Participants: Aaron Chancy (Host), Travonne Dillon
Series Code: TNJ
Program Code: TNJ000067A
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00:01 The following program discusses sensitive issues.
00:03 Parents are cautioned that some material may be too candid 00:06 for younger children. 00:08 Welcome to the New Journey, 00:09 where we meet real life people with real life testimonies 00:13 and real life working ministries 00:14 for Jesus Christ. 00:15 I'm your host Aaron Chancy. 00:17 Come join us on a New Journey. 00:50 Welcome to the New Journey. 00:52 We have an exciting program and exciting testimony 00:54 of a young man, Tavonne Dillon. 00:56 Tavonne, we want to thank you for being on the program. 00:58 Thank you for having me. All right. 01:00 Just to get the question started 01:02 because it's significant, I want to ask you, 01:04 how old are you and where are you from? 01:06 I'm 20 years old, and I'm from Detroit, Michigan. 01:08 All right. Twenty years old and from Detroit, Michigan. 01:11 Yes, sir. 01:12 Now the reason is significant is because you're 20 years old. 01:15 Many people at 20 years old 01:18 are not thinking about changing their lives, 01:20 not thinking about doing the right thing, 01:22 out there running around, 01:23 but you at 20 years old has changed your life 01:26 and have done some amazing things. 01:28 We're going to get to that through this interview. 01:29 But first, I want to start with 01:31 growing up in Detroit, Michigan, 01:34 what was the environment like growing up for you? 01:37 Man, the environment was crazy. 01:38 It was both, I would say it was challenging. 01:43 It's very strong, 01:44 it builds your character just for the simple fact 01:46 that you could live in one of the bad neighborhoods 01:49 and you can live on like the corner. 01:52 And you could walk down any side street like, 01:54 any of the four surrounding intersections, 01:56 and you can run into a drug dealer, 01:58 a gang banger, prostitute, or all three in one. 02:02 Okay, okay. 02:04 So I would say to rise above that 02:06 is character building. 02:07 It strengthens you 02:09 in different environment and everything. 02:10 You're really not scared, 02:12 you're not afraid of anything else 02:13 just because of what you've been through. 02:14 Yeah, a lot of the things that you see, 02:16 a lot of things that you have gone through. 02:18 Let me ask you this. 02:20 Growing up in Detroit, 02:22 tell us a little bit about your early, your young years 02:25 with your mother and your father, 02:26 talk about that? 02:27 Well, I was a hardheaded when I was young 02:30 like, I'm the oldest of six children so. 02:34 My mother, she's a single mother 02:36 so she raised us all six by herself, of course. 02:38 And something she couldn't teach me, 02:41 it's the father's job to tell a young man, a son, 02:45 tell his son how to be a man, how to raise them to be a man 02:48 so it was just some things my mother couldn't tell me. 02:50 And ultimately I started migrating to the streets more 02:55 just because of the fact that the curriculums in the schools 02:59 or just the people around 03:01 I couldn't have as much as I wanted. 03:03 I didn't need for basic necessities 03:06 but I wanted more than what I had. 03:09 Now you said you grew up in a single parent home 03:11 with your mother, six siblings, a total of six of you all. 03:15 Was your father anywhere in the picture? 03:18 Did you know your father growing up? 03:21 How is your relationship with your father 03:22 at this moment? 03:24 My relationship with my father now is getting better. 03:27 See, he's doing seven years 03:29 in a federal penitentiary right now 03:31 and they have a system set up called CorrLinks, 03:34 and you can basically email your loved ones back home 03:39 through email, of course. 03:41 And we're talking about things now, 03:43 how his childhood was before 03:44 but prior to that, I didn't meet him 03:46 until I was about ten years old. 03:48 Wow. Okay. 03:49 And he's still been in and out of my life since then 03:51 like, I only see to do like twice a year. 03:54 But with my mother actually, she's my queen, you know. 03:57 I treat her as my queen. We've been through so much. 03:59 And like I said, I'm the oldest of six children 04:01 so, you know, how that goes. 04:04 What kind of impact do you think 04:05 that it had on you as an individual? 