I realized if I didn't start talking to my relatives, asking questions, thinking back to my own beginnings, there would come a time when those people wouldn't be around to help me look back and remember.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the importance of connecting with family to preserve memories and stories.
Jacqueline Woodson emphasizes the significance of maintaining relationships with relatives and the value of their insights into one's own history. By engaging in conversations and asking questions, we create a living tapestry of personal and familial narratives that might otherwise be lost when those individuals are no longer with us.
In practice
During a family gathering, one might share this quote to inspire conversations among generations.
'Brown Girl Dreaming' was a book I had a lot of doubts about - mainly, would this story be meaningful to anyone besides me? My editor, Nancy Paulsen, kept assuring me, but there were moments when I was in a really sad place with the story for so many reasons. It wasn't an easy book to write - emotionally, physically, or creatively.
In the midst of observing the world and coming to consciousness, I was becoming a writer, and what I wanted to put on the page were the stories of people who looked like me.
Sometimes you do have to laugh to keep from crying. And sometimes the world feels all right and good and kind of like it's becoming nice again around you. And you realize it, and realize how happy you are in it, and you just gotta laugh.
I don't want anyone to walk through the world feeling invisible ever again.
The strength of my mother is something I didn't pay attention to for so long. Here she was, this single mom, who was part of the Great Migration, who was part of a Jim Crow south, who said, 'I'm getting my kids out of here. I'm creating opportunities for these young people by any means necessary.'
I would have written 'Brown Girl Dreaming' if no one had ever wanted to buy it, if it went nowhere but inside a desk drawer that my own children pulled out one day to find a tool for survival, a symbol of how strong we are and how much we've come through.
Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.
It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn't.
Once you're a mom, you've been split into two people. It's like Peter Pan and his shadow.
I want to give my kids the world, but I also want them to appreciate everything, to succeed, to be good people, to enjoy life. This is my most important role. If I fail at this, I fail at everything.
Nothing is quite so emotional and passionate as what goes on inside of a family. People are driven to distraction by a father or a mother or a husband. Or a child.
In my case, I was representing my family name, honor, legacy... I did not see it as a sport requiring winning or losing a game. For me, it was honor, tradition.
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