Staying True to Your Word

Staying true to your word is a huge responsibility. Staying true to your word just means that when you say something, or make a promise you’re going to follow through with what you said. Sometimes it’s impossible to do because you bit off way more than you can fit in your mouth (comes from the expression: bite off more than you can chew). Doing that will lead to people not believing you, not wanting to believe you, or not even have any type of communication with you. If that was to happen, you would be one lonesome person. When you lie to others about a promise your lie yourself, and evenually begin to lose yourself. You can always try and gain your trust back from people and that shows dedication, but don’t expect it too soon. If you make promises that you can keep and do keep them, people will start to believe you again.

In my book, Darnell Rock Reporting, by Walter Dean Myers, Darnell is on the school newspaper. At first he didn’t take it serious. He said he said he was going to do his job by getting his research but didn’t. People were disappointed in him and it showed. So after he saw how much he was affecting everyone he got serious about everything. There’s just something about people that makes you change your ways. When we’re doing something our friends don’t like they become distant from us and makes us want to change our ways, become we don’t like being neglected

To my memory I’ve been keeping my promises for a very long time. Once I hit 6^th grade, I didn’t really see how much it affected people when I don’t keep my part of a promise. When I started doing that I had people individually coming up to me and ask for favors. When that started happening I know I had everyone’s trust. Then eventually, somehow, I became everyone’s therapist. When that happened I knew people trusted me on a whole other level, and that made me feel special.

Let’s take my hero as an example, Charlotte Ray, she was a bright person. Everyone downgraded her just because of her skin color. She tried to gain peoples trust and respect but because she had dark skin they wouldn’t allow it. Eventually she gained it, that trust and respect she wanted so much by becoming the first black women lawyer. That just goes to show you that anything can happen. Just because it doesn’t work out at first doesn’t mean it won’t happen at all. If you give up, all the nasty things people say about you could be true because you didn’t defend yourself. Or you just gave up. It might take your whole life, but at least you can accomplish something big.

To see what other people have to say about honest and the power of words visit http://www.thepoweroftruth.com/truth_quotes.html

Family

What is family? Many people have their different view on their own family, but there is one definition for it. Family is usually your parents and your siblings, or anyone with the same blood running through their bodies. But your family can be anyone outside of your blood family, like a best friend you knew for years.  It could also be a group of people you hang out with all the time. My personal definition of an “outside family” is someone or people you’ve known for years, that you trust, and are down for you NO MATTER WHAT! I really just can’t stress that enough. No matter what happens your there for each other through thick and thin. No matter what kind of family you have (blood or not) it’s important for you to have that support.

In my book, Darnell Rock Reporting, by Walter Dean Myers, Darnell has two families, his blood family, his mother, father, and sister, and school, or street family. He has lived in the same neighborhood all his life. He grew up with those kids and also goes to school with them. I don’t know specifically what kind of relationship he has with his parents, but with his sister, they talk about almost everything and that’s great because you can’t talk to your sister about everything. He also tells and talks to his boys about everything too. His friends that he goes to school with and grew up with are also there for him NO MATTER WHAT!

Personally, and I’m going be real on this, I think it’s always important to have a second family because sometimes your blood family won’t understand you and it WILL be frustrating. I always feel like I’m being judged in a way by the girls in my family (my mom and sister). The reason why I say that is because every time I do something wrong, get in trouble or anything like that, they go and tell the whole family, all their friends, and everything. I absolutely hate when they do that. Then whoever they tell comes up to me and asks me about to situation. They have no right to do that because it’s none of their business. Another thing is when they automatically jump to conclusions when they hear or think something happened that has to deal with me. Most of the time there wrong and when I correct them, I’m “lying”.  I know for a fact I’m not alone on this. I know many people who feel the exact same way. But if I do have a problem I either talk to my brothers, my cousin, or my friend family. The friend family that I have, I’ve had for a long time and gradually adding more people to my friend family. We are TRULY there for each other NO MATTER WHAT! I can talk about anything with them and it’s always good to know you have someone there.