04:07 As a young black man, inner city Detroit, Michigan 04:11 growing up without that strong father figure 04:14 in your life? 04:15 Oh, man. It's crazy. 04:16 You don't have anybody to show you the ropes like... 04:19 Okay. 04:20 And I'm the oldest 04:21 so I don't have any big brothers, 04:23 I don't have any older sisters like... 04:24 So I migrated towards anything outside of my home 04:27 because like I said, 04:28 my mother couldn't teach me certain things. 04:30 So I met my best friend like, in high school 04:34 and he had older cousins and stuff. 04:36 I have one older cousin, he's the only guy cousin I have 04:40 besides my other younger cousins, 04:42 but it's not a lot of males in my family 04:45 so it's not like a lot of father figure. 04:47 So when I migrated towards the street, 04:50 so it was just like... 04:52 It was... 04:54 What's the word I'm thinking of? 04:57 It was more a family. Okay, okay. 04:59 And that's understandable 05:00 because a lot of times that's what happens 05:02 where individuals, 05:04 they may not have the father figure, 05:05 the motherly figure, whatever, in the household 05:07 and gravitate more so to friends in the streets. 05:10 Exactly. 05:11 Before we get heavy into what you got involved in, 05:15 let's talk about some of the positive influences. 05:17 Now we're going to do it in a two part way. 05:19 I want to know some of your positive influences growing up, 05:22 as well as some of your negative influences growing up? 05:25 Well, some of the positive influences 05:27 growing up, like I said, 05:28 it's a lot of females in my family 05:30 so I have my auntie, my mom, and my grandma 05:33 like, if I wanted to escape home 05:35 like anytime I got in trouble with my mom or something, 05:38 I'll call my grandma like, 05:40 "Yo, mom is stricken like, can I come over there?" 05:43 She bought me anything I want because she's the grandma. 05:45 I come over there. 05:46 When I'm hungry, she feeds me 05:48 or if I'm needing for anything, she'll nurture me. 05:50 But my auntie was just like, 05:53 she didn't have a son as old as I was, 05:57 she only had two children, 05:58 so it's just like I'm her baby. 06:00 Yeah, yeah, definitely. 06:02 And with my mother, of course, like I said, she's my queen, 06:05 I'm her oldest so I have a special place in her heart 06:09 but all the women in my family 06:10 has put me up on a high pedestal 06:13 just because of the position. 06:14 And I mean, in our family like, 06:17 so I could say all the women in my family to be queens. 06:20 They have been my positive influence. 06:22 And now for the flip side of that, 06:23 what are some of the negative influences 06:26 that were in your life growing up? 06:28 I'm sure there was lot of those. 06:30 Well, see, I was born in '95 so we have the internet era, 06:33 we have the information era 06:35 so I would say the internet is a bad influence 06:38 just for the simple fact that it creates AD&D 06:41 and it creates ADD. 06:43 You know what I mean, like for example, Facebook, 06:45 Snapchat, Instagram, all the social medias, 06:48 you can look at 20 different stories 06:50 in two minutes. 06:51 And by that time, 06:53 your brain is not processing everything at once, 06:54 it's skipping this information, "Oh, I like this." 06:57 This skips over to the next thing, 06:58 "Well, I like this." 06:59 Then your brain is just like not concentrating on one thing. 07:03 So internet is one and I would say music. 07:07 Okay. 07:09 And we're going to get more into music in a second, 07:11 but before we get there, 07:14 growing up, 07:15 what was like the religious atmosphere 07:17 in your house 07:18 or did you all go to church weekly? 07:21 What faith were you a part of, 07:23 if any, if a part of faith at all? 07:24 What was the whole Christian background 07:26 like growing up? 07:28 People in my family are Christian, 07:30 they study Christianity 07:32 and they go to church and everything 07:33 but for like the past ten years, 07:36 not many people in my family... 