My Manifesto

Honestly before actually looking up the word “manifesto” I had always thought it meant a journey or goals, but then when I looked it up on www.dictionary.com, I suddenly saw that a manifesto was much more. I realized that a manifesto was usually a written declaration of principles and policy’s, often in a political sense. The first famous manifesto I thought of was our Declaration of Independence which explains the justifications for our separation of the British crown, and also states our countries “policies” in the way of our amendments. The Declaration of Independence is America’s written manifesto. The declaration of independence has never been questioned at any time whether or not it would last or succeed. It has never failed our country and had always been the backbone for our country. It lays out the principles in which our country was founded and now has many amendments stating our countries policies and laws.
Another famous manifesto is the Southern Manifesto, a document written by the congress members who opposed the Brown V. Board of Education Supreme Court case decision. They were opposed to racial integration in public places and the document was signed by one hundred and one politicians in several states including Tennessee and Texas, two states in which I have lived. Although, I have lived in the same states as the signers of The Southern Manifesto I personally do not agree with the document. The Southern Manifesto accused the Supreme Court of "clear abuse of judicial power"(www.thesaurus.com). It also promised to use "all lawful means to bring about a reversal of this decision which is contrary to the Constitution and to prevent the use of force in its implementation” (www.thesaurus.com).
These are just two of many famous manifestos, but they are manifestos in which our country had written with full intention of carrying out their statements, and I find it quite humorous how one can be so successful in the development of our country and the other never even thrived long enough to spark a change. The reason I choose these two documents to discuss famous manifestos was because I want my manifesto to be like The Declaration of Independence for our country, holding it up through the tough times, and never questioning its ability to withstand the test of time.
Before I get into my future journey I would like to give you a little background information about me. I am a freshman at the University of Memphis and where I will be in ten years is a complete mystery to me. I was born and raised in Hemet, California a small town just south of Los Angeles, next to Palm Springs. Most of my family still lives there to this day, and it is still considered home to me. When I was twelve years old I moved to Mount Pleasant, Texas with my sister. She had recently found out that she was pregnant and we were extremely close so I wanted to help her as much as possible. I continued to live with my sister helping her raise my niece Felicity, until I was seventeen. When I turned seventeen my parents moved to Texas and my world was turned upside down .I was use to taking care of myself by then, after all I took care of Felicity all the time I could handle myself. To my parents, especially my mom this was a hard concept, they missed a lot of maturing for me; from twelve to seventeen is a huge gap of growing up. So naturally we didn’t get along to much, in fact for a while my mom and I didn’t talk at all. This phase soon passed and now we get along, as well as any mother and daughter.
So how did I end up in Tennessee from California and Texas? Well, I came up during my senior year to visit my best friend, who is now my boyfriend. He moved to northern Arkansas and we would come to Memphis, and spend the day shopping and exploring the city and I immediately fell in love. I knew the first time I saw Memphis that I was meant to be here. So that day I went home and filled out my application to come to college here. Now that I am here I can honestly say that going away from home for college was the best thing I have ever done. I love it here, and I am so happy that I can wake up everyday and know that I made the right decision to come here.
About the future, I plan on attending the University of Memphis to at least get my bachelors and preferably my masters in nursing. Although my major was biology it is officially changing to nursing. I have always known that I wanted to be in health care for my profession, but until just a few weeks ago I had no idea what exactly I wanted to do. I knew that I wanted to help people and enrich people’s lives and I feel that as a nurse practitioner that’s exactly what I would be doing. I would like to work in a hospital at first and then eventually in a private office working for a small group of doctors. I would take every chance I got to go tour the world, my goal is to visit every country I desire by the time I am thirty five. I believe I can do it. Eventually, when I retire I would like to move out of the United States and retire somewhere tropic like Belize or somewhere in the Caribbean at least, just something on a beach and relaxed.
I know that I am a girl and I am supposed to want a family and a huge wedding and everything, but honestly I do not know if I will ever get married. It is such a big commitment; it is for the rest of your life. I never understand girls that are twenty and worried about getting married, to me you haven’t even started your life and at twenty. I don’t expect to know who I am in two years; so how can I expect someone else to. Besides the standards I have for a man to reach before marriage could not possibly be achieved so early in life, I believe that before a couple should get married that they should be comfortable in their workplace and have a secure home in order for their family to dwell. Until I and my future husband have had a secure job for sometime, and own a house in which we can happily live I would not consider marriage as a possibility.
Now that I have fully understood the word manifesto, and have explained to the best of my knowledge what my manifesto would be, I can only hope for my manifesto to be completely fulfilled by the end of my career. Although my manifesto may not be a clear and dry cut as our Declaration of Independence, I still hope for my manifesto to be as secure, and sturdy as our country’s most famous document. I am not quite sure of how I will fulfill my manifesto, but in the end the journey is the best part of the ending result, and not always knowing every step of the way will only make it better.