Culture Critic: Memories Back Then With all of the deaths that have been going on lately, especially with the youth. Sadly, those situations have forced me to look back at my #life as a young man growing up in the inner city. First of all, I wanna tell the man upstairs "Thank You" for allowing me to be on this earth for thirty years. Let's rewind back to fifthteen years ago, I could have easily been "Travon Martin", or "Oscar Grant". Growing up, all I saw was drugs, gangs, hookers, and darkness. You see when you live in "Hell" you are viewed the same as the next guy. Whether its the police looking for the hottest drug dealer, or the "bloods" & "crips" looking to recruit their next soldier. With a lot of my childhood friends choosing jail and death as their road to define their legacy, I strongly chose to stay a straight and narrow path. What separated me from my peers at that time was, the will I had to go through all of the fights I had with the "bloods"& "crips", and the times the police would be overly aggressive with me just for wearing a hoodie bouncing my basketball to and from practice. I always believed that there was a way out. Fast forward to now, I'm able to work with the youth that are going through my same struggle. I look at these guys and I try to give them my knowledge to hopefully create more success stories like my own. But what I've finally realized is that the struggle isn't over, it just may be getting worse. Growing up, there wasn't a "Facebook" or "Twitter" to attack a person if you choose. It seems like their's more darkness looming around using a gun to kill someone. The biggest thing I worried about in my day was to fight someone...... Now, the majority of the world would much rather shoot first and ask questions later. It's also a bummer for me to see most of this generations role models are the wrong people. We are losing more young men and women that probably could make a great mark in this world to the streets now more than ever. Hopefully, I can make it through another decade to lead by example so maybe just maybe I can make a impact not only for the kids I work with, but my daughter as well.