07:37 Because I have a small immediate family, 07:39 like I have three uncles. 07:41 And everybody is pretty much from the Detroit area. 07:43 From the Detroit area. Okay. 07:44 But like I said, we have a small family 07:47 so not everybody went to church. 07:49 And then it's like everybody is kind of like split up now 07:52 throughout the whole city. 07:53 It's just been family issues and everything, 07:55 so nobody really talks to anybody, 07:58 at least not as much as we should, 08:00 as much as a family should, be entitled to be in a family. 08:04 Yeah, yeah. Definitely. 08:05 Church, I would say growing up, it was in and out, 08:08 but my grandma was a Baptist 08:10 and my mom was kind of migrating towards that too 08:13 and her siblings were too, 08:14 but we weren't in the church like we should have been. 08:17 Okay, so it wasn't like a weekly thing. 08:19 I mean, they had three times a week 08:21 or anything like that. Not at all. 08:23 Eventually, you got involved 08:25 with the street gang, The Bloods. 08:27 Talk about how you got involved with The Bloods? 08:30 Talk about that whole instance? 08:32 That's a story right there, man. 08:35 So like I said, when we were growing up, 08:38 me and my mom bumped heads a lot actually. 08:40 And this one particular time 08:43 with the father for the last two children, 08:46 me and her were like getting into arguments 08:48 all the time over him because I was young, 08:51 I was feeling like she chose him over me 08:53 but, of course, that wasn't what was happening 08:55 but I felt like she was taken him over me. 08:58 So me and him got into a fight one day 09:00 and mad people from my family was there. 09:03 And I was like, "This dude is like big, cocky dude." 09:06 And he hit me and I was like, "Yo! What's up with you?" 09:09 So we started fighting and everything. 09:10 And that was days 09:12 and then I started going off on a rant over everybody like, 09:14 "Yo, you all ain't going jump in 09:16 and just do like three times my size. 09:19 So I ended up leaving 09:21 and I stayed with my best friend 09:22 and everything. 09:23 Now his cousins, they're all Bloods, 09:27 like mad people in his family are Bloods, 09:29 so when I started staying with him, 09:34 they were like selling drugs, 09:36 selling weed and all of that so I was just like, 09:39 "Yo, I need money in my pocket too. 09:41 I'm not really going to school like that anymore. 09:43 And I'm kicked out of my mom's house 09:45 so what am I going to do?" 09:47 It's like, "Yo, we can get this money together." 09:49 Me and my best friend have did everything together, 09:51 like anything you can think of, 09:52 we've been together like, I call him my brother actually, 09:55 not even a best friend, he's more family. 09:57 So his cousin was actually my big homey, 10:00 he's The Blood too. 10:04 So he took me under his wing or whatever like, 10:05 "Yo, you could start selling nickels and dimes for me 10:07 and everything." 10:08 Now let me stop you right there. 10:10 I know what nickels and dimes are 10:12 but there are some of the viewers 10:14 that may not know what nickels or nicks and dimes are, 10:18 so if you could give a little insight onto that, 10:21 what nicks and dimes are? 10:22 Okay. 10:23 Nickels and dimes are basically just like, 10:25 a dime, of course, is ten 10:29 and nickel is five dollars worth, 10:31 but it adds up in quantity as much as you sell. 10:35 I wasn't a big time drug dealer but I have money. 10:39 We have money in our pockets all the time. 10:41 And we had a crew too, and it was all Bloods. 10:44 I wouldn't consider myself a Blood 10:45 because it was just like, 10:47 "Well, what's up, five! What's up, five." 10:48 Always trying to do the handshake with me 10:50 and everything. 10:51 I'm like, "No, get that away from me," and all that 10:53 but I was associated with them so. 10:56 Now in Detroit, I've never been to Detroit myself 11:00 but are there a lot of gangs in the Detroit area? 11:03 Oh, yeah. 11:05 It had gangs in Detroit, thousands of them. 11:06 On this one street particularly, 11:08 it's called Seven Mile. 11:09 And it's a neighborhood inside Seven Mile 11:12 called the Red Zone. 11:13 It stretches to another neighborhood 11:16 called Six Mile 11:18 and that's part of the Red Zone too. 11:20 But in that little area, 11:21 it's like 20 to 25 different Blood gangs. 