when i first got here i was a fresh faced E5. there were about 5 of us. for the most part all of us got along. all alpha types, i was a sea-going type, the others all did time in iraq and afghanistan. one week i had nights with my boy, i’ll call him Cuz. i hadn’t been around anything “street” in years, but i noticed he had some fat blue shoelaces on. i asked him where he was from and he said LA. i made a gang reference and he just kinda laughed. we talked all night. women, fighting, family, and all mannerisms of manhood. we hit it off from the start.
i had some of the most interesting conversations with Cuz than anyone i’d met in years. we’d just sit and pontificate life. future, politics, society, EVERYTHING. he reminded me of Patrice O’neal; he’d listen to you then direct every aspect of what you’d told him. i’ve watched him let someone make a point then get them to disagree with their original point without the patient even realizing it. i’ve RARELY seen someone with game that tight.
my other good friend grew up in a ROUGH section of east LA. when he was around 8 or so, the older guys would have kids from other sets come in and fight. seriously. they would bet on who’d win. he never lost a fight. one of the most down to east and mellow guys i’d ever met. i was sad to see him move on, but he’s in a great place now and he’s VERY successful.
Cuz was the only person out here i ever spent any free time with. one night we went to the local strip club and he decided to have some fun. he took off his wedding ring and the girl i was seeing was working so i was hanging out with her, and Cuz ended up pulling this one slamming black girl (he’s black ladies and gentlemen) and every once in a while i’d look over and she was sitting on his lap eating out of his hand.
Cuz has some siiiiick game.
on the way home i threw this on on the MP3, he laughed and told me he had grown up with him.
then i played this for him and told him it was boy Alex’s cousin up in Stockton. “oh those mother fuckers are crazy up there. i told him they produced EVERY thing on the album, they went the punk DIY route on their first album.
but this became our “pregame” song when we were going out.
for the record, i quit rap LOOOOOOOOONG ago. lol.
around midnight we bounced and he handed me her number. i laughed and he balled it up and threw it away. i told him girl was coming by after she got off work.
but that isn’t the point of the story. that first night we spoke, i found out A LOT about him. he came from a VERY ROUGH neighborhood in LA. damn near everyday of his life was a fight. his entire childhood he was told he’d never amount to anything, and he ended up dropping out of school to bang full time at 16.
8 years of work. that’s some serious shit.
he ended up decided he’d had enough. he got his GED and joined the navy. he became an HM, went to FMF. soon after he was in iraq doing dirt on foreign soil. now he’s married and raising his son.
this man’s life was OVER. he was HEAVILY emerged in gang life, any day could have been his last. he was doing absolutely nothing with his life. but he knew he was on a dead end street. he got his shit together, and got into the only gig he really could get into. his recruiter helped him through the whole GED process and recommended him for HM training.
we hung out as often as we could while he was here and after about a year my Brother left. we’d go to the strip club and fuck with the girls, go to the local and have a beer and some wings, kick back at my place and watch football on sundays with his family (i had cook of course. lol).
everyday guy shit.
i was rough to see him go, but that’s navy life. you make friends and you or they leave. sometime you run into them YEARS later and it’s like they never left you. as they like to say, “it’s a small navy”. i’ve run into SEVERAL guys i knew back on my dship in FUCKING JAPAN. seriously. we lock eyes and i get a get a hearty, “DOOOOOOOC!!!! what’s up Brother, how the hell you end up here in jax?”
it’s happened at least 8-9 times.
i got a call from Cuz about a month ago, he was in san antonio. he was on his way back to jacksonville. the same man that went from being told he was going to never amount to anything to graduating one of the most difficult and sought after school the navy offers Corpsmen.
he’s now a nuke med tech. whenever i hear a man complaining about his state in life i always think of Cuz. excuses are for the weak, there’s ALWAYS someone worse off than you.
women complain and bitch, men get their shit together and fix the problem. those that refuse to, persish….deservedly so.
quit bitching and get your shit together. if Cuz can do it, anyone can.
an interesting side note, i let a good friend i work with read this and she smiled the entire time then said, “now that i think about it, all y’all that ain’t married a bunch of damn ho’s.” i laughed and told her, “we’re not ho’s, we’re just “gifted.” lol.
stay up
