In A Class Of Our Own: Tha Artivist & His Mom Earn Their MBAs Together!

“Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.”

“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.”

“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.”
~Booker T. Washington

I must admit it did not hit me the significance of ‘the moment’ until the mid afternoon hours of graduation day…As a matter of fact it did not really dawn on me until we reached the parking lot of our destination in the sleepy yet bustling college town of McKenzie, TN, which is the home of our new alma mater Bethel University…

What started out as a childish bet a little over 14 months ago turned or rather matured into a promise or rather covenant kept and cherished…My mom,Ms. Callie Herd, challenged me to challenge myself and I upped the ante by demanding the same of her in return…The result: a shared destiny and graduation with the coronation of our new found success via receiving our MBA degrees…

It was both quite unusual and yet quite natural in actually attending school with my mom…To have an authoritative figure and your first teacher in life become your equal peer in terms of scholarship was quite intriguing if not at first awkward…However, I guess it was also cool because I always considered my mom my first motivator and fan, she saw things in me at the beginning of my journey that I yet couldn’t see (and still realizing) and she had dreams for me when I couldn’t visualize let alone articulate them…So I saw this opportunity as my chance to return the favor, to encourage her and motivate her to go above and beyond what she could expect of herself, to really take this moment to pleasantly surprise herself through her own ability and intellectual gifts…

We learned so much from each other and it helped to make our bond as mother and son as well as colleague to colleague that much more meaningful and spiritual...I am blessed to have shared this moment, this experience with someone I have always respected and admired for as long as I have been breathing…She gave me a love for education and proved to be an exceptional model in empowerment through service to others that I will carry with me until the end and that I look forward to passing on to other generations through a life well lived and examples left behind…My mom made me a better human being for allowing me the gift to pursue, struggle, love and learn with her on a level rarely shared between parent and child…

I guess it is like when baseball great Ken Griffey, Jr., whose early career was on a meteoric upswing, had a chance to play professional baseball with his father, Ken Griffey, Sr., a baseball veteran of championship caliber at the end of a good career, while on the same team, the only difference being that my mom and I started our academic journey on equal footing and rank…Also we are not millionaires playing a child’s game, not yet anyway…

In conclusion, I would like to say that it was good going to school because you wanted to not because you had to…I learned that life is a big classroom where the students with the most curiosity and thirst for knowledge are rewarded immensely for effectively applying what they learn to their own betterment as well as to communal progress…Both a journey and a change starts with the initiative of an individual...I also learned that a real education is getting to know who you are as well as what you are capable of being…Mom thanks once again for teaching me that the universe is the limit when it comes to being successful as well as being uniquely you…The best is yet to come…One love…
Your Son,
Ron a.k.a.

Tha Artivist MBA
p.s.
It’s Never Too Late As Long As You Believe And Do!
Visit http://www.ctherd.blogspot.com for info on scholarships, jobs and internships!

See Also On W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio...

Tha Artivist's Mom Featured In The FedEx Diversity Appeal...
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2009/11/tha-artivists-mom-featured-in-fedex.html

Sis. Callie Herd: It Will Take The Planters For The Harvest To Grow...
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2009/03/sis-callie-herd-it-will-take-planters.html

Words Of Wisdom From 2008 W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Artivist Of The Year Sis. Callie Herd: It's Never Too Late.
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2009/02/words-of-wisdom-from-2008-we-all-be.html

New Article On Sis. Callie Herd a.k.a. Tha Artivist's Mom...
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2008/06/new-article-on-sis-callie-herd-aka-tha.html

Gift To Class Of 2009 & Others:

http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2008/06/gift-to-class-of-2009-and-others-please.html

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Profiles Sis. Herd In "Mothers With Courage Special" (Sis. Herd's Interview Is In The First Hour):

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2008/05/11/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-News-Radio