Growing Up Tough

Take some time to read this essay submitted by S2S member Jinnah Clark to the SU GEAR UP program. You would never know it by looking at Jinnah, who never seems to stop smiling!


I'm currently enrolled in the Institution of Technology at Central Tech as a rising junior. I'm highly motivated academically and play sports such as football, basketball, and baseball. I strive to be the best at what I do and I achieve anything I want with the positive mindset that I've embedded into my life. Not only am I good student, I am a good person in general. I'm good in school as well as at home. I am respectful to my parents and I do as I am told in a respectful manner. I am a well-rounded individual with the passion of educating myself as well as others who seek the same. Most importantly, I am humble in everything I do and I am humble and always ever so grateful for everything in my life. Considering my circumstances, I make the best with what I got even though it's not much.

I'm a typical African American male who has grown up on the poverty level. So bad that when I walked outside, I could be shot or killed any day. People selling drugs and cops riding up and down my street every other day. My family and I moving from place to place trying to survive on what we have. For example, my brother, mother, and me had to live in a one-bedroom apartment together. My brother and me had to sleep in the kitchen because that was our bedroom. Once, my brother, father, and me had to live in a shelter for almost a year barely making it day to day there.

I did not have many positive influences in my life. My friends just wanted to misbehave, fight, and do other reckless activities. I didn't stoop that low. I pursued my education and left that mischief behind. They weren't doing positive things with their lives. I was doing positive things with mine. Hitting the books every night and even on the weekends!

I have a drive and motor that keeps on going because I want to make it out and make a name for my family and myself. I want to go places and I want to live the best life I can. I want to make my family and myself very proud. That's what I work hard for each and everyday. To live my life the way it's supposed to be lived. Like I said, I strive to be the best!