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A Lesson in Goal Setting from Harriet Tubman - "The General"

	Harriet Tubman's likeness on the postage stamp printed in her honor.

Harriet Tubman fancied the winter, when fierce Maryland winds cracked even the toughest skin. She liked long, cruel nights that held off the manhunters and their torches, guns, knives, whips and snarling dogs. As it turned out, night was the best time to travel, and knowledge of basic astronomy became her biggest tool (she always knew how to find the North Star). Hunger was also a constant problem but really a short-term discomfort, she realized.

So how did she cope with lean times and all these problems? By remembering her goals. She knew that everything would taste sweeter in freedom. The biggest challenge: killer conditions raked her Underground Railroad charges - those that she was trying so hard to get free. But Tubman (1820-1913) didn't baby anyone, though. Followers who talked about turning around were shown the pistol. "Go on and be free," Tubman would say. "Or die." Tubman understood that being overly sweet would have squelched the whole operation.

A lesson for our College Park Tigers? Landing a dream takes grit,Tubman knew that. Escaping slavery? That took courage a hundred times over. Tubman felt it was worth rankling a few disciples to win the big prize.

Tubman always stayed incredibly focused on her goal, which was attaining her own freedom and helping other people achieve their goals. After Tubman escaped from slavery in 1849, she made several trips back to the South. Hundreds of slaves owed their freedom to her. Those who doubted her on the road later thanked her for pushing them.

Tubman's steel nerve, with an against-all-odds vision, made her shine as conductor in the Underground Railroad from 1850 to 1860. Her nickname: The General. And like a good general, she considered both the details and the big picture. On the road, Tubman was a stickler for details. She had to pay attention to every snap of a twig, every dog bark, the wind blowing. And Tubman would always left slave country on Saturdays, knowing that posters announcing runaways couldn't legally be posted on Sundays, giving her a 24-hour head start. She carefully planned out every step, through Maryland's marshes, woods, estuaries, creeks and inlets. But above all, she demanded complete unity and loyalty from her followers.

Tubman went back to the South about 20 times, eventually freeing many of her friends and family, one by one, with the exception of John, her husband who'd remarried as soon as she originally left.

In the 1890s, three decades after the Civil War, she had brain surgery to help with problems from that old wound. She was so tough, she insisted on biting on a bullet instead of taking anesthesia. No wonder they called her The General!

Tubman kept a stiff backbone all the way to the end of her life. She promoted women's right to vote and helped the elderly of Auburn, N.Y., where she had settled.

"There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death," Tubman said. "If I could not have one, I would have the other."

 

After Tubman died at age 93, she was buried with military rites for her service to America. In 1995, the federal government issued a commemorative postage stamp bearing her name and likeness.

The big lesson for our Tigers? "Every great dream begins with a dreamer," Tubman said. "Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."