Thoughts from Juanita Garner Carrothers

If you have a dream, cherish it, let no one crush it.

Knowledge broadens you, it is a boosting leverage to help you cope and put your life and your priorities in the proper perspective.

Ignorance is a crime against humanity and remaining so is crushing our existence.

Commitment can change your life.

Change is not always easy, when the light seems dims and fading it seems hopeless and useless.

Don't stop. Believe in yourself and in your dream.

I will ignore the tags and names given me by society since only I know what I have the ability to become.

I will continue to let others predict, but only I can determine what I will, can, or cannot do

Failure is just as easy to combat, as success is to obtain, I have seen failure to destroy millions with promised hopes and broken dreams.

While I have the opportunity. I shall not sit on the sidelines bitter with despair and wishing later that I had become a literate lifter of the world instead of failing leaner.

I will use each day to the fullest. I promise that each day shall be gained, not lost - used, not thrown away.

Yes… I have the right to fail, but I do not have the right to take my teacher and other people with me.

God made the captain of one life - - my own. Therefore, if I decided to become a failure, that is my right.

We were promised a pursuit of happiness and that is what I must do: Pursue happiness and success for myself. No one will give it to me on a proverbial platter, and no one will care as much about me as I care for myself.

I must be willing to accept the consequences for my own failure, and I must never think that those who have chosen to work while I played, rested and slept will share their bounties with me.

My success and my education can become a lifetime companion, which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, and no enemy can alternate. No names can hurt me.

Without education, what is a man or woman? Splendid savages a slave, a beast wandering from here to there believing whatever they are told.

God is not some cosmic bellboy that comes at my beck and call. If I want to achieve, the first step must be my own undertaking.

I will swiftly stand and shout: "this is my time and my place. I will accept the challenge, or I will let others make decisions for me!"