11:25 And they all feud with each other too. 11:27 Then stretching to the west side, to the east, 11:29 it's like so many gangs. Okay. 11:32 Now growing up in Detroit, 11:33 I'm sure you've seen a whole lot of things. 11:36 Talk about some of the things 11:37 that you've seen in your life growing up, 11:39 some of the instances you've been in? 11:41 Okay, when I was younger, 11:45 by this time, it was only four of us not six. 11:47 So we stayed in this one neighborhood called Zender, 11:50 it was off of Mack Ave. 11:52 And that neighborhood, 11:54 it was just like a whole bunch of prostitutes, 11:56 and whole bunch of crackheads, 11:57 it's like you could walk up 20 feet 11:59 and a crackhead would be sitting on a corner 12:00 and knows this little pot infested with them. 12:02 They'll be just passed out over table, 12:05 sleeping in chairs and everything 12:06 and just, it was crazy. 12:08 And that neighborhood now, 12:10 since it was like three schools in that area 12:13 when I was younger, 12:14 all three of the schools are closed now. 12:15 So it's just like a whole bunch of crackheads there 12:18 and prostitutes just living everywhere. 12:21 Now seeing those things as a young man, 12:25 growing up in inner city Detroit, 12:27 what does that do to a person's brain 12:29 as you walk out of your house 12:30 and you see a bunch of crackheads, 12:32 you see a bunch of people on the streets. 12:34 What does that do to your mentality? 12:37 Well, like I'm saying, if you're a little kid, 12:39 you will try to go outside and play, 12:41 and end up stepping over some needles 12:43 or you end up stepping over like, 12:45 condom wrappers in the street and everything, 12:47 you start thinking like, "Yo, what is all this like, 12:50 how can I rise above everything in my environment 12:53 and look for something different, 12:55 something bigger outside 12:56 when all I see is drugs." 12:58 And all I see is drug dealers, gang bangers, prostitutes. 13:01 This is just how life is. 13:04 And majority of people inside Detroit 13:06 really don't have their fathers in their lives. 13:07 And if you are, you're blessed like, more power to you, 13:10 more power to your family. 13:11 But for those who don't have the father in the household, 13:14 they're there to fend for themselves, 13:16 and they're there to learn things on their own, 13:18 so the street is teaching them. 13:20 And the streets couldn't sell crack to your mom, 13:23 can't bother your mother. 13:24 Yeah, not going to bother them. 13:25 Send you to jail for 20 to 60 years. 13:28 Yeah, exactly, exactly. 13:30 How much do you think 13:32 you hit on this a second ago, pertaining to media 13:35 with the internet, music, 13:37 how much of an impact do you think 13:38 secular hip-hop particularly 13:41 has an influence upon the generation of today? 13:45 Well, I would say secular hip-hop has 13:47 one of the biggest influences on youth now. 13:53 Adolescence, in your adolescence age, 13:55 all you want to do is party 13:56 like you don't really want to... 13:58 Don't care about anything else, we're having fun. 13:59 You really wouldn't care about anything but having fun, 14:01 like I said. 14:03 So what the secular hip hop is just like, 14:05 people like Future, Amigos, all of them 14:07 just talking about party, 14:09 you know, want to dab all the time. 14:11 We want to drink, and we want to smoke, 14:13 and we want to get this girl, 14:14 we want to get that girl and all that, 14:16 but that's all that music is talking about in our days 14:19 is partying, drinking, smoking, 14:21 now, let's get this money, let's trap out everything, 14:23 and the thing is those big name rappers 14:26 don't even be doing that anymore. 14:28 If they had to do that, why are they rapping, 14:30 they make more money rapping 14:31 than they would do selling drugs and everything. 