A child without guidance is like a baby duck without its mother; he or she will not be guided in the right direction. I was that child without guidance. I was left to learn, which turned out to be the hard way. Crime and negativity surrounded me. Being a child, I figured this was life.
Born in Iowa and raised there for the first 13 years of my life, I had a father figure in the home. From what I know now, it would probably have been a more positive situation had he not been. Any man can play the role of a father but if he doesn’t express love to his child or spend quality time with his child, then in my eyes he isn’t a father. My mother was young, caught up in the things that a lot of young mothers are into. Other men were around but as far as I can remember, I was never taught which train of life to take when the trains they were on pulled up to the station.
So it came down to a child making decisions on my own. What could I choose except choose to follow others around me? Studies say that the first five years of a child’s life are most important. I believe in that. The lack of affection and love had a major affect. At age 13 I decided to put some of the things to test that I visualized growing up. I sold rock cocaine. I was a child and I assumed that was the way to make enough money to get a nice pair of shoes for school. I was not caught at first so I felt I was successful. That is when the life of a baby duck with no guidance started for me.
To be continued…