If you’re like me, you grew up rough. If you didn’t, I suggest you appreciate and thank the people who raised you. Unfortunately, my dad wasn’t around and my mom was mentally ill. I grew up in a violent environment and was a homeless teen. My story is different from yours, but the sentiment is still the same. The point is we had it hard, but there is no law that says because our parents were screwed up we have to be screwed up too. We can’t choose our parents, who we love dearly. But we can choose how we live. That choice is our power.

Let me tell you about myself. My greatest fear was to end up like the people who surrounded me. So during the toughest time of my life I thought about quitting school and much worse. Then I realized, in few years I would turn 18 years old and when I turned 18, I could go anywhere I wanted and I could do and be anything I wanted. So I changed my mind. I decided I didn’t want to be like my parents or the addiction and violence that surrounded me. Before someone gets offended, my choices didn’t mean I was better or worse than anyone else. They were my decisions because this is my life. I’m far from perfect and I’ve made boatloads of mistakes.  But I ended up finishing school despite being homeless. Then I joined the military, got married, went to college and the rest is history.

Many of us who didn’t have money, parents, stability, etc., think we don’t have choices. We’re told by newspapers, analysts, the television pundits and the people who are invested in our misery that we’re products of our environment. Basically our parents, bad neighborhood, poor education, etc.,  are hella messed up and we’re are doomed to fail.  They’re wrong! You’re proof of it. You want more and that’s why you’re here.

Friend, as someone who knows and has lived it, I want you to know your parents situation doesn’t have to be your own. Your beginning doesn’t have to be your end. Their story isn’t yours. Learn from me. We write our story through the choices we make. You’re the author of your story.  As you can see, your story has always been up you.

The only limit you have is the one you have placed on yourself. Think and be limitless.

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