14:34 But I really admired Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole 14:37 because they're conscious rappers. 14:39 You don't never see them in their videos nowadays 14:41 wearing big old chains, and gold, 14:43 or flashing out watches and stuff like that. 14:46 They rap about how the media is now 14:48 and they're trying to send the actual message, so. 14:53 Well, the thing about secular hip-hop and rap is 14:56 most of them just talk about 14:58 like, getting a whole bunch of girls, 15:00 selling drugs, using drugs, and partying all the time. 15:04 And all that just gets tiring. 15:06 It just gets tired and after a while, 15:07 you would just want to listen to something different 15:09 but it plays a big part on what people listen to 15:13 because it changes their mood. 15:14 Whatever type of things that you put inside your mind, 15:18 it becomes repetitive 15:19 especially if you listen to the same music over and over, 15:22 you start to believe what you're hearing. 15:23 Yeah, definitely. 15:25 You know, that actually testifies to a biblical fact 15:27 where the Bible says, "By beholding we become changed." 15:30 And interesting thing about that is 15:33 things that we watch, things that we listen to, 15:36 you're going to eventually become like that, 15:38 even friends that you hang around with, 15:41 either they're going to become like you 15:42 or you're going to become like them. 15:44 And so I think it's very important this day and age 15:48 to be mindful what we listen to, 15:50 what we watch, 15:52 because all of these things are shaping us into somebody. 15:55 Absolutely. 15:56 The messages, and you know, 15:58 a lot of times this music and TV has, 16:01 which calls subliminal messages, 16:02 and these are things that only your subconscious 16:04 is picking up. 16:06 And, you know, with these things, 16:07 there are messages being pumped into young people 16:10 and older folks as well. 16:11 Especially in cartoons. Oh, yeah. 16:13 Definitely, definitely in cartoons. 16:14 And so I think media has a very big, 16:17 very big impact on shaping our young people of today. 16:21 Now, let's move on to the next thing. 16:24 You got involved with drugs, using drugs, selling drugs, 16:27 what were those drugs that you got involved with 16:30 and how old were you 16:31 when you first got involved with drugs? 16:33 Well, the first thing I experimented with was alcohol 16:36 and I was about like 15 years old. 16:39 I mean, some of my boys, 16:40 we were just chilling with whatever, 16:42 calling some females and whatever. 16:44 We actually didn't get a chance to chill with them or whatever. 16:48 So we're just like, "Yo, it's boring. 16:50 Now, let's do something." 16:51 So we ended up drinking. 16:53 And the first time I've ever been drunk 16:54 but after that, later along the lines, 16:57 I started like smoking weed like two years later. 17:00 And I would smoke heavy like four, five blunts a day 17:05 like, you got crazy with 16 years old, 17:08 16 or 17 one of those. 17:11 Yeah, like four, five blunts a day, so 17:15 after so long, that high isn't the same, 17:17 so you seek other substances and stuff, 17:19 so I experimented with prescription drugs too 17:23 like Lean. 17:26 Okay, okay. 17:27 That was real popular, Lean, and coating pills, 17:32 Xanax is the street drug, it's called bars 17:34 but, yeah, stuff like that. 17:36 Now all these things that you have got involved in, 17:38 you were hanging with The Bloods, 17:41 you were selling drugs, you were using drugs. 17:43 How did you see these things affecting your mother? 17:47 Or even since you're the oldest of six, 17:49 how did you see this affecting your younger siblings 17:52 around you? 17:53 Well, when I was doing all this stuff, 17:56 I would never bring it 17:58 around my brothers and sisters and everything. 17:59 Like I said, I was kicked out of my house 18:01 and I stayed away from my house 18:03 for about like three, four years. 18:05 I didn't go back to living with my mom until like a year ago. 18:11 With the drug thing, 18:12 with selling drugs and everything, 18:14 only time I would come back to my mother's house 18:16 is when I wanted to give her some money 18:18 or if I wanted to see 18:20 my brothers and sisters and everything, 18:21 spend some time with them, 18:22 see how school was going for them 18:24 and everything. 