1964

KIKI PETROSINO

My grandfather took this snapshot of my mother, Patricia, shortly after her high school graduation ceremony in 1964. I think she looks so crisp and fresh in her navy blue-and-white dress, her hair perfectly flipped, against the greenery of the football field. In a few months, she would attend Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), a historically black college in Virginia, where my grandfather and great-grandfather had studied. Her high school graduation continued a long tradition of academic excellence in our family, and the lightness and precision of this photograph parallel my sense of those expectations. Education is everything in my family. My mother became a teacher and, later, an instructional specialist in Baltimore City Public Schools. Her grace and kindness, which you can see in her beautiful smile, made her a favorite among students. To this day, whenever I return with her to the Baltimore area, I witness how these same students—now all grown up—regularly recognize my mother, calling her name across museum lobbies, over the railings of escalators, or around the corners of restaurant booths, to thank her for everything she taught them. Now that I’m a university professor, I realize that I’ve arrived here because of my mother’s strength, her commitment to every element of the learning process, her curiosity about the lives of others, and her incredible heart.