Ludo by Britney

Ludo by Britney - December 2017 Scholarship Essay

It was night. Cramped up in a small apartment, 3 children running around with no food to eat. With a hopeful, luminous smile my mother shared upon her face. She told us constantly, “Surely goodness and mercy shall fall upon us”, with the intent to reassure that everything would be fine. But she cried, she cried in hope that everything would be better. She cried in secret. With massive amounts of embarrassment, she told us that she was struggling and “we are on the verge of getting evicted.” Still her welled up face was bright. At this moment, I may have not been rich, but I sure was grateful.
It was a juxtaposing situation my family faced. Outside, my Brownsville neighborhood was menacing, threatening, treacherous, and scary. Every 4 hours, you can hear the ringing police sirens. Gun shots discharging with ignorance and panic in the midnight. Every melanin person examined. While inside, my house was hopeful, jovial, supportive and enthusiastic. Skipping around with toys, laughter, bible study at 6pm, and sometimes even playing a traditional family game of Ludo.
The Ludo board game originated from India and the earliest evidence is the depiction of boards on the caves of Ajanta. Ludo was later picked up by West African countries, and became very popular within that region. My family is from Ghana and it is very traditional to come together and play.
The game Ludo was fairly simple, everybody gets one color, four pieces, and find multiple strategies to get around the board back to the end, which was the very middle. Every move is made according to rolls of a single die. If you weren’t careful enough, you would be sent back to the very beginning. In my family, there's never a specific player who wins every time.
Sometimes while playing the game some get furious. “What? I was doing so good and you gonna send me back like that?!” We sometimes exclaim as if the whole point of getting together wasn't to have fun. While some may say, “Watch next round!” laughing it up. My life is a Ludo game. As life goes on you simply would never be perfect, and often you would fall all the way back. This Ludo game is a great microcosm of my life. It's how one takes a send back, and finds another strategy to win.
The night of October 24th, 2006, we didn’t play Ludo in our apartment. It was ardent, blazing, blistering, boiling, burning, fiery, searing, sizzling, smoking with screaming flames in my cramped apartment. Fire trucks were screeching, shrieking, and hollering. I was enjoying my Polly The Pocket Doll with locs and fair skin. “Get in the car girls” my mother said with a quivering voice, “We’re going somewhere for the night.”
While all of our stuff was taken away from us my mother kept praying and making sure we were the best we could’ve been. We slept in the car, she said calmly with a tear down her face, “surely goodness and mercy shall fall upon us.” I managed to follow through of what my mom continued to do. I stayed positive, hoping that things would get better. We grabbed our Ludo board pieces, and started a new game. That night I kept getting sent to the beginning. My mother inspired me to keep persevering with my own Ludo piece.
This is something I always want to keep in my mind as move toward college. I want to be able to push forward in all obstacles because my mother did it and she is a strong woman. With her bravery I know that quitting is never the best solution and do everything I could put my mind to.
I will keep my Ludo pieces with me all my life and use it strategically.