Every place of business has a bad side people hate to talk about or acknowledge, which makes it hard for people to come to work with positive attitudes. You might have a co-worker you wanna tell to “shut the hell up” or some customer, client, attendee, etc. who you just wanna haul off and slap for being very disrespectful or thinking they can do your job better than you when they’re the ones who need your help. Goodwill Excel Center (GEC) can be one of those places, and I wanna recognize and honor some people for keeping a positive spirit throughout all the negativity that I’ve seen them endure.
GEC is an adult charter high school that allows adults and teens, no matter the age, to get a chance or a second chance to succeed in getting their high school diploma. They also have programs that help you attend college after graduation and have connections to help you find the job that best suits you. But, you have people that come in and take it for granted, not knowing how much money is spent on our second chance, and that ain’t cool. So, with that said, I want to recognize and honor some people who have come with positive attitudes in spite of the mistreatment that I’ve seen them endure.
Mrs. Dawn Rhodes, Ms. Roshawne Harrod, Ms. Jasmine Price, and Ms. Tyra Covington, I would like to thank you for your dedication and service in teaching us and caring for our well-being of learning and personal problems. I understand it’s not easy to endure the things you go through or are put through, in and out of work, and still come in with a smile on your face. You have students who give you a hard day no matter how many times you show them you are concerned and care for them. I respect and honor what you do for us because had I handled my situations like y’all do, I’d be getting a paycheck too and not new charges.
In my personal opinion, to rich folks, people like these are the reason you’re rich. You wouldn’t know how to read or write, let alone make the money you’re making, but yet you got a whole lotta mouth about the people who helped you get there. If it weren’t for people like these, you wouldn’t know how to write your own name, “genius.”
I would also like to recognize one more person, and that’s my substance use disorder (SUD) counselor, Dr. Willa Jones. Through my ups and downs and relapsing as a client at Hillcrest Children and Family Center, she’s never given up on me. Even when I wasn’t in my right state of mind, she continued to help me and never turned away from the help I needed. I’ve been to programs I’ve enrolled myself in, and they weren’t about helping me get better. They were all about the concern of the money and not the client. But she goes beyond what she sees I need, and I thank her so much because it’s amazing how the government she works for can help me destroy myself but don’t want to help me get better.
Matthew 25:40 states, “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” God has blessed me with some beautiful, smart, caring, professional women to help me with educational and life skill goals, and I wanna thank you from the bottom of my heart.
