I stand. I stand and my shoulders are squared.

I'm facing what some call the unknow.

But I know the truth. My eyes are open

To reality. 

Because in reality, it's Opportunity.

 

And it's calling my name.

 

I stand. I stand though they have tried to tear

me apart, tried to shatter me like glass.

But their endevors deteriorate.

Insignificant.

Because insignificant isn't me.

 

And I know my own name.

 

I stand. I stand as they try to shape me

like clay. But I refuse to be moulded to

their idea of who I should become.

I refuse to follow their lead, I refuse to follow a pattern

in my life,

because this is my life.

I am through being characterized

and catagorized, of being stereotyped

and judged based on

the pigment of my face

or the family that I come from. 

I refuse to be nobody,

I refuse to hold my tongue.

It is time that I spoke my mind.

The world thinks that they understand my life

my past, they think they have seen it all before.

They call it a slum,

They call him a father who was never around

They call it domestic violence and 

they call it a tragedy. 

A tragedy that addiction can bring on a family

that once had something called potential. 

They look at me, the product

of passion rather than love

they see ripped clothes and bruises

and they think that the "something called potential"

must have been beaten out of me years ago.

But I say that I am greatful for this

tragedy that has been my life

Because I call it strength training,

I call it motivation to become more than

even I thought possible.

This tragedy that has been my life

has made me strong

and so

I stand.

I stand alone and I will not be moved

because this life of mine is mine to live.

That is why I studied hard, that is why

as my friends overdosed and drank,

trying to escape the tragedies they called their lives,

I studied and planned 

and hoped for the day when adulthood

would arrive at my feet.

I saw the truth.

So here I stand facing what I call Opportunity.

I stand on the threshhold of my future.

And the decision is mine,

do I stay here and take my place as the

next object in this sick cycle of addiction and abuse,

of unwed motherhood and loneliness,

of poverty and gunshots?

Or do I turn my back and

break loose of the chains that have held me?

This is me speaking my mind,

This is me taking the first and hardest step.

This is me saying that I am not defined by circumstance.

I'll admit I am afraid,

Afraid of leaving everything I have ever known.

But I am more afraid of staying,

continuing in the only kind of life I have ever known.

So I think I will go to college. 

And I think that one day

I will build a new life upon a foundation 

of will and persistance.

And I think that one day

I might have a daughter of my own

and I will bring her into a home

A real home

of love and encouragement

and maybe she might want to play the piano,

and I, because of my hard work, because I

chose to shape my own destiny,

will be able to provide her with that.

And one day as I sit at her first recital

I will look back on these days of

torment and I will know

that I made the right decision

the day I stepped through the

threshold of Opportunity.