“Knowing what is right and doing what is right are not the same”, James’s mother Carolyn would often say. After she died James adopted this as his motto. Growing up in a poverty-stricken neighborhood where there is constant shooting and increasinga number of drug dealers. It’s hard growing up around temptation. Brownsville has been named one of the worst neighborhood to live in New York. James would have dreamed that one day he will find a way out. After his mom died from lung cancer James was only sixteen and raised by the street. If he was going to eat or have a roof over his head he needs to figure the ways of the street to survive. The problem was upholding his motto became almost impossible. Not to mention one day while James was hanging …show more content…
James decided to enroll in the college of New Rochelle SNR the in-Brooklyn Campus. This school allowed him to get a GED and college credits at the same time. After two years, he moved out of his stepfather’s house in Brownsville and got a 1 bedroom apartment of his own in a Brownstone house. He decides he didn’t want to live in an apartment building anymore and didn’t want to hang out with the same crowd. He now understood what his mom Carolyn tried to teach him was true. He also came to a conclusion that for him to do good he needed positive role models and friends. Having positive friends brings out positive outcomes towards anything you …show more content…
Living in the old neighborhood and seeing the people that he used to hang out with did not make him feel confident in his quest to become a good person. James finally decided to move to Long Island and he also asked His girlfriend of one year to marry him. Soon after James decided to walk in a positive light. He baptized in the seventh day Adventist Church he was a member of and got a career as a Law Enforcement Officer. He lived with his wife and helped in a brother program Saturday Evening in Brownsville, where he became a role model to at-risk youths in that