18:25 But the toll that it was taking her, 18:26 I could tell that she wasn't... 18:29 Of course, no mother would approve of you 18:31 doing any of those things, 18:33 and she knew what I was doing, of course, 18:34 but, like I said, I didn't have my father in my life 18:38 and she couldn't tell me anything 18:39 because I was hardheaded dude. 18:43 So it was lot of stress on her. 18:44 And I actually went to jail before, 18:47 so I was locked up for like a week, 18:49 me and my brother but... 18:53 What was the whole incident that led you to jail? 18:56 Led me to jail? 18:57 Yo, that's crazy. 18:59 It was actually messed up situations. 19:03 See, I got kicked out of three high school 19:06 for fighting so much. 19:07 And me and my best friend, of course, 19:09 we went all through the same high schools 19:11 but people wouldn't like us just because we were different. 19:15 We hung around a whole bunch of girls. 19:17 So naturally, guys are just be like, 19:19 "Yo, why are you hanging out with my girl?" 19:20 Yeah, naturally jealous, yeah. 19:21 Yeah, naturally jealous like that. 19:23 So we get into fights with them, 19:24 there was never about anything else but female fights, 19:27 now that I think about it, I got tripping so much. 19:29 But this one time, this dude has said something to my girl, 19:33 and I didn't like what he said. 19:35 He was like, "Yo!" 19:38 He said something like, "Come here moss," 19:39 trying to talk to her or whatever 19:41 because she's trying to get her friend 19:42 from stop trying to talk to them or whatever 19:44 but I came over crossing the street. 19:45 I'm like, "Yo, what's up with you? 19:47 Stop talking to my girl." 19:48 He's like, "What up, Blood? What's up with you?" 19:50 I'm like, "What, I got what you talking about." 19:52 My brother was packing and I'm like... 19:54 He had a gun or whatever. 19:56 He's like, "Oh, yeah. That's how you all doing." 19:57 I'm like, "No, we could throw things right now, whatever." 19:59 But I guess his home 20:01 where we have whispered something to his ear. 20:02 So a day later, we are always in this alternative school. 20:05 It's a school for knuckleheads, school for knuckleheads. 20:11 But we're all in this alternative school 20:14 and they have set us up so good 20:15 like, I'm clapping them off today 20:17 like, they set us off something good 20:19 because I didn't even see it coming 20:21 but how it is, 20:22 is two different parts of this school. 20:24 See, we got on a bus to go to a different facility, 20:26 do some school work on the computers 20:28 but on this facility it's different. 20:32 We actually do it in writing, so today we went to... 20:35 On that day, we went to the one with the computers 20:38 but, mind you, my brother has never been there, 20:40 and some of the dudes was just like, 20:42 "Oh, you should come with us," or whatever. 20:43 So we're just like, "Oh, okay." 20:45 So soon as we got to that facility 20:46 like the dude that invited us had just disappeared. 20:49 And we started getting on the computers 20:51 and doing our work and everything. 20:53 And we had headphones in our ears 20:55 so these dudes have walked up to me, 20:56 tap me on the shoulder, and he was like, 20:58 "Yo, you want to hear these dudes 20:59 talking smack behind you." 21:01 So I'm just like, "Yo, what's up?" 21:02 So I stood up or whatever, 21:03 and it was only one dude standing up. 21:05 So I just stood up, 21:06 took off my shirt and everything. 21:08 Another dude had rushed up 21:09 and then another dude have rushed up. 21:10 And I was like, "Yo, they set us up." 21:12 So I'm like, "Oh, I'm too deep right now." 21:14 So I just started bombing on them. 21:15 Next thing I know, me and my brother 21:17 back to back fighting about like seven different dudes, 21:19 we jumped or whatever. 21:20 So the next day, we came back up there 21:23 to talk to the administration, 21:25 but we saw that the dudes that set us up 21:27 and jumped us was still there. 