McDougle: Exactly. Then I got older, got married and had kids. I decided to go to school at night after work. I think I did about four classes, and I took a break, then I took another break. Somebody said try online classes. I don’t think that’d work for me. I need to be in a classroom because I would be doing other stuff if I’m at home trying to do a class. Too many distractions. So I’m still working on it, girl, I’m still working on it.
I always tell the kids, “Go to college right out of high school, don’t wait,” when I give career day presentations. “Get your degree.” Of course you can still be successful but you can make a lot more money if you have your degree. I always tell them, “You like all the bling? Then get your degree.” But I’m happy. I’m not going to say I had no bad experiences, because you have little tiffs with your coworkers sometimes. As far as the company, Boeing and USA are both awesome and treated me very well. I have no complaints.
I used to get upset, because sometimes you would hear people try to blame things on “Oh, it’s because I’m black,” or “because I’m a female” or other excuses, and I don’t agree with that. I don’t know everything behind whatever their issue may be, but I refuse to believe that. It’s hard for me to see that, when you haven’t been treated that way. I’m always wondering what’s the whole story, like are they really doing what they’re supposed to do? Don’t just try to use race as the reason all the time. That always bothers me.
Of course growing up as a black woman, you do have to work harder. Because back in the era when I grew up—I don’t know if it’s as bad now, but you did have to work harder. I grew up in Mississippi. So you had to work harder and be better than the white kids, you did. That was just part of life. And you knew that, but I didn’t let that deter me from trying to do good and do the right thing. Even though I lived around some shady stuff, I knew right from wrong. That’s another thing I tell the kids. Just because you see an adult doing something bad or wrong doesn’t mean it’s okay. You know right from wrong. Even if your parents didn’t teach you right, you know right from wrong in your heart. If there’s any doubt, don’t do it. That’s the bottom line. That’s what I tell my kids, “You got any doubt, that right there should tell you ‘no, don’t do it.’”
It also bothers me when people try to blame things that may happen in their life on not having their parents. For example criminals using the excuse, “I didn’t have my father at home.” I didn’t have my parents either, but I still chose to do the right thing. And one of those choices was to leave Mississippi and go in the Air Force.
I don’t like when people blame it on—I’m not going to say simple things, but the easy thing to blame it on. “If I wasn’t a black woman I would have gotten this or that.” I think it probably helps sometimes more so than hurts, to be honest. No, I don’t have anything negative on being a female and the race thing at all.
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