My Definition of Empowerment.

What does empowerment mean to you ?

             I honestly didn't even know what the word "empowerment" meant. Now to figure out what it means to me? Well in order to answer that question I had to find out what the word actually meant. I knew it had to do with power. It was kind of obvious since it included the word "power". So that kind of gave me somewhat of a hint. 

           At first I thought that "empowerment" was an adjective for some reason. I can't really explain why, but I guess that way it sounds made me think that it would be describing the type of power one has. What I also think of when I hear the word empowerment is government. I feel like it has to do so much with government. That since the government controls so much, I feel like they hold so much empowerment towards almost EVERYTHING. Although in the end, each person is responsible for themselves and who empowers them or not. But not once would I have ever thought of using the word "empowerment" on myself. Now that I know the definition of empowerment, to me it basically means having power towards someone or something. To me it means who controls you and who doesn't. Who decides for you and who doesn't. I guess when one is young empowerment isn't such a big deal. Since in the end whoever was older then you usually empowered you. But once one starts getting older and starts figuring out what empowerment really is, the feeling of someone empowering them isn't so great. I believe that although there will always be someone older or superior to me, I'M the one who in the end empowers myself. I make my decisions, I decide right from wrong. I hold the power to decide who I want to be and who I don't want to be. Whether or not I want to be successful. I remember when I was in the 8th grade and I was getting ready to "graduate" since my school called it a ceremony and not an actual graduation, but I remember that I was the one who decided what high school I wanted to go to. Yes, my mom did have some say in which high school I was going to go to, but in the end I decided which high school I would end up at. I felt great when my mother told me, "it's up to you  to decide which high school you want to go to, just make sure it's a good high school". By good she meant that it provided a good education, educated and dedicated teachers, and a safe and friendly environment. My mother wasn't going to let me go to a "bad" high school either and by bad she meant that the students didn't care about school, that the school let them do what they wanted, and that hardly any students even went to school. When it came to that we agreed on it. I didn't want to go to a school like that either. But overall I felt like everything was left up to me to where I went to high school and it was. I empowered myself to go to a well educated high school that gave me my hope to go to college like it does now. I empowered myself to succeed in high school and to make decisions that will take me somewhere in life. I empower myself to take responsibility for myself.
             I truly believe that my only obstacle to achieving empowerment is myself. I believe that unless you really don't want it, you are the only one who in the end should empower yourself. 

Empower Yourself! 

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