Personal Essay: Moderson Jean Baptiste

I am Moderson Jean Baptiste, from the city Soleil in Haiti (one of the most impoverished and violent neighborhoods in Port au Prince). I am a young boy who wants to be heard by others. I have tried to explain many ways, but I choose writing blogs to tell people around the world things that are impossible to tell them face to face. I would like to catch your attention because by reading this you will know me better, so my blog will be on my personal life and some lessons that I learned from my past.

To start, let me tell you, if you have children you will understand better but if you don't have you will see "life is not too easy when you are young.” I was born in "cité Soleil'', so I grew up where life was hard. I was six when I saw someone die for the first time - that was not a movie but in real life. I can remember my nightmares almost every night I grew up there, in an area where a lot of people die in vain. I was born in a poor family and the greatest gift that it could give me was education.

I went to school at two years old and then graduated from college at seventeen years old. Where I grew up, food was difficult to buy, school was difficult, and even to go to church was difficult. In general, life was difficult. By reading that you may think this is a sad story but it's not. I told you some sad periods in my life so you understand the end much better. Some days it seemed almost impossible to find a way out of that life but I was patient. I never thought that I could be proud of me, could have purpose, could have something to achieve. I never thought that I would see my ghetto life fade away. Being in this position was not easy and during this time I was not alone. A lot of people have stood by me, even though I have been hurt many times and have stumbled and fallen. 

There are a lot of things I could tell you; even if I had ten years that would not be enough!  So let me tell you that I'm a student of Bridge Scholarship and I study agronomy (the science of soil and crops) at Quisqueya University in Haiti. 

This is a way to tell you that even though I was born in the ghetto, raised in the ghetto, it does not mean I have to stay in the ghetto. Bridge Scholarship has given me a lot of tools to make my old life fade away.

I participate in some community services and I hope to be able to help my community or my country with my knowledge, too. Even thinking about how emotional I am about my story, I recently followed a social emotions seminar to help me manage them all. I know there is more to see, more to do, and that's why I will work harder and harder to realize my dream: a new leader is growing to help my country rise and stay strong!