FAMU, FAMU I love thee…! OK, a little strong, but my true sentiments are expressed in this phrase.
My experience at this college of love and charity has brought me through emotional ups and downs and financial highs and lows.
I came to this university thinking I was going to come out the same person.
Boy, was I wrong.
I’m not naive. I expected to work hard in classes and have late nights studying for test the night before because I waited until the last minute. You hear those horror stories.
The untold story about the college experience is the one about how you may not get your financial aid on time so you will have to work two jobs to keep your lights on, or how every organization you join is as if you just picked up another three hour course.
Oh, you can’t forget the story about how you will have your heart broken at least once during your tenure. Where’s the love and charity?
That little vent represented my feelings after my first two years at FAMU.
I had no idea how much went into trying to graduate.
It was as if I had just stepped into a boxing ring and took a sucker punch from Mini Me.
Everything looked nice and inviting when I came to visit FAMU. After the first year, BAM!, a right hook to the jaw. I was out for the count. I had no idea how I was going to pay for school.
I was swamped with schoolwork and being involved, and my so-called forever lasting relationship was severed from the head. What to do?
The intangible move was to pray. From prayer, I was given a family. That family came from the opposing force in the ring giving me body shots.
FAMU brought out a hard work ethic in me, which helped me get to the point I am today: Graduating with a job and a positive outlook on life.
I learned to not just wait for something to be given to me, but to go after it. I learned my strengths and what I can improve.
I found the love and charity. More importantly, I matured.
I remain friends with most of the people I met coming in with the best class to enter FAMU, the class of 2002. I see the person on the other side of the ring was my trainer for real life. My training at FAMU has made me more prepared to compete in the world.
I now have a bittersweet feeling. I don’t want to leave. I will miss the parties at Club 816, being with I Eta Pi National Entertainment Fraternity (shout out to Pi I Eta), and looking up and seeing a hole in the wall. Those times were great, but I am ready to get on with the next phase of my life.
Thank you, FAMU, for taking me through my different battles. I have fought and made it through the long and hard journey to graduate from FAMU.
If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t think twice.
I would make the same decisions and have everything happen the same way.
Madkin Kelly is a senior broadcast journalism student from Atlanta. He can be reached at madkin_k@hotmail.com.