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Essay on The Defining Moments of My Life

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All of us can probably point to one or two defining moments in our life. Mine came when I was running across a rooftop with a gun pointed at my back. Something inside me snapped and I just knew I didn't want this to be my life. I stopped running.

I grew up on the streets of the city. Each neighborhood has its culture and so did mine. Ours included playing skellie with your friends while your older brother is twenty feet away on the street corner selling crack or weed, or heroin.

Do you know what hustling is in the ghetto? It's simply the American Dream for us. You see we're not so different. We all want the same things. Everyone wants respect. Everyone wants a home for their family. Everyone wants to prove themselves; it's just …show more content…

His warmth, integrity and commitment seemed real. So I decided to give it a try. I went to FRIENDS.

FRIENDS became my first functional family. They provided me with love, affection and whatever else I needed, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They helped find me a job as a janitor, and they provided the support I needed to work for minimum wage and then go home to my neighborhood and not be drawn into the life around me. You see the streets are always five seconds behind you.

Later, they helped me get a job at a clothing store, Paul Stuart no less, and FRIENDS helped me apply to college and work my way through. I'll be earning my B.A. next week. But most of all, Clinton and my case manager Lonny showed me what real manhood is all about.

A little more than a year ago, Clinton, and Friends' Executive Director, Beth Navon, asked me to take on the challenge of working full-time as Youth Leadership Coordinator. I felt it would be an honor to work with Beth, Clinton, Lonny and all the dedicated staff at FRIENDS. And helping young people find their way through a dangerous adolescence would give me a chance to give back to my community.

My job and my transition back into society has been all these things, but it's also been heartbreaking. Because as I said, the streets are always five seconds behind you, and sometimes they take you under. It took a little while, but a few years ago, I finally convinced my best friend James to join FRIENDS and

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