The Corner

The Corner

When I was 5 years old, my mom looked down to me on the short eight block walk home from school and she said “Sam, promise me that when you grow up you wont stand on the corner like all those other kids”, referring to the pot heads and crack heads, we would see on the same corner ever day. When I turned 15 it hit me, I was one of those kids I saw standing on the corner that I used to see when I was walking home from school. When I was 17 the regret of not being anything my parents had wished for set in, and I tried to use drugs to blindfold me from the truth. At 19 years old after listening to my mother cry on the phone asking over and over where that little boy was she once knew, I now know. I am not that kid standing on the corner all day, I am not going to waste my life on a feeling that doesn’t exist. I am going to do something with my life. I will not be one of them. I will be better. I will be stronger. I will be smarter.
I will make them proud, something I haven’t understood until this day.