Successful

"I just wanna be successful" Drake

These are simple words buts they articulate the vision that drives me. The desire to create a legacy for my children to stand on. Ultimately success represents a better chance for my family to avoid some of the obstacles that I had to face. Success is the ability to define one's future and to not be crippled by past mistakes or societies limits. My hard work is a down payment on a better life for my family that is yet to come. It is this reality that should inform the decisions we make. We should move beyond instant gratification and societies rewards. These rewards are nothing more than traps to keep us off the righteous path. So let us reexamine ourselves and society with a new vision. Then and only then will we be on the path to true success. When we have allowed the individualistic motives of success to be abandoned for a sense of success that others can prosper from.

Struggles with poverty

Being black in America has always presented an added barrier to the realization of the American dream. However, as I look back at my childhood and realize that the issue of poverty was a larger detriment to my stability as a youth. It was the inability to secure the goods that provide for a way of life that allows for potential to flourish. It is the burden of poverty that I seek to break from, it is the presence of poverty that pushes me to better myself at all cost. So although my blackness is a source of pride and produces a set of obstacles that are difficult to deal with I must be honest when I say that the issue of class has defined my existence with a greater emphasis up to this point.

Freedom

Freedom begins when we recognize that we have the right to an existence based on are own ideas. This is freedom when we begin to elevate ourselves above the ideas and beliefs of others. If we are unable to do this we will continue to wear social mask that are neccesary for acceptance. Freedom can only be achieved when we are honest and no longer seek conformity over indviduality or deception over truth.