Wednesday, August 28, 2013

This One Time When I Was 13

There was this one time when I was a teenager in junior high. For as long as I can remember, my father would always have the family working on whatever business we had at the moment. In Mexico, I remember that being that being a fruit stand in the tianguis (an open market). So when we got the U.S., it continued on. In this particular moment, my father had a new/used tire shop in South Central off Hoover and Slauson.

If I wasn’t in school, then more than likely I was with my mom and sisters at that infernal shop. This wasn’t his first shop either; at this point it was probably his second or third time operating one. For whatever reason, the man had to have us there with him at all times. My mom’z eventually told me that the reason he had her there was because of his insecure ways. If a woman has a job outside the home or is going to school, she’s only there to hook up with me. To this day his logic baffles me to no end, but I gave up trying to understand him years ago.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Chosen Solitude

"Do not chase people. Be You & do your own thing & work hard. The right people that belong in your life will come to you & stay."~ Wu Tang

For sure, one of the hardest life lessons I’ve grappled with is chosen solitude. Learning to be alone in all the different aspects, in which that statement can take, shows strength of character. And for me, much like other life lessons, it was something that was worked on gradually.
But the driving force behind it wasn’t spiritual/religious teachings, advice from anyone or something I read in a book. Nah, all that existentialism can’t hold a candle to the immortal words of the great philosopher “Smokey.” In which he spoke these words and proclaimed across the land, “Fuck it.”


It’s hard for many to comprehend this unless they know this kind of life, or even the context of it within the first “Friday” movie. But in my time, I’ve found the courage and strength to move forward on numerous things by simply following that simple mantra. Whether it was asking a girl out, jumping into the deep end of a pool knowing full well I don’t know how to swim or just trying to make every day choices like having my eggs scrambled or over easy.