Did You Just Trip?: Funny How Things Work Out

So I was watching Youtube videos and googling. What about? Well nothing other than algorithms lol. But thinking about going through hell with some of my past interviews, I thought of where I am and how I wouldn't be here without certain things happening. So what are they?

1. Meeting my last girlfriend and breaking up with her right on time.
2. Teaching at my last college and it helping me stand out.

So lets go into the first shall we. My last relationship was actually a long distance one. She lived in Atlanta, GA while I lived in Albany, NY at the time. We started dating the Very month the girlfriend before her and I had ended things for good. Nevertheless, after a while of dating I decided that if things continued to be great, I would move to Atlanta in order to be with her. Why such a crazy decision you might ask? Well my logic was:

Whether I stay in NY or move to Atlanta, I am starting my career. And wherever I start working, I will only work there for a couple years anyways before moving on. So it doesn't matter where I live.

So two scenarios could happen. If I didn't find a job...finish my degree...work my internship and save up over the summer...then move there when done and continue job hunting. If I found a job....finish my degree then move there. So for 8 months I searched and found many jobs, with many interviews, BUT No Offers!! Finished my degree...and while working my internship and being broke still (because of trips to be with her and bills)...I decided to move there after I find a job (which is smarter, but I was blinded by wanting to be with her already). So while continuing my job search for Atlanta and taking a trip down there to see her and do an interview, I found out she had been talking to other guys for over a month. So I broke up with her and restricted my job search for NY. In doing so, I came up with many offers, including one from the company I work for now. Right On Time!!! They just opened an office and looking to fill it up.

Next would be my teaching experience. After passing a class and teaching it the very next semester, I received an email about teachers wanted to teach COBOL (Google it). I accepted even though it was a class that I never took and didn't know the material. How do I do such a thing? Get a book and learn it fast enough to leap frog the class and teach it. My college had a job fair. In that job fair was a company in my field that liked that I knew COBOL. Then ended up calling me in for an interview and hiring me as their intern. I then interned there for two years in which I learned the things that attracted my current company to me.

 

Who would have known finding out your girlfriend was messing around on you and that putting yourself into a situation you shouldn't have been in would have had such a great outcome

How Much Further?: Never Saw This Coming

Recently I've made a decision to put my efforts into attending University of Michigan for my masters. Now this is a big thing for me. I don't think its a big deal with people that went/go to University of Michigan, and definitely not something big for people that already live in Michigan (because MSU and UofM are like the schools you just go to here)......but for me...its EVERYTHING. You have to remember who this is coming from. I'm a person that didn't even hear of University of Michigan until I was already in college. Didn't think about going to a division one school until I already graduated college. Yes, the college I graduated from was Division 1, but it was Division 1AA, which is different. Now I am putting forward my efforts for a school that has a huge amount of history, tradition, and a BIG name. Guys like me don't think about going to a school like Michigan. Guys like me dream about just going to college and graduating. NONE of who I am today is who I was years  ago. Before I was only about graduating and having a good job. NOW....I'm about progressing and being as successful as possible.

But wait...you ask what kind of Guy am I exactly?? Well I'm a guy that grew up in the projects with a small vision. You could tell me "the sky's the limit" and I am going to say it to myself, but end of the day I didn't see that. The people around me were all poor. The successful people were the people NOT in the projects. Not that they lived well, but they didn't live in the projects. So that was my dream....not living in the projects anymore. You have a guy coming from a household where his mother was a nursing aid working two jobs. Sometimes waking up at 5:20am (Exactly!), to go outside and wait for the bus (3 buses to be exact), work with old people all day.....get off at 3pm, then run to a second job where she didn't get off until 11pm, and had to walk home in the dark through the projects and the streets. Then my father.....he was a janitor at a kid's community center. So yeah...I had hard working parents.....but I was still a Product of My Environment. And its not easy telling someone that feels trapped in his community with no money to see the outside world that he can go to a Division 1 school....when he doesn't even know what a Division 1 school is....or a division for that matter. Never heard of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. Never had a job pay more than minimum wage much less a benefits package. Coming from a neighborhood where there were 2 police stations within a block and police mobile stations on my block. Just a place where the people I considered rich were my aunt and uncle, that had a house. But why were they rich to me? Because they had food they could get up and go eat at any time. They weren't ducking on the ground to bullets outside their window. Not having mice run over their feet as they watched tv. And especially since they weren't woken up by roaches crawling them at night. So yeah.....that is what kind of guy I'm talking about.

So that's what I am saying. That a boy that saw his parents work hard for everything they ever had....that pictured his life still being in the hood...BUT outside of the projects..........So when I say I'm going to the University of Michigan....its not just a big deal to him........its a big deal to everyone that knows hims.

In 2005, months before I started college...my friends and I were in an apartment just having a good time and they were drinking. Even though they were tipsy and some drunk, they told me they were proud and that I was the only one capable of making it out the projects and surviving. So on my school book bag with white out I wrote:  "All Eyes On Me". People that didn't know me would talk behind my back (females especially) and laugh at this as if I didn't hear them. They thought it was me being cocky. Honestly....its a feeling then that I never lost....that I'm the one that made it out the projects and I have everyone still there watching me now and hoping I make them proud still. So as I feel like crying through all the things I've seen and hold back tears that need not to come out.....I announce....one more time.....that I'm aiming for University of Michigan!

Its A Place Known By Many....But A Place I Called Home

Lost Yet?: Detroit Detroit Wherefore Art Thou Detroit?

I hear about this place all the time now. Whether its one of the females I'm talking to about something or some part or Twitter or just about an every day topic. Do I care about Detroit? No. The place means nothing to me. I never even been there. But yet I hear it roll off tongues and appear in front of my eyes so many times. Its one of those things you never thought about....then when its in your life....it pops up in your life from other people all the time. Like that new red car you just bought....not everyone drives one.

Will I head there some day? Yes. BUT...I will need a tour guide. Not saying its a horrible place, but the risk of danger is high. So why would I wander in there not knowing a thing? So I could get shot and someone has to tell my mother? Oh heck no. But Detroit....you and I will meet some day. We shall. After all the commercials, the music, and the random statements I have seen involving you.....my curiosity cannot help but want to meet thee. Due time my vague friend.