of school materials shortly after A’isha passed on to the next student, offering the same genuine blessing. Fatima flipped through the books on her lap. She could recognize many of the words like Mathematics, Science, and History. She was excited by all the things she didn’t know but could now absorb.
Fatima lifted the bright blue pencil into her fingers. Her gateway into her future. Her key to a better life. She twisted her fate between her fingers and began to write her name as the teachers started their lessons.
Her first step down the path that would become her new identity. Her first stride into her independent, successful future.
- (c) Kevin Barrick
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