Ghetto Born, God Raised : It's Not Your Setbacks, It's How You Comeback

by Shields, Dario A.

• ISBN13: 9781463419493
• ISBN10: 146341949X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-07-12
• Publisher: Textstream

Summary

Let me ask you a question, do you have a dream or goal? How badly do you want it? Do you want it as badly as you want to breathe? I bet alot of obstacles have come between you and your dream, forcing you to want to just give up. But, as the saying goes, a true champion gets up and continues to fight even if he knows he has no visible chance of winning. Are you a true champion? Eric was "stuck" in his city, he wanted better, but couldn't afford to get the higher education he needed. He was poor and no one was able to help him. Having no other source of income to pay for college, he decided to work his way through. He knew it would be hard, but he had his goal in sight, Eric was going full force after his dream, and to one day hear the words from his mother, "I'm proud of you," and some unlikely allies kept him going.

Excerpts

They didn't even own a car, but were close to a school And The hospital. They lived in what many refer as the ghetto, known to many as Mt. Salem. His birth was a few months after one of the worst natural disasters, Jamaica had ever faced and being that we were poor, they did what little they could do to make the "house" as habitable as they could for him and his two older sisters. the house was small, one bedroom and they were lucky to share a verandah so small that only three persons could hold on it at a time, The wooden floors were breaking away at our feet and as bad as things were, his mom tried to decorate this "house" as best she could. Looking back at how she used to smile at them always brought a smile to Eric's face. His sisters being older than him grew up with fewer luxuries than him. Before his parents met, his mom lived with two of his older sisters in my grandma's house. He knew little of his grandparents; other than the stories told to him which gave him something close to a depiction of how she was. He saw a few photos, but they were mostly tattered. Most of the stories weren't so excited. Both his granddads died before he was born and his mom's mother passed away when he was just four years old, he barely knew her And The few times he could remember seeing her, she was really old. They described her as being like his mom in a lot of ways and along with some stories, he got a basic idea. She didn't sound so bad. the rest of the stories were ghost stories and it is through these few times, he felt they were really connecting as a "family." of all the stories he heard, one of the funniest and possible saddest was the one of Michelle and Symone playing TV. The game was set up like this; they would hold their hands up To The light of the candle or lamp and use their hands to make figures. This game became fun and it was what they had, at the time, they were too poor to afford electricity and in their community, having a TV set was a luxury. Those were the days, but despite the little they had, they still appreciated what they had. Symone was not gonna settle for a life of poverty and she started working while going school from the age of 12, So that she could get at least an "edge" over others. His eldest sister, Mitzi was different, they didn't get along much and he had the impression she hated him. She hardly cared for school, much less an education; she just wanted to go To The parties And The hot spots. as a result, she soon got pregnant in her last year of high school and got kicked out. His mom cleaned the office of a doctor. Though the job didn't pay much, they were able to eat from it and they were too poor to get insurance, So they got free treatments from the doctor when they were sick, wanted checkups, shots or just under the weather. She worked with a really nice clerk that became not only Eric's friend, but also his godmother and she really did fit the bill, because Eric liked her a lot. Her name was Janice and she was really sweet. His dad worked in construction. He was very skilled and though not formally educated, he was second to none And The best at what he did. He wasn't certified, but sought after by many top construction sites and worked on many construction sites. He was very kind and as a result made a lot of friends. He had a big problem with gambling and being the main breadwinner of the household, this made life a little harder for them. He smoked alot and had a temper that could make a lion scared. *** Things were hard for them, many nights they were only able to get meals that were less than substantial and were in a sense, "wet-lips" as they would call it. As a result, they ended looking quite malnourished and having a skinny appearance. Their faces were bony and hard; you could see poverty printed on their faces like a stamp literally labeling them poor. Whilst their appearance didn't seem to matter to anyone then, Eric soon became self conscious of it as he got more education at school. They weren't liked much by their neighbors and as smart as Eric was, he couldn't understand and became quite curious when he was little so he used to go to his best friend, his big sis, Symone. She didn't mention much of it and seemed to want to change the topic each time he brought it up as if it had upset her. She always had this shimmer in her when the topic came up as if it was painful memories, she didn't want to share with Eric, and soon he stopped asking. Symone was really close with a girl who lived close by named Janet. Janet was really good in mathematics and Eric was doing ok, but she helped him, showing him a lot of work arounds to break difficult equations and formulas. She taught him time tables, easy ways to work formulas. She also got books from the library and helped him to master reading. He didn't really like them at first, but then he found out that the books had stories and he started to like those stories, So he read then more and more, even though of them had no pictures, he still enjoyed them. *** One night, his father came in, obviously drunk and his stench indicated that he was smoking, he...