On the 14th day of April in the year of 1995, I was born to Wilsa and Patrick Louijame. My parents, immigrants from Haiti, came to this country to obtain a better life for both themselves and their future children. About three years after my birth, my little brother Scotty Narcisse Louijame was born. As the years progressed, my brother and I grew very close. Whether it was through playing a game of Domino Chinois, a card game that our grandmother had taught us, or by playing an innocent game of play school, a game that Scotty was not too fond of, we became to some degree inseparable. As a child I had always been very in tune with my imaginative side. I could always be found prancing around the house as a pretend character in my make-believe soap operas. I would take on different names and personalities while simultaneously speaking my made up languages. As I evolved and time advanced, I began to have less time for the make-believe life I had created and began focusing more on the importance of my education.
Years had rolled by and finally the year of 2007 had arrived. It was my first year at Boston Latin and as a sixie I didn’t know what exactly to expect from the prestigious exam school. At the tender age of thirteen years old I was greatly intimidated by the grandeur of the renowned oldest public -school in Boston. Despite my apprehensiveness, I quickly submerged myself in the several extracurricular activities that Boston Latin School had to offer. From clubs like Invisible Children to groups like Girls’ Advisory, I quickly became fond of the importance of helping those around me. Through clubs like Girls Advisory, I was given the opportunity to not only receive advise from fellow teenage girls in regards to the issues we face as young ladies in this society, but also reciprocate the advise unto others. I gradually began to realize that Girls Advisory was a form of service. Where most people only considered charity work and fund raisers as the traditional form of service, Girl Advisory opened my eyes to another facet of public service. With Girls’ Advisory I was given a chance to aid those in need of help by creating this environment where judgment of others was illicit.
Around the same time of my involvement with Girls Advisory, I also discovered Spoken Word. On the surface, Spoken Word was a group founded for the mere purpose of performing poetry, when in fact Spoken Word did so much more. As one of the officers, I realized that Spoken Word was so much more than a club for poetry but was also a club for self expression and liberation. It too was a form of public service in that it provided the people with a safe haven to tell their stories. With Spoken Word, I realized that I didn’t have to let go of the little imaginative girl who pranced around the house acting in her make-believe soap operas. With Spoken Word, I realized that everyone had a story to tell but that not everyone had a place to tell it. Through my experiences of being the officers of Girls’ Advisory and Spoken Word, I learned that there were several ways to act in this world in pursuits of making a difference. I realized that serving the public could be done in such wonderful ways that didn’t exactly mean raising money for a certain cause. Serving the public meant giving advice to a fellow friend. Serving the public meant sharing a story that may have resonated with someone who felt that they did not have a voice. Serving, in essence, was acting in a way that would make a difference. Having realized this in my six years at Boson Latin School, I became drawn by the Ward Fellowship and its focus on public service. With the fellowship, I have been given the opportunity to meet several different people who have served the public in several different ways and have confirmed my belief that serving the people is not only a thing of importance but a thing of beauty.