Jumping Over Barriers
From someone else's perspective, it may look like I've never had to overcome any challenges, other than exercising enough to keep in shape (round is a shape, right?). But there have been many significant challenges in my life.
My parents were divorced, and unfortunately, my brothers and sisters and I wound up going to live with our mother. She did everything she could to keep us away from our father and his side of the family, including moving us to another country. We moved to Malaysia, and lived there for years while our father frantically searched for us.
One day I mailed a letter myself, and he found out where we were. A torrent of letters and gifts arrived in the mail, three years worth. My mother was furious. She had been throwing our letters to our father and grandparents in the garbage so they wouldn't find out where we were living. We wound up going back to the United States before our father had a chance to go to Malaysia to see us.
Growing up in a family with a mother and step-father who were violent drug and alcohol abusers was one of the first and one of the most lasting challenges in my life. My siblings and I never knew what was going to happen from one day to the next, it all depended on our parents' moods at that moment. One day I'd walk in the door and be greeted with a fist, the next day my mom might decide that we were all going on a spur of the moment car trip whether it was a school day or not. My youngest brother was later taken away from my parents by the courts for child abuse.
School wasn't a challenge, I just didn't go. No one cared if I went or not, so by the time I was 16, I decided not to go anymore and dropped out of high school. My job at a motorcycle shop was considered a "cool" job by my friends, but it didn't pay too well. When I was 17, I joined the military.
When you join the military, you are sent to basic training. When I arrived for basic training, almost everyone I met there was from the South. I'd never encountered southerners before, and had never encountered their brand of racism before. I walked up to a group of African-Americans and they asked me why I was talking to them. I then walked over to the group of white guys, and they asked me why I'd been talking to the black guys.
Through ignorance of the racial barriers between southern whites and blacks, I nearly got beaten up my first day. The only reason I wash't beaten to a pulp was because the friend that I'd arrived at Basic Training from California with was this huge guy named Johnson. Johnson had originally been on the Raiders' team, but had washed out. He gently explained to the other guys that I didn't know what was going on, and that he'd pulp them if they hurt his ignorant friend.
I had to overcome many other more difficult barriers, but these were a few of those I'd encountered by the time I was 17 years old.
My parents were divorced, and unfortunately, my brothers and sisters and I wound up going to live with our mother. She did everything she could to keep us away from our father and his side of the family, including moving us to another country. We moved to Malaysia, and lived there for years while our father frantically searched for us.
One day I mailed a letter myself, and he found out where we were. A torrent of letters and gifts arrived in the mail, three years worth. My mother was furious. She had been throwing our letters to our father and grandparents in the garbage so they wouldn't find out where we were living. We wound up going back to the United States before our father had a chance to go to Malaysia to see us.
Growing up in a family with a mother and step-father who were violent drug and alcohol abusers was one of the first and one of the most lasting challenges in my life. My siblings and I never knew what was going to happen from one day to the next, it all depended on our parents' moods at that moment. One day I'd walk in the door and be greeted with a fist, the next day my mom might decide that we were all going on a spur of the moment car trip whether it was a school day or not. My youngest brother was later taken away from my parents by the courts for child abuse.
School wasn't a challenge, I just didn't go. No one cared if I went or not, so by the time I was 16, I decided not to go anymore and dropped out of high school. My job at a motorcycle shop was considered a "cool" job by my friends, but it didn't pay too well. When I was 17, I joined the military.
When you join the military, you are sent to basic training. When I arrived for basic training, almost everyone I met there was from the South. I'd never encountered southerners before, and had never encountered their brand of racism before. I walked up to a group of African-Americans and they asked me why I was talking to them. I then walked over to the group of white guys, and they asked me why I'd been talking to the black guys.
Through ignorance of the racial barriers between southern whites and blacks, I nearly got beaten up my first day. The only reason I wash't beaten to a pulp was because the friend that I'd arrived at Basic Training from California with was this huge guy named Johnson. Johnson had originally been on the Raiders' team, but had washed out. He gently explained to the other guys that I didn't know what was going on, and that he'd pulp them if they hurt his ignorant friend.
I had to overcome many other more difficult barriers, but these were a few of those I'd encountered by the time I was 17 years old.
posted by Mr. Roberts at 11:39 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home