I know for a fact I’m not the only one who feels this way. I know people personally who also feel the way I do. They’re either my age, or near my age. In situations like these you’re never alone.  Just one person can make a huge difference. I think if parents had a “best friend” relationship with their kids but still had that line of “I’m still your parent” this wouldn’t happen so much. By saying that I mean that parents should have a friend relationship with us but we shouldn’t just talk to them any kind of way. There is still that boundary of I'm still an adult treat me like one. Something like this can’t start when we’re 13 or around that age, it has to start young, or else we’ll have a hard time believing them. Just remember, any kind of family you have, just make sure they are down for you NO MATTER WHAT, you trust them, and you have to do the same!

For more infomation on different kind of family problems and how to deal with them please visit this website http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/Family_Issues.shtml

Having Dreams

Having dreams and dreaming about your future is something everyone does. No matter how young or old you are. You’re always thinking and planning about your future; what you plan on doing later in life. Some people get made fun of for their dreams and that's dumb. You can never dream too big or too small. As long as you have your inspiration in yourself then you can do; anything is possible, the sky is the limit.

People often give up on their dreams, and I really feel sorry for them. I’m sure they have a lot of potential in being whatever they want but yet, give up for some reason. Sometimes it could be of people always filling their heads with negative things and they end up give up on what it is they want to do. They could also think they’ve set their expectations for themselves too high and give up on them self. It’s really sad; if I had a friend like that who was giving up on themselves I always encourage them. Sometimes one person can make a difference. Being that one special person in someone’s life could give you a good feeling, because you can say that you helped a friend in a big accomplishment.

This boy named Darnell in my book, Darnell Rock Reporting, by Walter Dean Myers, has a problem similar too this. After realizing he shouldn’t be getting himself in trouble anymore, he joined the school newspaper and eventually and one of his articles was actually in the newspaper.  He realized he has a future in what he is doing. He’s practices as he’s young so that’s what he wants to do in life he'll be better, smart. That’s his dream that's he wants to fulfill. Even though his “corner crew” doesn’t approve, there’s other people in life that does approve and that’s what keeps him going.

I personally have a dream of my own; a dream that will be fulfilled. My dream is to be a lawyer, a corporate lawyer. I’ve had this dream for a long time. I’m currently 15 and in the 9^th grade, and I’ve had this dream since I was 8 and in the 3^rd grade. I got really serious about when I got into the 6^th grade. I started learning more about it, and I sat in a few court cases with my mom. I watched shows with cases in them just to get more familiar with it. That’s the second step that you should take of fulfilling your dream. Your first step is not caring what ANYONE thinks of you. You know who you are and you shouldn’t think anything less of yourself, nor let anyone down grade you.  

People often think because they’re family doesn’t have that much money they can't be anything in life. They think they need certain things to be what they want. Well, that’s not true. As long as you went to high school and got excellent or decent grades you’re in good condition. Many famous people started out poor people and are very wealthy. People like Jean Michel Basquiat, Halle Berry, Jim Carey, David Letterman, William Shatner, Ella Fitzgerald, and many more. People like them could be inspirations to people who are less fortunate than others. Dreams are something everyone should have, and everyone should go for. Don’t let anything stand in your way, remember the sky is the limit.

For more infomation on famous people who made big of themself, when poor or less fortunate, visit http://blog.koldcast.tv/2010/koldcast-news/15-famous-people-who-were-once-homeless/
For different potential careers for you, visit
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/list-of-different-careers.html

Being Neglected

Neglection is a very serious matter; so serious it can easily be turned in to depression. Being neglected gives you a weird feeling in your chest, your heart. Well at least for me that’s how and what I feel. Sometimes we aren’t really being neglected we just seem like we are. But that still hurts our feelings. When you’re being neglect, you’re being ignored. It’s like no one likes you anymore and no one wants to pay attention to you. You just feel like an outcast to the world. Just thinking about it myself as I write this, makes me remember how I felt, and it’s just not a good feeling.

