Embracing Struggle
If often difficult to speak or even address a talk or article dealing with the youth without sounding like you’re preaching or telling them what to do. Truth is whether you’re an adult of a child, no one likes to be talked at. Youth of the day are not much different from when I was young accept for they have more toys and more distractions to deal with. In the communities most of us live in the same struggles are going on, from incarceration, police brutality, hunger, abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, etc…. I state that because I want the young brothers and sisters to know that unfortunately this is nothing new in our community.
We as a people have been dealing with struggle for centuries and we have come to under and overstand that struggle is a part of the life cycle. Now what separates those who make it from those who don’t is whether they respond or react to this struggle. Personally, I was raised in the streets of NY city in a middle class family but I know what it’s like to be hungry, not have much of anything, maybe except the love of a mother, auntie, grandmother. I know what it’s like to not only work and still fall victim to the call of the streets. Where it seems like going to prison was not only a rites of passage but the one sure thing I had to look forward to for that became my reality as well. However it doesn’t have to be yours.
All of our lives we heard that education is the key. Okay, if it is the key what door is it opening? See the thing about education is it’s a way to a means. It is not, I repeat it is not the be all to end all. Why do I say that? Simple, having all the education in the world does not guarantee you success. Oh it well help tip the scales a bit but it doesn’t insure success. Brother Malcolm X stated about education “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow is for those who prepare for it.” My point being, you have to do more than get the book information to be successful. There’s a certain amount of endurance, preparation and planning that comes with the information. When you plan and prepare, then what you’re trying to accomplish no longer stays a dream or a wish because with your planning and preparing you have chosen to put with it action with it and action aligned with purpose is what brings the success.
Yes, the times are harder than ever. Yes the economic climate is at an all time low, but ourstory teaches me that it was out of these conditions some of our greatest minds and leaders came from. I’m not trying to trick you into believing what I’m saying. What I want you to see in your own selves is you have the ability to see the possibilities if you open your mind to the fact that your circumstances do not define who you are. After 10 and a half years in prison I find myself in a similar position as a lot of you and yet my principles, the knowledge that I have and my relationship with the Creator will not let me fail and as a result I have been fortunate to have been blessed with not one, not two, but three jobs in the last week; and that’s after being home 12 months without a job. Don’t believe the hype. If no one believes in you, believe in yourself. No that this is possible because there have been those who have done it before you and you will be able to tell someone how you did it that will come after you. Peace
If often difficult to speak or even address a talk or article dealing with the youth without sounding like you’re preaching or telling them what to do. Truth is whether you’re an adult of a child, no one likes to be talked at. Youth of the day are not much different from when I was young accept for they have more toys and more distractions to deal with. In the communities most of us live in the same struggles are going on, from incarceration, police brutality, hunger, abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, etc…. I state that because I want the young brothers and sisters to know that unfortunately this is nothing new in our community.
We as a people have been dealing with struggle for centuries and we have come to under and overstand that struggle is a part of the life cycle. Now what separates those who make it from those who don’t is whether they respond or react to this struggle. Personally, I was raised in the streets of NY city in a middle class family but I know what it’s like to be hungry, not have much of anything, maybe except the love of a mother, auntie, grandmother. I know what it’s like to not only work and still fall victim to the call of the streets. Where it seems like going to prison was not only a rites of passage but the one sure thing I had to look forward to for that became my reality as well. However it doesn’t have to be yours.
All of our lives we heard that education is the key. Okay, if it is the key what door is it opening? See the thing about education is it’s a way to a means. It is not, I repeat it is not the be all to end all. Why do I say that? Simple, having all the education in the world does not guarantee you success. Oh it well help tip the scales a bit but it doesn’t insure success. Brother Malcolm X stated about education “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow is for those who prepare for it.” My point being, you have to do more than get the book information to be successful. There’s a certain amount of endurance, preparation and planning that comes with the information. When you plan and prepare, then what you’re trying to accomplish no longer stays a dream or a wish because with your planning and preparing you have chosen to put with it action with it and action aligned with purpose is what brings the success.
Yes, the times are harder than ever. Yes the economic climate is at an all time low, but ourstory teaches me that it was out of these conditions some of our greatest minds and leaders came from. I’m not trying to trick you into believing what I’m saying. What I want you to see in your own selves is you have the ability to see the possibilities if you open your mind to the fact that your circumstances do not define who you are. After 10 and a half years in prison I find myself in a similar position as a lot of you and yet my principles, the knowledge that I have and my relationship with the Creator will not let me fail and as a result I have been fortunate to have been blessed with not one, not two, but three jobs in the last week; and that’s after being home 12 months without a job. Don’t believe the hype. If no one believes in you, believe in yourself. No that this is possible because there have been those who have done it before you and you will be able to tell someone how you did it that will come after you. Peace
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