Challenges take place in everyone’s lives but, how do you overcome them? Everyone has different lives and, different challenges they must face and overcome. Let’s put the focus on mine. I’m going to take you back to the time when I moved back in New Orleans for my freshman year in high school. The time frame it took place was 2011-2012. I was just a fourteen-year-old kid dealing with the pressures of being influenced to become a drug dealer, being mistreated by my great-uncle, an unsupportive mother, and enduring through the day to day crime that happened in the streets of New Orleans. Ultimately, I learned how to survive on my own at an early age. Yeah, I’ve had a hard life but, let me explain how I have overcame those challenges. A little
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There was constant crime every day and you never knew when or where it was going to happen. I was staying in the neighborhood of the Magnolia projects post-Katrina which was a hot area for murder. I recall one day I was just walking down the street and there was this man, rough looking but, with expensive new clothing every time I saw him at the age of twenty-six years old. I’ll never forget his name which was Mell. Mell was a drug leader in a certain spot in the neighborhood. He was cool people to talk to or, so he seemed. One particular day he pulled me to the side and asked me, “You want to make quick money?” My body just froze as he pulled out a wad of hundred dollar bills and packs of marijuana and crack followed by a gun. This was all new to me being exposed to this. I told him I would think about it and he told me he’ll always be right there waiting on me and that he would be my family. He was feeding in to everything I was missing. I felt I didn’t have anyone in my corner nobody was guiding me. I did have a mentor who was a pastor. His name was Pastor Brown. He was a good man who taught me a lot, gave me a lot of good advice, and I’m still in strong communication with him to this day. What stopped me from making that choice to choose that lifestyle with Mell was on a faithful day coming from a Save-A-Lot. I was running Aarons for my great grandma and I passed by a park and saw a drug transaction going on. I had my headphones on blasting music minding my own business and next thing you know, POP POP POP POP…..POP POP POP. I hit the ground as if I was dead. I looked to the side to see what was going on. There was a man about five feet away from me bleeding to death. His blood smelled like metal as it started seeping in my shirt. I did not know him but he reached to me and looked at me eye to eye with a last plea of help. He took his last breath. That picture stays in my mind stuck
There was constant crime every day and you never knew when or where it was going to happen. I was staying in the neighborhood of the Magnolia projects post-Katrina which was a hot area for murder. I recall one day I was just walking down the street and there was this man, rough looking but, with expensive new clothing every time I saw him at the age of twenty-six years old. I’ll never forget his name which was Mell. Mell was a drug leader in a certain spot in the neighborhood. He was cool people to talk to or, so he seemed. One particular day he pulled me to the side and asked me, “You want to make quick money?” My body just froze as he pulled out a wad of hundred dollar bills and packs of marijuana and crack followed by a gun. This was all new to me being exposed to this. I told him I would think about it and he told me he’ll always be right there waiting on me and that he would be my family. He was feeding in to everything I was missing. I felt I didn’t have anyone in my corner nobody was guiding me. I did have a mentor who was a pastor. His name was Pastor Brown. He was a good man who taught me a lot, gave me a lot of good advice, and I’m still in strong communication with him to this day. What stopped me from making that choice to choose that lifestyle with Mell was on a faithful day coming from a Save-A-Lot. I was running Aarons for my great grandma and I passed by a park and saw a drug transaction going on. I had my headphones on blasting music minding my own business and next thing you know, POP POP POP POP…..POP POP POP. I hit the ground as if I was dead. I looked to the side to see what was going on. There was a man about five feet away from me bleeding to death. His blood smelled like metal as it started seeping in my shirt. I did not know him but he reached to me and looked at me eye to eye with a last plea of help. He took his last breath. That picture stays in my mind stuck