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I'm a guy from the ghetto who grew up in an abusive single mother home. As a toddler in 1986-88, I lived in Lebanon. Fortunately, I was too young to have the horrors of war affect me much but I do remember the shelling.
I've been shot at and been robbed at gunpoint 5 times. I've out-ran two other attempted armed robberies. I know how it feels to have a gun at your head for several minutes while you wait for the timer on the safe at your job to count down. And then when you go to the police station, the cops are accusing you of doing an inside job.
I've always had to fight growing up. Fighting in school, fighting at my jobs, fighting in the street. I won't lie: I rarely won a fight and always finished bloodied regardless.
I've had two friends of mine murdered in cold blood. Rest in Peace Donte and Dominic.
List the litany of stuff you hear about growing up in the inner-city and I've been through a lot of it.
Always told that a college education was the key to success and to leave the ghetto so I worked hard at the city's best high school, even when my mother kicked me out of her apartment, benefited from her abuse by being able to declare as an independent student which allowed me to attend college. Worked two jobs while attending school and finished magna *** laude. Only really worked both jobs to support a ***** of a 'girlfriend' who ended up being a whore who treated me like **** for 5 years.
Three years after college, I'm still here. Still here with the bars on the windows to prevent a third break-in; still here knowing I am taking a risk if I step out at night; still here with the dealers down the street; still here with the young boys mean mugging me and testing me as I walk past them on the corner...
But **** it. I'm not depressed. I feel fine and confident. People have been through a lot worse so what I look like whining and stewing in my own self-pity? I'll get out of here soon enough. Hopefully by the end of August when I finish OCS and commission.
What's all this depression talk with you privileged folk? Man the **** up.
I've been shot at and been robbed at gunpoint 5 times. I've out-ran two other attempted armed robberies. I know how it feels to have a gun at your head for several minutes while you wait for the timer on the safe at your job to count down. And then when you go to the police station, the cops are accusing you of doing an inside job.
I've always had to fight growing up. Fighting in school, fighting at my jobs, fighting in the street. I won't lie: I rarely won a fight and always finished bloodied regardless.
I've had two friends of mine murdered in cold blood. Rest in Peace Donte and Dominic.
List the litany of stuff you hear about growing up in the inner-city and I've been through a lot of it.
Always told that a college education was the key to success and to leave the ghetto so I worked hard at the city's best high school, even when my mother kicked me out of her apartment, benefited from her abuse by being able to declare as an independent student which allowed me to attend college. Worked two jobs while attending school and finished magna *** laude. Only really worked both jobs to support a ***** of a 'girlfriend' who ended up being a whore who treated me like **** for 5 years.
Three years after college, I'm still here. Still here with the bars on the windows to prevent a third break-in; still here knowing I am taking a risk if I step out at night; still here with the dealers down the street; still here with the young boys mean mugging me and testing me as I walk past them on the corner...
But **** it. I'm not depressed. I feel fine and confident. People have been through a lot worse so what I look like whining and stewing in my own self-pity? I'll get out of here soon enough. Hopefully by the end of August when I finish OCS and commission.
What's all this depression talk with you privileged folk? Man the **** up.
because depression is a mental disorder caused by problems within the brain, and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with real-life triggers?
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