21:28 So we're just like, "Yo, why are they still here?" 21:30 And then they called the cops on us, 21:32 and one thing led to another. 21:34 We got into another fight 21:35 and we ended up getting arrested. 21:41 So we're about to get let out that night 21:42 out of the prison cell, 21:44 I mean, out of jail cell or whatever 21:46 but it was like, "No. 21:47 They've got to hold on. 21:48 A homicide wants to talk to them." 21:50 We look at each other like, 21:51 "Homicide, why do they want to talk to? 21:52 We didn't kill anybody." 21:54 So the next morning, 21:55 they came and talked to us and everything. 21:56 And it ended up happening that the dude that set us up, 22:00 that guy shot in the head for trying to rob the dope house. 22:02 Wow, wow. 22:03 So then he got shot 22:05 like an hour after we got arrested. 22:06 So I would count that as a blessing too. 22:08 If we're still out in the street, 22:09 they would have pinned the murder on us 22:11 because we got into a fight with them last. 22:13 But, yeah, the case was expunged 22:15 so we just ended up getting misdemeanors on our case 22:18 for assault and battery. 22:20 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 22:22 Now, I definitely don't want to run out of time 22:24 before we talk about how you came 22:26 into the Seventh-day Adventist church. 22:28 So if you could go ahead and shed some light 22:30 on the whole incident surrounding you, 22:32 get involved in the Seventh-day Adventist church, 22:34 and eventually going to Oakwood University, 22:36 talk about that? 22:37 Well, this time last year, 22:39 I didn't even know that SDA was even a religion. 22:41 All I knew was Baptist, Methodist, Buddhism, 22:44 all that other stuff 22:46 but how it happened was, 22:49 it was actually this past summer, 22:50 I met a dude named Antoine Tossa Nigh, 22:54 and he was the USM president of Oakwood University 22:57 back in 2012, and he had graduated then. 23:01 So when he came back to Detroit 23:02 because he's actually from Detroit 23:04 but when he came back there, 23:06 he got a job in the Mayor's office 23:07 as the East Side district manager, 23:09 and he handles all the reports just of the east side 23:12 and everything like anything you could think of. 23:15 But he kept getting reports in our neighborhood 23:17 because like I say, it's a bunch of knuckleheads, 23:20 bunch of adolescents doing whole bunch of stuff, 23:22 we're just like, 23:23 either we were shooting dice, playing basketball, 23:26 or just gambling on anything just to make some money. 23:28 So he had ended up calling the cops on us, 23:31 trying to disperse us or whatever. 23:34 We started calling them snitch or whatever. 23:37 I guess he had felt bad about it 23:39 so every time he will see me 23:40 like walking up the street or whatever, 23:42 he would stop and talk to us and just be like. 23:44 "Yo, yo, yo, yo. y'all need to stop doing this. 23:46 y'all need to stop doing that." 23:48 But he struck me as different 23:50 just because he was repetitive with this stuff. 23:53 Other people like cops 23:54 or just old people in general in our neighborhood, 23:57 they just call the cops on us and be like, 23:59 "Oh, you all up to no good. 24:00 You all doing this, you all doing that." 24:02 But he actually want to see us do better. 24:04 See, that's all, it's a mentoring thing 24:07 because in his life, he grew up 24:09 and his best friend had ended up 24:10 getting shot and killed. 24:12 So it's like he'd do anything for the young people 24:14 to get out of streets and do better with their lives. 24:17 So this past summer, 24:19 me and some of the boys in the neighborhood 24:21 ended up getting into a fight 24:22 because my sister had been one of their girlfriends, 24:25 and they ended up trying to jump my sister and my brother. 24:28 So me and my boys had rolled up on them, 24:31 we started fighting or whatever. 24:32 And this happened like throughout the course 24:34 of all three of the months of the summer time. 24:37 So how it all ended was, one of the dude said... 24:44 and that was like six of them. 24:46 Me and my brother was walking up the street like, 24:48 "The Dude that I get into everything with." 24:50 Me and him was walking up the street. 