Diversity Contest

This past semester...Spring 2010, there was a contest that was campus wide. It was a contest involving about six or seven different quotations from famous people that have influenced history. The rules of the contest were to describe how the quotation made you feel. Submissions were accepted via video, skit, dance, song, essay, etc. I initially entered the contest for extra credit in my Cultural Diversity class. The quotation that I chose to reflect on was by Maya Angelou. Out of all the people that participated, I took second place. Here is the essay that I wrote. Enjoy.


April 3, 2010
Just Like In the Movies

With each passing day, the sun rises and sets like the rhythmic inhale and exhale of a breath. With each passing month, the seasons come and go like the ebb and flow of the tide. With each passing year, memories begin to fade like an old, tattered picture until I can no longer remember the color of the shirt that he wore, or the scent of his cologne, or what we talked about on that fateful day. Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” The words she wrote were as true then as they are today. It has happened to all of us at one time or another. It happened to me.

I had known him since we were children and even had a silly, school-girl crush on him when I was young, but we had lost touch over the years. He had been married and divorced. I always heard snippets of information through the grapevine because our families were good friends. I had been divorced myself for a few months when we met again by chance. Several years later, I can no longer remember the color of the shirt that he wore, or the scent of his cologne, or what we talked about, but I remember the way he made me feel. I remember when he hugged me, it felt like a jolt of electricity had jumped from his body to mine. There was something about him that made the butterflies in my stomach dance around, and my heart beat faster. I felt like that young girl all over again. For the first time in almost a decade, I felt alive again.

In the grand scheme of things, we were destined to meet again when we did. He helped me to realize that there was a world out there and that I had been letting it slip away. I was secluded in a shell of loneliness and hurt from my failed marriage. I had built a wall around myself to keep people away. I didn’t want to ever feel that pain again. He opened my eyes and ears to the beauty that life has to offer each and every day and I felt truly loved.

Since that day, a few years ago, we have gone our separate ways. I cannot guarantee that I will ever feel that way about someone else but I am open to the possibility. Now, as I sit here thinking back, I can no longer remember the color of the shirt that he wore, or the scent of his cologne, or what we talked about that fateful day, but I will always remember the way he made me feel.