Beans and Books

Before I ever held a diploma, I held a burlap sack in the bean fields of Belle Glade, Florida. I was just a child—stooping low, sweating under the sun, and dreaming about something more. My mother always said, “Don’t worry about the mule going blind—just load the wagon.” That meant: keep going, no matter what. I didn’t know it then, but those fields gave me more than callouses. They gave me grit. That same grit helped me become a reader, a mother, and later, a teacher. Beans and books—two sides of the same survival story.