By Kenedi Dubose
This is the story of a boy named John Carter. John was born and raised in Harlem, New York. His family enjoyed the street life, especially his father, Anton. Anton was a drug dealer. He sold every drug you could possibly think of, and wasn’t ashamed. He spent many years struggling as a child, so when he grew up, he promised to be stable, but ended up going down the wrong path. Anton had John when he was 20 when met his wife, Laquita. Eight years later, Anton was killed by another local drug dealer over greed.
John took the loss the hardest. Over the years, John became angry and depressed. He felt alone without his father. He began fighting in school and selling drugs, as well. His mother grew sick of John’s antics, so she sent him to live with his aunt in Detroit. When John arrived in Detroit, his life was better. He stopped fighting and selling drugs, and instead spent his time boxing and reading. Everything changed when his aunt married a man named Cody. Cody had a son and John despised both of them. John had to fight almost every day at home. He was infuriated. He wanted his parents. He wanted his life back.
John was determined to make his life better. He first talked to his aunt about his feelings about her husband and stepchild. In full detail, he pointed out their flaws, making sure not to miss anything. His aunt started to realize that John had a point. She didn’t like the way her nephew was being treated. After a year, his aunt divorced her husband and they moved back to Harlem. John was ecstatic to go home, finally. When they arrived in Harlem, John moved back in with his mom. Everything went well for about eight months, until John started hanging out with his old friends, his drug-dealing friends. They partied, smoked, and sold drugs every night, all night. The law was starting to catch up with them, but they did it anyway, until one night, when a police offer dressed up as a drug buyer and busted John. He ended up getting arrested and spending two years in jail.
John was still determined to be better. After he was released from jail, John went back to school. John is now 18, and is working on getting his GED. He hopes to get a grant so he can go to college. John wants to study engineering and someday own his own auto shop. To this day, John struggles with the loss of his father, but is growing stronger every day. If you were John, would you have enough strength to push forward?
Kenedi is a 14 year old aspiring journalist
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