“Agnostic, tired and genius,” these three words are how my best friend and first cousin, Gabriel Garvey, describes himself. What I quickly realized was what he valued in life with these characteristics: his personal belief system, current state of general being and what he has to contribute to anything he touches. My cousin and I are similar in that manner yet we are very different in the manner in which we operate. The differences in our upbringings can be attributed to that. He comes from your traditional poor black boy background: never met his father, alcoholic mother and essentially raised by his grandparents in a lower income neighborhood. He is the archetype, doomed to fail, black boy. Whereas, I was born to two college educated parents, even though they were never truly a couple, I was afforded experiences my cousin could never fathom. …show more content…
With his upbringing being primarily in front of the television, he has only recently come into a purpose of life: art. However, to fully pursue being a rapper, photographer and self-proclaimed philosopher, he dropped out of high school as a fourth-year junior. While I admire his passions and recognition that school is not for him, there is no reason someone with a 150 IQ should be a fourth-year junior and is short sighted enough to not have a contingency plan. My best friend is wildly intelligent, loyal, and authentic as they come but, I often worry about his life in the next decade. His genius is proving to be his cancer and his loyalty to me and my career prospects a crutch. I often struggle with the pressures of the very real prospect having to support him in the very near