Look! I Can Fly: An Autobiography

By D.J. Wilson

A young woman of color who grew up in the Jim Crow South in the 1960s, faced insurmountable challenges to escape institutionalized racism, bullying, domestic violence, and generational poverty. Empowered by adversity, she persevered, and found a path to freedom. Through her faith in God, she gained wisdom, and found courage to explore non-traditional means to employment which radically changed her life.
This book, Look! I Can Fly is part 1 of her autobiography, and it begins the retelling of her life story. Part two continues her journey and adventure as a soldier in the US Army. Also, this book tells how the integration of women into the Regular Army, during her period of service, proved to the naysayers and doubters that women could perform successfully under extreme conditions.
Further, in part two of this work, she summoned the courage to write about the dark side of her military service, which included - sexual harassment, and a despicable, vile, and horrific act of violence. Her story continues with how these crimes of moral turpitude thrived deep in the ranks of the world’s most powerful Army. As well as, how the systemic failures of this organization to eradicate and punish crimes against active duty military service women, resulted in her victimization. Also, she tells how these traumatic events impacted her physical and mental health.
In part three of her story, she opens up about her decision to leave active military service; and how she struggled with depression, anxiety and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This book, closes one chapter of her life, as she begins the hard work to build a new existence in an ultramodern city and state. While at the same time, she’s learning how to cope with a past life filled with traumatic events. All this and more will be included in the final book of her autobiography.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Sep 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781663244147

D.J. Wilson

Empowered by adversity, she persevered, and overcame a mountain of challenges in her early life. In this book, part one of her Autobiography, she shares difficulties, and traumatic experiences that she encountered, and a few lessons learned, along the way. You will find this book riveting, spine-tingling, and thought-provoking. It will make you laugh, and cry. Poverty, and racial discrimination helped in her decision-making to leave her home, and family to find better living, and working conditions. She never shied away from controversy, or the chance to try something new, or different. Also, her spirit of adventure helped propel her toward her destiny. What woman in her right mind would volunteer to join the United States Military in the midst of an unpopular War? That’s exactly what she did. After graduating from high school, and after, she turned eighteen years old, she enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps of the United States Army. Her godfather didn’t take that decision very well, and she hated disappointing him. But, off she went on the biggest adventure of a life time. Even though, she had no idea of what to expect, she hoped that it would be better than what she left behind. She enlisted at a time when few women were in the ranks of our Nation’s military. That was very brave of her. The military offered an opportunity to learn a skill, travel, earn a living wage, and earn money for college. Also, this was an opportunity to help her family financially. A total win, she thought. After serving six years on active duty, she decided to leave Army Life. With an Honorable Discharge, she headed to the San Francisco Bay Area in California. A place that she dreamed of, for most of her young life. She lived and worked in the Bay Area for more than forty years. It’s her most favorite place to be. City by the Bay, described by many as the “the most beautiful place on earth to live.” In this beautiful environment, she raised a daughter as a single mother in the Bay Area. As a civilian, she managed projects and programs for the Federal Government until retirement. During that period of employment, she worked with people of all ages, races, social-economic background, political leaders, and other members of the pubic. The position gave her the opportunity to express herself in writing, and through public speaking, which she enjoyed very much. Most of all, the job offered travel for work, which often took her to other states, including Hawaii. When her mother was a live, she loved getting phone calls every week from a different location across the United States. Since retirement, she keeps busy volunteering at her church, retirement association, and for nonprofit organizations in the Bay Area. She spends as much time as possible with her family, which includes two beautiful granddaughters. She came from very humble beginnings, and overcame hardships to live life on her own terms. She looks forward to sharing more about her life experiences – the good, and the not so good, with you in future books. If you like fast-paced, real-life drama, you are going to love Book One of her Autobiography.

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Copyright © 2022 D. J. Wilson.

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Look! I Can Fly depicts true actual events that occurred throughout the author’s early life.

The book is written from her point of view, and it is based on the author’s personal experiences, knowledge, observation, and memories of said events. The characters within do represent actual individuals, but the names, including her own, places, physical properties, businesses, and places of residences have been changed or omitted, in an effort, to protect privacy.

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-6632-4415-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-4414-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022916784

iUniverse rev. date:     10/14/2022

To my parents – whose sacrifices paved the way for me to achieve the earthly things that they only dream about.

And

Chloe – a special daughter, any parent would be proud to call a progeny.