24:51 And two of their boys have walked up in front of us like, 24:55 "Yo, what's up with all this? 24:58 You taken my brother phone," or whatever. 25:00 We were like, "Yo, this ain't about no phone. 25:02 You all just mad 25:03 because neither one of our side has taken losses 25:05 and we live on the same block or whatever." 25:08 So we ended getting to another argument. 25:11 And we're like, why don't you all scrap it out right now 25:13 and just end all this, just get it now. 25:16 So they get to scrappiness stuff. 25:19 And all four of these dudes start walking to us. 25:22 So I'm just like, "Yo, yo, yo. No. 25:24 This one on one right here which I don't." 25:26 He's like, "No, ain't no one's around here. 25:28 What are you talking about? You see what's on my hip?" 25:29 And he started flashing a gun to me. 25:31 I'm like, "Yo, you're bringing a gun to a fist fight? 25:33 We're already outnumbered. What's up with you?" 25:35 So he's like, "No, I want to hear nothing. 25:36 I'm loony. I'm loony in the head." 25:38 So he pulled out his gun in front of my mom 25:40 and in front of my little brothers and sisters 25:42 and just started shooting at me. 25:43 I was just like, "Yo. 25:44 What's up with you?" 25:46 But, yeah. 25:47 After that, cops came and everything, 25:50 they want to know what happened. 25:51 And I'm not the type of dude to snitch on anybody 25:55 regardless of what you did to me, 25:56 I'm not going to snitch on you. 25:59 Cops came, they just busted, they said, 26:01 "Next time, we get a call from your neighborhood, 26:03 we're arresting everybody and we're charging all you all 26:06 with all types of stuff. 26:07 You are going to jail. 26:09 So next time we get a call, 26:10 it better not be about you all." 26:13 So we all just squashed the beef and everything. 26:17 And after that, Antoine came up to me, 26:18 he's like, "Yo, you're getting in too much. 26:21 Five years from now, 26:22 you either going to be dead or in jail." 26:24 I was just like, "Yeah, you're right. 26:26 You're right, but what else am I supposed to do?" 26:30 So he's like, "You ever think about college?" 26:33 I'm just like, "No, I never thought about college before. 26:35 It was out of my mind." 26:36 I'm like, I'm a ghetto boy. 26:41 He's like, "No, you can actually go to college 26:43 like, I'm so serious with you. 26:44 You can fill out financial aid, 26:46 we can do all the necessary preparations." 26:48 So two weeks before I had to be down here, 26:51 filled out the FAFSA and financial aid, 26:55 and did the placement test to see how I would do. 26:57 I ended up doing good in everything, 26:59 so two days before I had to be at Oakwood, I got accepted. 27:03 So he's like, "Yo, we're going down there." 27:05 So he ended up driving me down there 27:07 and by the grace of God, two semesters later, I'm here. 27:10 Amen, amen. 27:12 Now there's a lot of young people 27:14 who are in your situation, who have been in your situation 27:17 that it is very difficult for them to say, 27:21 "You know what, I want to go to college." 27:22 For the simple fact that all they can see is, 27:25 "What I'm involved in right now. 27:27 And either by the time I'm 25, 27:29 I'm going to be locked up or I'm going to be dead." 27:31 So as a young person that is seeing all these things, 27:35 what do you think it takes for them 27:37 to come to the realization, 27:38 "You know what, I need to do better. 27:40 School might be the way 27:41 that I can get out of this instance." 27:43 Well, the thing I would say to my peers, 27:46 to anybody in adolescence 27:48 is just to never give up on your goals. 27:50 If you're good at anything like, practice that 27:53 like, there's no amount of time where you should be idle. 27:56 There you go, there you go. 27:58 Well, Tavonne, we appreciate having you on the program. 28:00 I know you'll be an inspiration to many young people 28:04 who have gone through or going through 28:06 so many things that you've gone through. 28:08 Thank you for tuning in once again. 28:09 Join us next time on the New Journey. |
Revised 2017-09-11