I ran [for the presidency] because someone had to do it first.
-- Shirley Chisholm

Somebody has to do the job in the way you do; someone has to carry the load the way you carry it; and somebody’s got to represent in the way that you do. You’re the one and only one to do that. You’re the first.

Perhaps you’re the first in your family to become a medical doctor or doctor of philosophy. Perhaps you’re the first to own your own business or be the head of a major corporation. Perhaps you’re the only one in your family who’s ever owned a home or been able to afford a home in the more expensive and exclusive parts of town. Perhaps you’re the first of your lineage to move the heck out of the projects.

Maybe you’re the first and only one in your office to ever hold the position you do, perhaps the job was created just for you. Maybe you’re the first minority in your field and you’ve been asked to chair the team that will write the profession’s diversity manual. Maybe you’re the first person to sensitively speak to the masses about a sure and cohesive solution for understanding and accepting differences. Maybe you’re the first one who can get the nation to talk honestly about its deep-rooted, subconscious, and habitual issues of race.

Maybe you are the first to participate in a national health study; the first to receive a new vaccine; the first volunteer to undergo national drug testing clinical trials that could help discover the answer to the world’s greatest medical enigma although it could put your long-term health in jeopardy. Maybe you’d be the first to admit you’re scared, but the success of these trials is bigger and far more critical than your fear.

If you’re the first, you can write your name in the annals of history. You are forever memorialized and a legacy by which others frame and shape their lives. But being the first also carries with it great responsibilities. You not only have to pave the way, you have to pave a righteous way. Everybody’s watching you; most are watching in awe and they’re looking to see how it’s done, what you’ve done to set the foundation. You owe them a pretty picture, a good story, a fine blueprint that will help them advance and improve what you’ve laid down.

Then, you can move on to the next thing and be the first to do that too.

Sadiqqa © 2007