Asia is excited about starting her college journey. She applied and has been accepted to the same school her mom and dad attended. She has already mapped out how the next four years of her life will go based on all the stories she’d heard. When the time comes, she packs up her things and moves into the dorms. School starts and it is much harder than she expected but she presses on because she cannot let her parents down. She tries to join the same sorority as her mom but it doesn’t feel right. She even begins dating this guy who puts her in the mind of her dad but he doesn’t treat her like her dad does her mom. And on top of that, she’s struggling. She’s been walking in the footprints of her parents and by the time she realizes it isn’t actually what she wants, she’s flunking out of school. 
Many times we try to walk in the footprints of those who have paved the way for us instead of understanding that we walk because of their footprints. See, I’ve come to realize that if I try to walk in the same footprints of my mama, I will fall over the same things she did. If I try to walk in the same footprints of grandma, I will stumble where she did. If I try to walk in the same footprints of granddaddy, I will hit the same wall, in the same place he did. Why? Well because we are too busy focusing on stepping in their footprints rather than watching where we are going. This is why our logic of thinking has to change. We are not our mothers, our sisters, our aunties or uncles. We are who we are and we have to walk the path designed for us. Another thing, when we attempt to walk the footprints of someone else, we sometimes set ourselves up to attain something not meant for us. Thus leading to fighting a battle we are not equipped for, walking into places we are not ready for and sitting at tables that cannot cater to our taste. Note, there is absolutely nothing wrong with looking up to those before us but don’t limit yourself to being just like them. Do greater works! We walk, today, because of the footprints of those who marched through the hell of yesterday. They left marks in places ‘they’ said we couldn’t go as a guide. Use them!
Lakisha, the Author 