Heal like Malcolm X was his self education. It became his ticket to his future.
In 1946, Malcolm X was convicted of a crime. He was sent to prison for seven years. When he went to prison, he could not even write his name. He never finished beyond Grade 8 in school.
He was frustrated about this. He narrated, “I became increasingly frustrated. at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I wrote… It was sad. I couldn’t even write in a straight line.”
Malcolm X was a person that could typify a rascal, a hustler, an illiterate. He lived a wasteful life. That was Malcolm X before his prison years. He regretted this himself.
But if that were all the story of heal like Malcolm X, we would not know him today. Malcolm X refused to allow his dark realities to dampen him. He took a definite step.
He recalled,
“I saw that the best thing I could do was get hold of a dictionary – to study, to learn some words. It was both ideas together that moved me to request a dictionary along with some tablets and pencils from the Norfolk Prison Colony school.”
He didn’t need to go back to school. He used what he had – books. He read every single day from that day forward.
By the time he left prison, he was the most eloquent person amongst them. He would use his oratory to advocate for equal rights for blacks in the US and worldwide.
This man who once was a wasted life had become someone. He received worldwide reputation with his words.
Reading had changed him. Reading had built him. Reading had helped him discover himself and his potential.
Just before his death, a commentator said Malcolm X was the only person in the US whose words could cause a riot or stop a riot. He was that influential.
He once said, “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”
If Malcolm X could do this while in prison, what more of you NOW. You have the whole wide world of the internet.
You have a smartphone that allows you to rise. You can be unstoppable. No limits.
Heal like Malcolm X. Read. Study. Learn. Grow.
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