I Made the Best of It

by Mathis, Robert L.

• ISBN13: 9781448953752
• ISBN10: 1448953758
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-05
• Publisher: Publishamerica Inc

Summary

I was born in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, during the 1934 depression. As blacks, we were the poorest of the poor. My mother was a single parent at the age of fifteen. I never knew my father; he was killed when I was three years old. After a bad marriage, and no life skills, my mother refused to pick cotton for the rest of her life. She moved to New York and left me with my aunt. I dropped out of school at the age of fifteen to become a teenage alcoholic. 1949: we left the farm and moved to Concord, NC, to a community called the "the black bottom", the name speaks for itself. 1951: I joined the U.S. Navy; I believe it saved my life. Making the best out of my life came down to accepting all parts of life: the good and the not so good. I had to stop looking for a scapegoat, that's for losers. Many times life isn't fair and Jesus is the best example. I have learned an important lesson, by helping others be their best, doors open for me to be my best. I made the best of it, that is success in itself.