Future.

So, yesterday I wrote about feeling vulnerable, which ain’t just a crip thang.  Today, let’s talk about future.  Yeah, they can go hand in hand.  The thing with the future is it’s so unknown?  It could be good or it could be really bad; unfortunately, that’s how it seems…the really winds up on the bad side.  Ironic, huh?

So, what to do, what to do…

Of course, this is just my opinion.  Please, don’t take it as gospel.  I throw it out there from my experience.  Make my experience your own in YOUR life. You can you be the ball, OR you can be SOMEONE ELSE’S ball.

First off, get yourself out of school.  Yeah, I know MOST of the classes are boring as hell.  Suck it up.  You think you’re a little fish in a big pond now?  Wait.  You’ve heard knowledge’s power?  Yeah, I know, cliché.  Dudes and Dudettes, learn it, live it.  You’re not college material?  Do a semester for the experience, you MIGHT find something you like.  Don’t have money?  There’s financial aid.  Hell, if there’s something you’re good in school, you MIGHT score a free ride JUST ON YOUR GIFT.

J, nobody else in my fam went to college.

OK, so this post’s is gonna be a twofer.

Story time:

Once when I was young, I made a list of all the things I wanted to be when I grew up.  Yeah, you know the list, don’t say you don’t.  Anyhoo, at the top of my list was doctor, because, well, my folks were such.  HOWEVER, as I grew up, I saw they were always getting called out at random times to help others.  I just knew they were getting taken away from us.  I didn’t want that.  Needless to say, NONE of us became doctors.  Sure, we could’ve, especially my sister, but we CHOSE not to.

My point:  It’s OK to go a different path than your folks.  As crips, our main caregivers are our folks growing up, some see our folks/caregivers to the grave.  That’s all we know.  Thinking outside our safebox is scary shit.  Your folks want to know they did their jobs right in the end whether you followed their path or you paved your own way.  Yeah, you might fall on your ass…it’s a GUARANTEE you’ll fall on your ass at least once or twice, but what’ll define you is how you get back up.  If they didn’t make college, go.  If you want to be a writer, write.  If you want to be President, make it happen.  Lord knows we need the help.

Be change.

Be good to each other.

-J-