Angelia Vernon Menchan

Angelia Vernon Menchan is an author, publisher and public speaker who owns two publishing companies, MAMM Productions and Honorable Menchan Media. Mrs. Menchan is also a Budget Officer and former Job Corps Counselor. To date she has published twenty-three books of her own work, both fiction and non-fiction and more than eighty ebook novellas on amazon.com. You can access her bibliography on www.amazon.com search words: Angelia Vernon Menchan




Contact information:
Website: http://acvermen.blogspot.com
Email: acvermen@yahoo.com
Phone numbers: 904 714 2272 904 303 2679

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

It's Where You're Going!

I always remember what I would tell my Job Corps students at graduation,
‘Please remember that it is not where you’re from, or even where you are at, but what is ultimately important is where you are going!”
That was always my final statement after I had done my spiel about the importance of work and education, and I truly believe that…
We were all once somewhere…
And we are all now somewhere…
But the kicker is to stay focused on where we are going…
Where we want to be…
I was thinking this morning about my last graduation, August 1999...
I was also in my last week of working at the center…
I stood on that stage, looking out at the auditorium,
Especially my graduates,
There were three in that group who had taken it to me,
My young Native/African-American, he had been brimming with attitude and anger when I met him, there were so many times I had to jack him up and bring him to my office, to face off…at first he was hard, but when he got to know me, all I had to do was walk outside…he knew to move…at that graduation he was on his way to military school…his dream…I still feel the crushing hug he gave me before he drove away from campus…
Then there was my sister-girl from OKC, she had gotten by on her feminine wiles for most of her teen years and thought that was A-Ok but now in her twenties she knew she wanted to do something different, being a electrician was what was up for her…her wild laughter still rings in my ear…
Finally, my quiet young Mexican-American kid from Houston, he knew what thug-life brought and what it took, but now on his way to higher education he was going to find out how big the world really was, as big for him as for anyone…I have heard from him a few times over the years…
These were just a few of the kids who had been written off, mostly by themselves but once they opened up their minds and hearts the possibilities…they knew…
It was all about where they were going…

Blessings,
Angelia’
http://www.angeliavmenchan.com/

10 comments:

Yasmin said...

What a nice blog!
Thanks for sharing...sometimes it's not about us but the imprints we leave along the way.
Sounds like you made a difference in a few folks lives!
xoxo

Angelia Vernon Menchan said...

That was my goal, when I moved here it took me a year to stop yearning for 'My Other Kids', still, periodically I think about them...

blessings,
angelia

Yasmin said...

I believe you would have made a great teacher...it's not too late...hehe.
xoxo

Angelia Vernon Menchan said...

It is too late in the traditional sense, too many restrictions...I am a freelance teacher...that's what works for me these days..you aren't the first to say that however...

smooches,
angelia

Yasmin said...

In the traditional sense...what's the restrictions...other than you can't give the kids a beatdown...lol.
xoxo

Angelia Vernon Menchan said...

No interest in being in a traditional classroom...

angelia

Gwyneth Bolton said...

Great post, sis. If we can not let the past stifle us, or the present blind us to possibilities there's no telling what our futures will bring. And I think you are teaching and reaching every day all day, classroom or not. ;-)

Gwyneth

Timothy Stelly Sr said...

Remember, it takes a special, loving heart and mind to reach kids like that. Take a bow, my sista...

Tim

Angelia Vernon Menchan said...

The future holds all kinds of possibilities and a teacher I be...

smooches,
angelia

Angelia Vernon Menchan said...

Thanks Timothy,

So glad to see you on Ramblings,

blessings,
angelia