In our youth today many teens are being neglected a lot, mostly by parents. I have never been neglected by my mom so I have no clue what that is like. But if I was to be neglected by her I wouldn’t know what to do. For some people, friends are all they have, and being ignored by them is a heart breaking moment for them. When that happens they try to keep their mind off of it, which is a good thing, but they do it in a bad way. They go out and do something stupid, something that would get them in trouble with the law.  Or even worse, they run away and no one ever here’s from them again. Some say this is to happen to girls more because we are more emotional then guys. It’s true and there is NOTHING wrong with that. Because of that boys make fun of it, but it’s a something God gave us for a reason.

Just like the boy in my book that I am reading, Darnell Rock Reporting, by Walter Dean Myers, he wanted to live a better his life. He was tired of being in trouble all the time and was going to get kicked out of his school if he didn’t straighten up. He was taking the right step to change but his crew that he was always with didn’t like it. He wanted to do both, change and hang with his crew, but his “corner crew” wasn’t having it. They started ignoring him and he was being neglected by his friends. He started second guessing himself on whether he’s really making the right choice. That’s the only reason why he was being neglected and he didn’t like that feeling, and that’s natural.

I personally have felt neglected by almost everyone I know. It’s usually by family. I feel like they don’t always pay attention to me; like they’re not worried about me and they go on with their life. I want to scream, “Hello I’m here. Did you forget about me?” Then when that happens I turn to my friends. Other times I’m neglected by friends. But when that happens I don’t go running to my family. I turn to a really close friend of mine or a cousin I’m really close with. I know the pain of going through it because it happens to me pretty frequently. Sometimes I just go into this weird mood where I feel like people are ignoring me but they’re not. I know people who also go through that and realized I’m not alone. Talking to someone about it or just about anything is ALWAYS the best thing to do. You always have to know you’re not alone.

For different stories on neglect visit http://www.childabusecharity.com/2007/December/Child-Abuse-and-Neglect-Devastating-Stories.htm

The Difficulties of Changing

Changing is always hard. No matter if you’re changing from good to bad or vise versa. No matter what the problem, changing is a very hard thing to do. In many situations people change and are changing for the wrong reasons. For an example is your changing your personality because you like a boy and you want him to notice you, your changing for the wrong reasons. If you change you appearance because you want to be a part of a certain group of people, your changing for the wrong reasons.

In our youth today, it really breaks my heart to see how these teenagers are living now in days. If you know the way you are living isn't how you should and you know you’re going down the wrong road, then changing your life around is the SMART thing to do. Yes, i understand it is a hard thing to do. Breaking all your old habits is the hardest part. But don't give up just because it’s hard. Keep at it and you will reach the goals you want. Especially when you have a group of friends that will despise you and neglect you, but on the bright side, the person you become will gain friends that will be better for you in life. Friends that will go down the path you want to do down, and fulfill the dreams you want, that way you have no conflicts to go through. This boy named Darnell in my book, Darnell Rock Reporting, for Walter Dean Myers, also went through this. He didn't want to get kicked of his school, just like his principal threatened. So he joins the school newspaper just to stay out of trouble with his "Corner Crew". Doing something productive like this is a great way on your changing journey.

I personally went through a changing phase. It wasn’t big, but for my age it was. When i was in fifth through eighth grade i had a terrible potty mouth. I was always cursing because my friend was. I was raised in a Christian home so that wasn't me or how i was raised. Until i got caught i didn't realize how much it was wrong, or how much i was hurting my mom. It wasn’t easy because that's how i spoke for years under cover, but i did it and very proud of myself. I realize now that that's not the road i should be taking.

A great Black History example is Jean Michel Basquiat. He was an artist that loved what he did. He made is art noticed but putting them on postcards and t-shirts that he sold.  Jean died at an early age of 27 of an overdose. If he was to spend more time in his art then there’s a big chance that overdose would have never happened.  Doing something to keep you occupied is a great way to keep you out of trouble. No matter if people are making fun of you it shouldn't matter because you doing things to better your life. Worry about you and you only then you can become the person you want.
For information on changing your life style and the difficulties then visit http://www.enhancedhealing.com/health_wellness_articles/article/486