Some of you may know that I am getting close to graduation. Yes, that’s right… at the end of June I will achieve a lifelong goal, getting my Bachelor’s Degree in Communication. When I started though, I thought that this pursuit was just a race to get finished. I thought I already knew most of what I would learn; it was just about getting the diploma.
But a few months ago in one of my elective courses, I discovered how much I have really grown since I started… that there was inspiration to be found even in doing research for a paper. This is one story of a singular epiphany that I would have missed if I hadn't pushed myself to reach for what I wanted…
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During my third term at Kaplan University I decided to take a course outside of my normal program objectives. The course was American Women. In the fourth week, I was thinking, “What the hell was I thinking?”
On the surface the assignment seemed simple enough, a three to four page paper on female apprentices of the early nineteenth century: shoemakers, brick layers, and many others. But the real grist for my academic mill, and what caused me such distress, was that we had to use sources from the nineteenth century to support our writing. I remember thinking that surely I was not going to find anything of interest within publications so far removed from my own time and my own experience. But wanting to fulfill all of the requirements for the assignment and get a passing grade, I pressed on.
During my research I uncovered a copy of Woman’sWork from May 1885. Suddenly, the words from an article “The Craving ‘To Do Something’” leapt off the page as a clarion call not just for women of that period who were struggling with the duality of the true womanhood ideal and wanting to work outside the home, but also for this modern woman who was fighting to carve out a new life for herself in the face of her fears and doubts. From the well-worn pages of this obscure publication came these words, “You will have much hunger and thirst, and will crave wealth and health and affection, but your keenest craving will be for recognition to do something, to be somebody, to accomplish something, to do a good piece of work, to do your best”.
I was awestruck by the simple eloquence in those words written more than a century ago by Miss Elizabeth Cleveland. It made me think about what was my “keenest craving.” Who could I be if I allowed that craving to fully develop? And even more, who was Miss Elizabeth Cleveland and where did her passion come from? What happened to her after she wrote this article?
In that one phrase, I felt connected across time with women who suffered, pushed, and fought fiercely. They did not give up, so neither can I. Reading from this original publication was more than just recognizing how their contributions to the work of women paved the way for the modern feminist movement. It was about the commonality of human experience... just as full of fire and determination in 1885 as I was feeling for myself in 2011. I have been indelibly marked by the words of a nineteenth century woman whom I will never truly know, but with whose soul I can claim a sisterhood.
What is your keenest craving? What will you do about it today?
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