Open Letter to Students Pursuing and Living Their Dreams
Hello, K–College Students:
My name is Antonio Maurice Daniels. For the past 22 years, I have devoted my life to inspiring young minds at the middle and high school and university levels as an English instructor. As someone who has achieved significant success through a commitment to the transformative power of education and living the life of the mind, I want to encourage you to keep pushing forward, never becoming complacent. Never lose faith in education and where quality education can take you. No matter how long you live, how much you accomplish, how much you think you know, and how much money you possess, never stop learning. An enduring commitment to learning is an enduring commitment to living well.
For non-STEM majors and those not intending to pursue STEM, I want to inform you that my investment in writing skills through undergraduate and graduate training in English has allowed me to make more money annually than most STEM graduates. Diverse organizations pay me to write grants for them, and one can earn a lucrative annual income or salary as a grant writer. Also, various organizations pay me a rewarding amount of money to draft, revise, edit, and proofread documents. I am not telling you these facts for self-indulgent, self-aggrandizing reasons. My purpose is to show you what is possible, to underscore that if a Black man reared in poverty can achieve this level of success, so can you. Also, I do not want you to dismiss a robust liberal arts education’s capacity to empower you to engender change in the world and generate a worthwhile income or salary. If it’s not transparent by now, my investment in my writing is one of the chief reasons I achieved such success.
STEM majors, aspiring STEM majors, and those pursuing STEM work and careers, I urge you to invest substantially in your writing skills. You will dramatically increase your earning power and ability to instigate change by investing in your writing skills. Effective oral and written communication is key to your success. The world needs your invaluable skills, talent, and knowledge to advance an improved quality of life and a better world.
I know you have faced and are encountering vexing challenges in your life. These challenges, however, have not stopped you from pursuing your dreams. What are the dreams you are striving to reach? What factors contribute to your persistence? What factors militate against your persistence? How do you fight against those forces attempting to thwart your dreams?
I am blessed to live my dreams, but I have several more dreams connected to seeing a better world materialize I am passionately pursuing. For those living your dreams, how does it feel? How does living your dreams benefit others? How do you resist forces attempting to rob you of your dreams?
This open letter published here at Global Writers Unite has transformative potential: it can develop into the starting place for us to “meet” one another, support one another’s efforts to achieve and maintain dreams, and work towards the “beloved community” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., championed.
Thank you for reading. I appreciate your time. I look forward to “meeting” you and reading your response.
Best wishes,
Antonio Maurice Daniels
Johns Hopkins University
