Choose Wisely....

What it look like good folk? It is your main square Steez. Back again, welcoming y'all good people to another post of the 925 Chronicles. I just finished reading the paper, something I rarely do anymore. That shit is too depressing. Anywho, I read about some bullshit that popped off here in Philly yesterday, a 15 year old shot the shit out of a 12 year old(like 5 times I believe), get this, on some drug turf war shit. Broad daylight in front of the victims mother. Ain't that a bitch? Some real life The Wire shit goin on. Luckily the kid didn't die. Get this the cops want to arrest the shooter quickly, for fear that HE might get gunned down in retaliation. The fuck!!!!??? So this got me to thinking about choices. Mine, yours, everyones. So I wanted to put a little out there that can maybe help someone that has some choices to make. Shall we?

I'm putting this post up with my younger cousin Marcus in mind. Marcus is a good kid(he 21 and built like a pro wrestler but that's my baby cuzzin ya know?). He is smart as hell, articulate, got some money in his pocket, a decent job for someone his age, a nice car, his own spot, and right now seems on path to be the only one of the grandsons to graduate college. In short lil homie is doing his thing. I'm proud of him.
But as you all probably know, his mindset and "success" is causing a lot of undesirable females to jockey for his attention. At this point he is the only one without kids, a wife, or babymom. But all these chicks are on him. To that I say, LEAVE THEM BITCHES THE FUCK ALONE. Don't follow what I did, or my brother did, or HIS brother did. Get your education. Get your money. THEN chose whatever bad chick comes your way.

This isn't about shitting on hoodrats. Its about CHOICES and how choices you make, and even ones you don't can fuck you up. Take me. I love my family, but I can't help but look at my life as it is now and be somewhat disappointed. Now this ain't a cry for Steez party. I'm good. But I'm young, intelligent, passionate. I shouldn't be on some paycheck to paycheck shit. But my decisions put me here. Whether it was me slacking in school. I did well but still performed way below my potential. I fucked around with girls too much. That was another problem I should have been focusing on school and money. Now I don't have either. Dig?

In short you gotta do what works best four YOU. I didn't always see that. And I based a lot of choices on what other people wanted or expected. For instance I went to Pitt because my bullshit girlfriend at the time didn't want me to leave for Temple. So like a jackass I stayed, wwent to expensive ass Pitt until I could no longer afford it. Now here I am 8 years later living in Philly tryna figure out how to get into a school that accepted me in 2000. Dumb ass shit. I've touched on choices I made surrounding my marriage and children. While I don't regret them I acknowledge that they were extremely shortsighted. Those decisions severly handicapped my earning potential. I'm the kind of person that will find a way eventually. My mom compares me to Chris Gardner in the sense that I can talk my way into or out of anything and turn nothing into something. I'm not sure I agree but hey, that's mom. I say that because, if its true why couldn't I wait to start the life I have now. I honestly believe that without the handuffs that are the doomestic life, I would be fairly successful at SOMETHING now. I have many talents but no time or energy to exploit them. I reflect on that a lot these days. I gotta chalk that shit up though I guess. I'm gonna make it one of these days. Bet that.

In the end I guess what I want to say is, you have to look at the large picture. Where do you want to be? What is the best road to travel to get there. When I got married my mom and I argued a lot. She used to ask me "I know you will make it. But why do you have to take the hard road?" My answer was stupid. "Because you have to struggle to get anything worth having." That's bullshit. I can see that now. You have to work, grind, even sacrifice to get something worth having. You don't have to struggle. Struggle is a choice. I made the choice to struggle. If you're reading this and you are standing at that fork in the road, chose the path that is most beneficial to you. Thing they don't tell you, there is gold at the end of BOTH paths in most instances. The only difference is what you have to go through to get it.

I'm out.....