Naleighna Kai's Literary Cafe Magazine NK Literary Cafe 2018 Mother's Day Issue | Page 14

Herein Lies the Lesson
Angelia Vernon Menchan
When I was young, my mother had us memorize
As people try to imprint their belief or their vision
a poem by Walter D. Wintle. It starts, “If you think of my limitations on me, all I have is the notion
you’re beaten, you are. If you think you dare not, that if I believe I can do something, who are they
you don’t.”
to say I can’t?
Now I don’t remember all of the prose, but it
Now to be fair, I’m not an expert on every single
ends, “Sooner or later, the man that wins is the one topic known to man. Some of the people claiming
who thinks he can.”
expertise aren’t either. One of my graduate school
The funny thing about this is, I can’t remember professors told a story the first day of class. When
a poem I wrote yesterday. But all these years later, the school hired him, his lesson plans were a
pieces of that particular poem are still ingrained in week ahead of the class. He ended up leading the
my mind. One reason might be because my current department and didn’t let inexperience stop him.
memory banks are the size of a pea. Or it could He believed.
be because I refuse to accept limits for my life. I’d
When I applied to graduate school, DePaul
like to think it’s the latter.
University rejected my application. Now, here’s
the thing. You can tell me a lot about myself. You
14 | NKLC Magazine