New York Summer

                  I was ten years old when my grandma Jackie took me to New York. This was my first plane ride ever and my second time getting out of Chicago. I was amazed by traveling out of Chicago because I had never seen or heard about New York before. The thing that I learned when I was in New York was how trains work and how cars operate and what a hotel was. The trip was a good bonding opportunity for us.

          Another memory I have with my grandma Jackie is her birthday in July was when she cried and told me my uncles and aunties how much she loves us. Which was at my auntie’s house.

My grandma is very smart, intelligent, caring, big hearted, loving person, and she is very organized. But coming up, I always thought she was mean. She never let me do anything I wanted to do, like go outside or eat cake until I finished my dinner. Now that I look back as an adult, she wasn’t mean. She cared about me.

          My grandma works at Lawndale Christian Center and Mt. Sinai Hospital. Most days she is up at 4 am to go to work. That makes me learn about doing what you have to do, but I also don’t like it because she has to do that every day, and I want her to get some rest. My grandma is caring and big hearted because her line of work requires people who know how to treat people kindly, which is what she does. 

The way I feel about my grandma is that I love her with all of my heart like she is my mom and I trust her.

Don’t Say Things You Don’t Mean

 Tyson Jones

 Something I learned when I was twelve years old was don’t wish bad upon anybody. When I was growing up my father was constantly getting shot and going back and forth to jail. It was crazy we ain’t really have no time to bond from the lifestyle he lived. So couple years gone by my father had came home around the time grades came out when I was little, in the fourth grade. My mother was like, “You need to talk to him about them grades”. Instead of him talking to me like she had suggested him to do he decided to whoop me. I was so angry that he had whooped me I started looking at him as a stranger because he already wasn’t in my life  when I was growing up. so I started saying I hope somebody shoot him and he die. Few hours later  we had got a call saying my daddy had got shot multiple time immediately tears started falling down my eyes and I started crying cause I ain’t know if he was gone make it and them hospital people wasn’t saying anything I was just trying to be patient I aint know if he was gone make it. When I seen them tubes in his mouth it sadly hurt me. Talked to him after surgery he said “ I'm still walking with my head up  doing just fine”. From that point on I made a promise to myself to not say something I really don’t mean that could end someone’s life specially someone I love and need even though I was wishing death upon his life I need him and me and my little sister need him.

 

Fertamia ‘09

Kiawani Smith

                                                   

                    My Aunts name was Fertamia, but many knew her as Tammy, Born January 29, 1974.

The funny, loud, energetic, crazy, outgoing, loving woman from 9th and Filmore. Everybody loved my aunt, there's was not a day go by that she didn't make someone's day, she was so filled with joy and happiness. She was an amazing provider for her 4 children; Briana, Jamaal, Joshua, and Charles  Jacob. I loved her because she was a role model, she taught me how to be a woman, how to take care of myself, how to love, how to never give up. She was truly the best auntie,sister,daughter,mother,and cousin anybody could ever ask for. Even though my aunt was in an abusive relationship, she still lived life as though she wasn't hurting. It always would bring joy to us seeing my auntie walk in the house cracking jokes then that all changed the day came when she didn't come back home to us.

I still relive those days when she first went missing and the night when they confirmed she was gone. I would've never thought she would be taken just like that, it all felt so unreal. I remember that day when we went to her house for like a family gathering, her sons came up to me and was like “Our mom missing that's why everybody here” but i didn't quite understand because all the kids were playing as if nothing were wrong. Later on that night, my auntie daughter, briana, got a text message from her mom's phone but it wasn't my aunt, it was their dad pretending to be her, but we didn't find that out until after the fact that he had already killed her.

I could've sworn it was a dream waking up out of my sleep hearing my mom crying because she lost her sister, i ran back to my aunts room to tell my cousin, Zion, that our aunt auntie was gone, the saddest night of my life. My family decided that they weren't going to remain depressed so the came up with the idea of celebrating her passing, we held a party after the funeral and played all the music she loved. I learned that you can't even trust the ones you love because they will still turn around to harm you no matter how much yall love/loved each other. As of today, it's been 7 years since me and my family lived without my aunt, it took alot for us to finally take all this in and accept the fact that we had to move on with our lives without her. My family still go through it from time to time. Not having my aunt here really damaged my family, it's so many emotions that over takes me sometimes, but I give it all to God to remain humble and peaceful.

Brother Bond

Looking back, one of the most important people in my life was my brother, because everything I am today was taught to me by him. Let me tell y’all about my brother Aaron. Aaron is a good role model because school and sports was all he wanted to do to stay out of trouble to set a good example for me. That is why Aaron motivates me to do what I am doing for my little brother now to set the example he set for me back when we were growing up. When he saw that me and my little brother was being successful like him he would just sit down and have a talk with us telling us how much he loves us and to keep up the good work. Something he always used to say was, “You always better than me. Always see yourself as an achiever.” This made me feel like his words were all I needed to keep going in life. He is an outgoing and proactive person. He would always get to it, like before all his football or basketball games would start he would prepare ahead of time to make sure he was ready for the upcoming opponent.

 He started teaching me how to play basketball and football when I was four years old. It was a fun experience and that’s what made me want to be like him. Then at the age of eleven that’s when I actually started hanging out with him and meeting new people. It was good because every time we played football or basketball he would pick me so I could adjust to playing against bigger and better people. I learned how to be good at basketball and football because of how much he would set my mind to how much I loved playing those sports with or without him.

The relationship me and my brother share is a bond like no other. We kind of did everything together, like flip and play basketball and football. Our childhood was very fun and adventurous. One of the most fun times I had with my brother was when a group of dogs came out and started chasing us on the bike and we ran over one of them by accident. When we were away from the dogs we started laughing because it was random that we got chased by them dogs. Then it was this one time a snake came in our house and me, Aaron, and our little brother was just sitting down watching TV. We didn’t notice the snake until my little brother started throwing his blocks at it so it caught our attention and we look. Once we saw what he was throwing at we picked him up and ran out the house and went to tell our neighbor that a snake was in our house so he came and got the snake.

 Other than that we did other activities in our house like play football in the house. We would throw the ball in the air and who ever grabbed it would have to run to the other side of the living run to score but if you got tackled you would have to throw the ball up for somebody else. But one time I grabbed the ball my big brother tackled me into the heater and I burnt my hand and my skin had turned gold and I was like I have a tattoo! once it stopped hurting. I love my brother and I am glad he taught and did everything he done in my life and I wish he was still up here in Chicago so we could’ve still been beating people in basketball and football.

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