Don’t judge by his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

—1 Samuel 16:7 NLT

Preface

Look! I Can Fly depicts true actual events that occurred throughout my early life. The book is written from my point of view, and it is based on my personal experiences, knowledge, observation, and memories of said events. The characters within do represent actual individuals, but the names, including my own, places, physical properties, businesses, and places of residences have been changed or omitted, in an effort, to protect privacy.

The first eighteen years of my life read like a best-selling novel. It included dark family secrets, controversy, extreme situations, action, and consequences. The problem was that my heart lacked the courage and desire to tell my story. The tools needed to deal with this sad, and painful truth were hidden deep in my mind, waiting to be discovered. It was the stuff that the blues singers of my childhood sang about. The blues, a genre of music that used poverty, hard work, heartache, hardship, oppression, depression, and loss to shed light on the conditions of the poor, mostly people of color living in the southeastern part of the United States.

The Mississippi Delta gave birth to a long list of notable blues musicians and singers, including the man called the King of the Blues, B. B. King. Through this music, they introduced generations of people around the world to the plight of poor Black people in the Jim Crow South. My parents, and my maternal ancestors were born into poverty in the State of Mississippi. They worked as farm laborers in the cotton industry, and earned pennies compared to the true value of their work. A life of drudgery and servitude was destined to be their fate, and that of their descendants.

My mother and others of her age group loved the blues. When she heard a song she liked, she grabbed a broom, or an imaginary prop to slow danced around the room. She was a good singer, so she sang along with the record, as her facial expressions changed with the emotions of the lyrics. She connected with every word of a song, and the lyrics went somewhere deep in her soul. At that time, I didn’t understand the music, or why anyone else liked it. I thought it was for people like my parents. To me, the music was scary, loud, too sad, and depressing.

I once asked Mom, What’s so special about the blues?

Just keep on living, she said.

By the time I turned fifteen, most of the traumatic, life-altering events described in this book had occurred. And by the age of eighteen, my appreciation for the music that I disliked so much in my youth, had changed. Because by then, I had done a lot of living. And all of the ingredients that makes up the blues, were now part of my life experiences.

My first experience with heartache occurred when I was sixteen. While hospitalize for an illness with an uncertain prognosis, my best girlfriend and my boyfriend began an intimate relationship. The treachery was revealed by another girlfriend. Their disloyalty, and unfaithfulness, stung deep. When I allowed myself to trust again, my next high school boyfriend, openly cheated, and was verbally and physically abusive. He was crazy jealous and possessive, and reminded me of my father in a bad way. Not only did I watch my mother’s domestic violence abuse, I have my own story to tell.

Living below the federal poverty level sealed my fate. Poverty was the hallmark for a life filled with hardship, oppression, depression, and hard work. Both of my parents worked as farm laborers, but didn’t earn a living wage. I watched them struggle and worry about our future needs. To help them, while still in high school, I worked part-time as a maid and babysitter, earning less than $15 a week. That work was dehumanizing, demeaning, degrading, and I was treated with disrespect. It was a traumatic experience, and it caused me to have phobias as it related to germs and cleanliness to present day. To avoid working as a domestic, I chopped cotton. What I learned from this experience as a domestic worker - don’t ask others to do for you, that you wouldn’t do for yourself; be kind and respectful in all situations; and know your worth.

During the summer, I chopped cotton. This was hard work, even for a young person like me. Blisters and corns formed on the inside of my hands from gripping the hoe - the tool used to remove weeds from around the cotton. The work was exhausting, because one had to walked all day, and it caused my feet to hurt. My work shoes were not sufficient for the amount of walking the work required. The awkward motion used to remove the weeds, caused backaches. Exposure to the hot sun, with only a straw hat and a long sleeve shirt for protection, caused awful sunburns and skin rashes. Some of the field workers covered up so well, they resemble a mummy.

At mid-day, we were allowed a lunch break. I found the closest tree or shrub and collapsed under it. The older workers continued to stand using their hoe for support, as one older gentleman put it, If I get down there, it’s gon’ take all y’all to get me up. Needless to say, the pay was awful, and provided no benefits.

The work was intense, but boring. Conversations between the workers were discouraged, because the landowner or the straw boss wanted us to focus on weed removal. Talking was a cause to get fired. To break the tedious repetitions, and the awful silence, someone would sing, or maybe someone would have a transistor radio. In the field, the radio only picked up one station - country music. If a chopper complained about the selection, someone would say, It’s the same as the blues, just sung by White folks. Chopping cotton required both hands on the hoe. The person with the transistor radio tapped it around the neck, or to the top of the straw hat, otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to hear it.

The difficult times opened my eyes to life, and helped me understand the blues genre of music, and its importance to the African-American culture.

As a child growing up in the rural