The Freedom Writers Diary - Erin Gruwell [112]
For as long as I can remember, I have always been the minority. After school, I ran home rather then walking with a friend. Why would I run? Well, I’m sure you’d run too if you were always threatened or beat up because you were different. And walking with friends? I never made any friends because I never got along with anyone. Actually, they didn’t get along with me. I would usually get in a fight because I walked in their territory.
It is ironic to see the same people in my neighborhood fight each other all the time. Yet in the classroom, we all get along. Due to our diversity, we were featured on Prime Time Live with Connie Chung. In fact, we just heard that Southwest Airlines is going to honor us with the Freedom Fighter Award because they believe in our cause. They’re also going to give us a huge scholarship donation to help all of us with our college tuition. Southwest Airlines contacted us a couple days after they watched us on the Prime Time Live special.
I hope to become a pilot so I can escape the pressures of my life and rise above all the tension that surrounds me. The irony is I have a fear of heights, which prevented me from flying to Washington, D.C., and New York with the Freedom Writers. Ms. Gruwell is setting up another trip this fall. This trip is to San Antonio, Texas, and Southwest Airlines is going to sponsor this event as well. I hear a couple of Freedom Writers might get to go. I hope I go. If I go, this trip will help me break free from my cage.
Diary 137
Dear Diary,
Ever since Ms. Gruwell announced that the Freedom Writers with the top thirty-five grade point averages would win computers when we graduated, I started getting As and Bs on my report card. I even raised my attendance from mediocre to perfect.
Our senior year finally came and Ms. Gruwell was announcing at the Freedom Writers’ “Open-Mic Night” who the lucky recipients of the computers were. “Last but not least the thirty-fifth computer goes to…” and Ms. Gruwell turned to me and said my name. I got butterflies in my stomach; I could not believe that out of 150. Freedom Writers I was one of the ones chosen to get a computer. I had hoped to receive a computer, but truthfully, I didn’t believe that I would raise my grade point average high enough to win.
In my neighborhood gang violence and drug trafficking play a big role and kids have no one to look up to as an example of hope. Like most of the kids in my neighborhood, I had no one to look up to or emulate until I meet John Tu. He has inspired me to become an entrepreneur and start my own computer company. I want to eradicate the violence that is going on in my neighborhood and give back to my community the way John Tu has given back to me. I want to become the role model that kids in my neighborhood lack and to someday have kids in my neighborhood look up to me the way that I look up to John Tu.
Besides donating computers, John Tu has given a couple of Freedom Writers jobs at his company with benefits and Christmas bonuses. Handouts are like putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound, but John Tu does not give people handouts, he gives people hope. Not even in my wildest dreams did I think that I would meet a millionaire, especially a millionaire that cared about my well-being. John Tu helps people through education, financial support, and high moral standards. I thank God for sending him into my life. He has given so much to me, and because of his actions I want to give to others, and hopefully someone will follow after me and the cycle of hope will continue.
Diary 138
Dear Diary,
Oh my God, it’s gone! I can’t believe that my “Someone Special” gold charm is