As a kid in growing up in the roughest parts of Cleveland, Ohio, I spent many of my formative years without the direct influence of my mother or father. The time that I did live with them, my life was a horrific collage of abuse, starvation, drug exposure, homelessness, and perversion. I was convinced by age 11 that I would never be anything in life but a failure. I felt as though I was fighting this battle of life all alone.
I have vivid memories of walking over the passed out body of my drunken mother as she partied away our only source of income; her welfare check. My father branding painful memories of beating me as if I were a grown man.
Living in the institutional setting of a group home at 12 years old, and subsequently a foster home by age 13, my life was destined to be a successive series of "NO's". As I began to listen more and more to the guiding voice of my loving foster parents, I soon began to realize that I could win at anything I chose to do and change the course of my own future.
While many of my foster brothers were choosing to pursue drug trafficking, I began to hang out at the church up the street. It was as if each year was a new blossoming opportunity for me; Music ministry, Inner-city children's ministry co-founder, and a trip to London, England to speak before 20,000 people during the Americans Day Parade. These once in a lifetime opportunities all happened before I was 19 years old because I simply made a choice.
I could have been a statistic, like many in today's society. I could have refused to take the bull by the horns and allow everyone else to capture all the possibilities life offered. Instead, I made a choice to run with bulls and produce a life worth living.
I have been side by side in the deepest trenches of life teaching young people. I have mentored children from toddlers to young adults; all from every stage and background of life. I have seen the biggest, baddest young men cry like babies and the toughest, coldest toddlers never shed a tear. It is my heart felt duty to make sure these young vibrant minds are not disqulaified from the oppportunities life has to offer.
From where I came from and what I chose to become, I stand on common ground, shoulder to shoulder with this next generation of decision makers and proclaim...The Choice is Theirs. It is my life's passion to help young people who feel as though all hope is lost to rise up, stand tall, be proud and make a choice and take the bull by the horns.
