I’m 18 now. Less than a month left before I graduate high school. Time to get to know the “real world.”
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By De’Jon K. Jones
Honestly, I’m afraid of what’s next. I know what to expect, I think. But I’m not so sure if it’ll pan out as planned. I was supposed to be a statistic a long time ago. I’m 18, I hit that milestone in life growing up where I come from. I broke the cycle. No, I’m not a gang member. Sadly, all of my friends except a few of us got jumped in and are in jail. Thank God I have yet to lose any of them, permanently. No one is dead. But I can’t be too worried about them. I have to become a man now. Find a job. Buy a house and car. Have a family. And everything else that’s so broadly advertised yet hard to maintain.
I have an idea of what I want to do in life. Play professional ball? Sure. Highly unlikely, closest thing to impossible, but I’ll play as long as I can. Realistically speaking. Not sure what I want to major and minor in just yet. Metaphysics? Business? Real Estate? Sports Therapy? I don’t know. I’m a minority. The U.S. is set against my kind. I’m not supposed to make it. Some say I have the power to finish my one man’s dream, Martin Luther King Jr.’s, that is. Big shoes to fill. I think about wanting to lead my people towards something greater. But how can I lead something that breaks itself? In no way are Blacks united. We kill each other all day over a color on a block. For us to prevail as a race, we must become one. Unite. Everybody wants to be better than the next, and here we are.
I’ve thought about dropping out. I’ve thought about selling drugs. I’ll get nowhere without my education, although I feel that they teach us bullshit 95% of the time. I’ve been misled. School is meant to turn us into robots and work 9 to 5s for someone else. And I’ll never want to purposefully hurt anyone, so I won’t sling a rock. I’ve seen what kind of fast money that’ll make. Also seen how quickly your life it’ll take. I feel I’m stuck in a bind. Sometimes I even question existence. It could be some dream or just a feeble imagination.
Yeah, I want to get rich. Who doesn’t? Money is nonexistent, the government runs it. Slavery was abolished in 1865, so they say. I’d like to live as lavishly as possible and enjoy life. I would also LOVE to give back to my community, charity, to help worldwide. Put my money somewhere it’d make a change. If Queen Elizabeth can cure world hunger four times and still be rich, why doesn’t she?
As long as I have my family and good health, I’m richer than a lot of people will ever be. Life ain’t no joke. I’ll figure it out and LIVE it somehow before it lives me and I expire. Maybe I think too deeply about things and this is just another rant.
That’s where my life is so far….
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