What I have to say today is more important than anything I have ever said. Today I speak my truth. You never know the person that is suffering in silence but that was me.
Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boardstorn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the timeI’ been a-se climbin ’ on,
And reachin’landin’s ,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
ForI’se still goin’, honey,I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
Mother to Son, Langston Hughes
The story of how Mr. Bennett changed the trajectory of my life. From cleaning apartment buildings to a college graduate.
