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Destined
Bestseller in Emigrants & Immigrants Biographies
About This Book
Growing up in Kinshasa, Zaire, and Dakar, Senegal, Aminata Sy could have never imagined that one day she would serve as an American diplomat. Throughout her life, she experienced disorienting changes and poverty that threatened to derail her from her path. However, from her aunt, who raised her in Dakar, she learned about perseverance, patience, generosity, adaptability, resilience, and service to others.
Life took a dramatic turn for her in America when she decided to quit her job and return to school. Though formerly a high-school dropout, the married mother of three children went on to earn her high-school diploma equivalency and college degrees, meet world leaders, explore her gifts, and land her dream career as an American diplomat. Aminata knows what it’s like to be and to feel invisible and lonely, to walk on paths without any answers and figure it out along the way. She has learned how to deal with adversities and overcome difficulties that stand in the way of progress. She has learned that people have the ability to achieve their most ambitious goals and dreams, regardless of their background and circumstances.
In her memoir, Destined, Aminata takes us on her journey from her childhood in Kinshasa, where she separated from her parents at the age of ten, and her personal struggles growing up in Dakar, through her challenges as a married mother raising a family in poverty in West Philadelphia, and on to her transformative battles for a better future. She gives an intimate look into the limitations of poverty and the struggles of a mother juggling school, work, and family while pursuing big dreams. Narrated with humility and candor, Aminata credits her faith, family, sense of self, and supporters for carrying her through the roller coaster ride of her life.
In sharing her story with authenticity, Aminata inspires us to give our own dreams a chance to manifest. She allows us to believe that our individual stories, journeys, and aspirations are important, that they impact not only ourselves but our families and other people, near and far. She raises the question, “Are we willing to turn our limitations into possibilities and take advantage of those possibilities to transform our lives?”
