I
can still close my eyes and picture when my oldest daughter walked into my
bedroom, sat on my bed and asked me to stop whatever I was doing and sit down
with her and said, “I have good news and bad news to tell you.”
My oldest daughter’s name is Iman Hussain. She was 5 years old when
we moved to Mahomet. This was our very first time living in a small-town. The
only reason we picked this town was because of the school district’s
reputation. Throughout the whole school years she did not have any problems.
Her teachers loved her and she was a very good student. When she began high
school it was time for us to start thinking about colleges. Since she is my
oldest this was my first experience. But knowing that Parkland College and the University
of Illinois are so near I thought I didn’t have to worry too much because Iman
would pick from one of these colleges. But I was wrong.
Something about Iman I noticed since she was a child was she is a very fast
learner. She has very high expectations from herself and likes to make her own
path. She is humble, very confident and always has a plan for the future. She
did apply to the University of Illinois and got in. Of course I was over joyed
and thought she would go there and she wouldn’t be too far from home. But I
remember her saying to me, “Mom you know I have applied to many other
universities as well and I am waiting for their reply but I want to tell you I
don’t want to go to the U of I.” Iman wanted to move away from the small town
and see the world.
It was around 10:00 pm and I was getting ready for bed when Iman
walked into my room and said, “Mom can you sit down. I have good news and bad
news to tell you” My heart dropped and I stopped everything and sat down. She
said, “The bad news is, I just saw an email Brown University sent to me and I
didn’t get in”. I looked at her and said, “It’s okay”. She continued, “but I
got into UCLA”. I looked at her and said, “Where is UCLA?” She said, “The
University of California Los Angeles”. Honestly I was in shock and said, “UCLA…
the famous UCLA?”. She said, “Yes mom, there is only one UCLA!”. I was super
happy and proud, we both cried with joy. I looked at her again and said, “But
Iman California is far and out of state, we can’t afford that. How can you move
that far?” As a mother I didn’t want her to move that far away from me so
I told her no, UCLA is too far, how could she move into a big university from a
small town? I was afraid for her. But Iman made me believe this is what she
wanted to do and convinced me she could do it. When I saw the confidence in her,
she made me believe she was 200% sure about it. I said to her if going to UCLA
is your wish and that important for you then we can do this together. From
there everything fell into place and before we knew it she became an official
student at UCLA.
Iman is having all kinds of great experiences
from seeing movie stars to traveling different places but her most recent
experience will stay with her for the rest of her life. A month ago, she
received an e-mail that Hillary Clinton would be coming to UCLA on March 5 2014
to give a lecture. Iman was one of the lucky that got a ticket and sat in the
same room as Hillary Clinton. I wonder how many kids get a chance like this. Only
2 years ago, she graduated from High school who would have thought her decision
to go to UCLA would give her all kinds of life time experiences. I raised Iman
and I know all of her great qualities but I always believed in this quote, “It
takes a village to raise a child”. Iman wouldn’t be where she is today if not
for all her supporters. Thank you to all of you who have helped me to raise
her.
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