Big Sister Meredith wrote this great shout-out to her longtime Little Sister Samiya, whose dedication and drive toward her college and career goals inspire Meredith.
Samiya
It’s hard to believe we’ve been matched for seven and a half years! But right from the beginning, when you were 9, it was clear you had big dreams, ambition, intelligence, and a maturity beyond your years.
You put energy into achieving your goals, whether it was practicing swimming, leaning how to dive in our lake, honoring your value of giving back by making blankets for Project Linus, delivering lasagna (an almost 10-pound one!) for Lasagna Love, or volunteering together at Bounty and Soul. You are always up for any activity. Even visiting the NC Arboretum for the bug exhibit, despite your bug phobia – well, it was good driving practice.
You love learning any skill that makes you independent, and getting your license was a long-term goal towards that end. From the time you got your learners permit, we logged many, many hours on the road together, driving every time we met up. I watched you go from sweating in that driver’s seat, to mastering turning, backing up, and eventually parking. You are a safe, confident driver who passed your driving test with flying colors.
I was so proud of you at our last outing as you pulled up next to me in the parking lot. “I’ll meet you there!” you had texted.
Your focus on achieving your goals is evident in your scholastic achievement. I will never forget when you told me one summer years ago, “You will be so happy, I’m reading a book!” And I was!
A few years ago, I found you a gig prereading a book aimed at middle schoolers, to offer feedback before the author submitted it to his agent. You even got paid. You took six honors classes last semester in your sophomore year, and after meeting with your advisor, you realized you can graduate a whole year early.
Interested in the medical field since you were nine years old, you are one step closer to realizing your college goal. Together we have searched for colleges, looked at cost and admission requirements, and made a timeline of the steps to take to realize this goal.
You practice fiscal responsibility and were hired last summer for the very first job you interviewed for! This time, I was sweating in the driver’s seat as I waited for you while you interviewed. We had done a mock interview together, and you aced it.
You worked through the school year and are continuing this summer. I appreciate you patiently listening to me (and not rolling your eyes) as I recommended how much you should save out of each paycheck (lol). I am proud of you for doing some saving. It really feels like just last week we were toting cans of coins to the Coinstar machine at Ingles for gift certificates to pay for our next outing. Or you were planning our activity within the budget I set.
I couldn’t be prouder of the life skills you have learned and are practicing, and while it is a bit bittersweet as I think about you heading off to college, I feel so very lucky and grateful to have been matched with you, and to have witnessed your growth. You will always be such a special person in my life (chosen family).
And I picture us, in the near future at a coffee shop in Asheville, catching up as I hear all about college life. I’ll meet you there.
Samiya and Meredith (and Santa)
