Proud Parents Celebrate Daughter's Achievement

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh

     Like many kids across the United States this time of year, our daughter, Nanu Twaloh Sungbeh graduated from high school (South Gwinnett High) May 27, 2010, with honors; and is getting ready for her next journey to a local women's college in the metro Atlanta area this fall to study biology.

    Living to see one’s kid stay out of trouble and on course to graduate high school, college, get a good job, and get marry to a decent person are some of the important moments parents hoped to see happen in the lives of the individuals they helped to bring into this world. And when those good things happen to our children are good reasons for any parent to celebrate just for reaching such a day, because we parents live our lives working hard and making sacrifices to see our children succeed in life.

    I proudly anticipated this day, and Nanu’s mother, Albertha Ammah also anticipated this journey as well; and is as proud as I am by her sheer determination, sacrifice and commitment to see her daughter - our daughter excel in such a challenging environment that will not spare a kid who is not ready to lay aside the playfulness, the foolishness, the immaturity and the wrong crowd to stay out of trouble and to also stay in school.  

                        Nanu Twaloh Sungbeh (middle) standing with parents

     Even though we provided all the support and guidance needed to help our daughter reach such a milestone, Nanu’s success could be attributed to her listening and respecting us her parents, maturity, a sense of purpose and direction, sheer luck, and the incredible interests she showed throughout her journey from being a kindergartener to graduating high school in a society where any distraction can get a child off track.

     By staying focused and on course, Nanu became another member of our family who is at least a high school graduate, and when she graduates college in four years, she will once again be one of few members in our family who is a college graduate, which will be a remarkable feat, indeed. 

     Ambitious and full of life, Nanu brings to the table a desire to learn, the willingness to dream big and think positive, always keeping in the back of her mind her status as a daughter of immigrants whose parents are working hard and sacrificing a lot to see her succeed in this country and in life, and if she stays on course and focused as she has done throughout her young life, the sky will be the limit.

     Staying focused and on course is not so easy for many American-born Liberian kids in the United States, and not easy either for the newly-arrived children of Liberians whose parent’s dogged determination to be re-united with their children whom they left behind for so long is a pre-occupation, only to see those kids who later joined their father, mother or both parents refused to go to school to at least get a high school diploma or a technical education once they arrived in the United States. Some of the kids later turned out to be monsters, criminals, and everything negative, completely oblivious of the reason they are in America.

     A parent’s nightmare starts when a kid who is fortunate to get a visa to join a family member in this post 9/11 era, which is a challenge in itself crosses the Atlantic Ocean only to take America by storm by being the total opposite of their once humble and respectful selves once steeped in hope, poverty and despair. These kids who hardly understands the American pop culture except for what they see on television through their shallow lenses, (and can barely read and write), naively takes over the hip-hop, baggie/sagging/dragging pants, cell phones and MTV cultures, rather than go to school to learn something worthy that will serve them in the future.

     I am not saying that the American pop culture can be attributed to the anti-school and criminal activities of these kids from Liberia. However, it is believed that some of the kids who directly or indirectly participated in the civil war where crimes, hustling and survival became a way of life are overwhelmed by some of what America has to offer, as such, are carried away by the temptation and glamour in their host country as they romanticized that way of life only to make it a part of their daily lives.

     I personally have heard and seen Liberian kids detoured and get in trouble at home, at school, and in the streets of America because of their refusal to listen to their parents or parent, which is sad.

     Some parents, however, for the love of their children cannot visualize sending a problem child back to Liberia if he or she is not in school and is causing the family heartaches, headaches and nightmares, but rather prefer the problem child to remain in the United States and get in trouble, get arrested, jailed for a long period, deported or shot to death in the streets of the United States.

     As far as I know, I have no children left in Liberia to bring to America, whom I most definitely would have sent back to Liberia if he or she gives me any problem.

    Nanu’s mother, Albertha Ammah and I are extremely lucky that our daughter so far is focused and is listening to us. We are very grateful, indeed.