The largest website for English phrases and quotes

The largest website for English phrases and quotes

Category: Lorene Cary

Veins raised themselves along the backs of my hands that summer. My handwriting changed several times. I began reading Time magazine. Soon after that it was time to go.

I had not expected the gentle, tentative surge of gratitude I began to feel…for St. Paul’s School, the spring, and the early morning. I needed the morning light and the warbling birds. I needed to find a way to live in this place for a moment and get the good of it. I had tried to hold myself apart, and the aloneness proved more terrible than what I had tried to escape.

african-american-authors, aloneness, black-history, coming-of-age, education, high-school, prep-school

Not one thought entered my head that did not seem disloyal. I was ashamed, seeing their pride close up, as if for the first time, at how little I had accomplished, how much I had failed to do at St. Paul’s. Somewhere in the last two years I had forgotten my mission. What had I done, I kept thinking, that was worthy of their faith? How had I helped my race? How had I prepared myself for a meaningful future? … They were right: only a handful of us got this break. I wanted to shout at them that I had squandered it. Now that it’s all over, hey, I’m not your girl! I couldn’t do it.

african-american-history, black-history, education, high-school, pride