Personal Narrative: My Sophomore Year In High School

39 years later and I remember the time I chose to be a bystander vividly. I was sitting in an Accounting class on a Wednesday evening of my sophomore year in college. It was about 7:30pm. We could hear a couple talking in the hall outside the classroom. What started out as a conversation got louder and their discussion grew more and more heated. I remember that our professor grew increasingly uncomfortable and he kept looking at the door. The couple started yelling and we all looked at each other. Then I remember the sound of a slap…. and then another followed by screams. The professor looked at us and we all stared at each other….and we did nothing. The girl cried and as quickly as it started, it stopped.

I don’t know what ever happened to the girl, or the guy for that matter. All I know is that a class of 30 students, we

On the long ride back home, one family member questioned why they went. A large debate ensued and no one wanted to take ownership for coming up with the idea of going in the first place.

The problem: no one really wanted to go to Luby’s on the hot Sunday afternoon, but group think took over and the family found themselves on the “road to Abilene”.

The problem is that in our society today, we’re faced with challenges far greater than deciding where we’re going to go for Sunday supper. Too often we stand on the sidelines and tolerate issues and problems that undermine the strength of our communities and in some cases the fabric of our country:

• 1 in 6 families in Texas are food insecure meaning they don’t know if they’ll have enough food for the next day
• Only 20% of graduating high school seniors in Harris County will go on to earn a four year degree even though 60% of all new jobs will require some level of secondary education.
• A black male stands a one in three chance of being incarcerated.
• Need one more