Alfreda Williams

Lessons Learnt: The Story of Young Mai Alfreda Williams

Lessons Learnt: The Story of Young Mai is a story about a young girl's life experiences and lessons learned from them. The introduction describes her battle in writing her book: the years of procrastination and anxiety and finally her aspiration and inspiration to complete her book. Starting with the early childhood years, the story progresses throughout her high school years and details her relationships with family and friends, her struggles and triumphs, and lessons learned from each experience. Family and extended family relationships are described in detail. She details her life in the church and her confusion about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. She reveals her disdain of the poor only to realize, to her chagrin, that she, too, was poor. Mai informs us of the painful way that she learned the difference between popularity and prestige while in high school. And she discloses the details of the heartfelt pain and shame of her prom. Lessons Learnt is an extremely honest book, sometimes painful, other times hilariously funny, which closely examines how Mai was affected by her childhood. She describes the challenges of growing up, how segregation affected her, and those teenage years fraught with curiosity, disappointments, and successes-all of which shaped her life's trajectory. The book includes her adult reflections of her childhood. It ends with a synopsis of the lessons she learned from those experiences. No matter if you get your ass beat, don't let nobody walk all over you.