Where you started don’t have to be where you end up

Dear Young Hustla,

I’ve been where you are.  I grew up poor, momma was an alcoholic, and I never met my daddy.  Granny and Pops raised me and my little sister, being that momma preferred to drink and run the streets more than she care to look after her children.

Granny and Pops did what they could and showed youngin love.  My Pops was a preacher and a hard worker.  He ruled his home with an iron fist.  No matter the verbal abuse or the beatings we endured he always kept us fed and clothes on our backs.  I respected him.

My life changed one Sunday morning when I went to wake Pops for church.  I shook him like I did every Sunday and saw his clothes were already laid out for today’s service. However, I couldn’t get him to wake.  Sensing something was wrong, I hollered for Grandma to come and see about Pops. Grandma was already struggling to get my sister ready for church, so she began to fuss under her breath as she began to shake him, but Pops didn’t move.   After a few minutes of her shaking, she began to began to cry and holler.  She turned to me and looked at me with tears in her eyes.  She exited the room without saying a word. However, no words were necessary she and I both knew Pops was gone.

Being the first one to discover Pops,  stirred something deep inside of me.  It was the first time seeing a dead body and my first time losing someone who gave a damn about me. Unable to cope I looked to the streets to teach me how to be a man. The only role models in my hood were the dealers and the pimps. They had money, fine women, and respect. I wanted all that. So I figured no other way than to get it how I saw others in the game gettin it.  I enrolled in the University of Concrete and got my diploma in hoodology.

By 21 I had moved from grandma’s house and was full time rippin and runnin in the streets.  I had a few girls on my team, I was robbing, stealing, and selling whatever I had to in order to pay the bills and keep a young G fresh. 

But at the age of 21 God tried to show me that I was headed down the wrong path.  I was shot in the face with a shotgun by a man to coward to face me like a man.  I was told by the doctors I’d lose all my eyesight. By the grace of God I had some sight return to me. However, I did not heed God’s warning. I kept thuggin. All I wanted to be and all I thought I could be was a gangster. This led me to spend the next 28 years of my adult life in and out of jail.

In 2009 while I was locked up. I lost my wife, missed her homegoing, and even missed my daughter’s graduation.  The life I worked so hard to create had never been mine to keep. Hustling the money comes fast, but hardly does it ever last.  After my wife’s passing I knew it was time to retire from the lifestyle.  I always wanted to be an author and wrote on and off my entire life. So while I was locked up I began to take steps putting pen to paper and finding out how to publish a book.

I published my first book Ruthless and have plans for several more books in the works.  I’m focused on my writing and hope to inspire young men to see an alternative way out the hood.

Sometimes it may seem like trappin and rappin are the only way out the hood, but if you face life with your head held high and keep faith in God he will show you the way out. Even when all seems lost there is another path waiting for you.