God's Gift...an Angel

Tomorrow is the day I celebrate the day of my birth....I know many of you know that already but just in case you didn't know that i am blessed. Now if for some reason you don't like story telling life dwelling blogs then stop reading, i'm going to let you in on my life....I gots to talk and tell my story the way i see it...

Born Tuesday 3:47am (rainy morning): 11/17/1978, Provident Hospital/Sinai Hospital
City/State: Baltimore, MD.
Father: James Dickey
Mother: unknown...LOL (Patricia Richardson)

My life started slow it wasn't this beautiful picture of a man that you see before you. Like painter in front of a blank canvas, after time turns that canvas into a master piece so is the story of my life..(cliff note version)
I was born in the ghetto/hood/inner city (what ever the term is now) and although i was too young to understand we were not well off. I knew enough that my mother lived with my god mother and her 6 children in west baltimore. I remember my early childhood vividly b/c there was always someone arguing or someone fighting or smoking drinking doing something around me. But i never remember suffering.
To look at us we were no different than anyone else in the neighborhood. Like Jay-Z said, "you know why the call it a project, b/c it's a project"; Some times you think about the things that are said in raps and think that people who live or do things a certain way to survive are different but they are just like you. I remember, going to my neighbors house to eat dinner b/c we didn't have food in our house and it wasn't like they didn't know but they never made me feel ashamed, they always invited me over and of course I always went. I remember meeting my brother derek for the first time when i was 5, he burnt my arm with an iron..(chocolate does melt against heat...LOL)
I remember when the house caught on fire and i was out carried like a football out of the house to safety, I remember watching my uncle have a seizure out side of my room and the paramedics uncovering needles in his bedroom. I remember my cousin finding his father, who had hung himself on 2 day after x-mas in the basement of the house.(early childhood)
I remember when my parents moved to California, for 2 yrs when i was about 6. My father and Patricia had gotten a job with TRW (huge IT company in the WestCoast); But I guess the money, respect and just not coming from that kind of enviornment does something to people. You start doing things you normally wouldn't do...cocaine, heroin, weed, alchohol. And what people say is true, in no time flat your life can spin out of control.. I remember Patricia and myfather asking me to carry trays to the den where their friends were. I didn't know at the time i was carrying line of coke to them, i had no idea, i was too young. But i wasn't to you to understand when my father went into rehab, and my aunt and uncle came out to help with the bills. I remember the feeling of relapse when my god father had to come out to buy groceries for us b/c neither of my parents had the money to put groceries in the house.
I remember my father being passing out with bills in his hands that had large red letters on them...Eviction, Foreclosure, Turn Off, 3rd notice, Repo......then i vivid remember my father walking out saying he was leaving, going back to Baltimore to get help b/c the life out here was to overwhelming....I remember Patricia saying it will be okay, it's just you and me....and in a instant i remember Patricia (mother) putting me on a plane saying, I'm right behind your going to stay with your aunt and uncle until i get myself straight....(i was 8 and i didn't see Patricia or talk to her until I was 21)
I can remember seeing my dad once in a blue moon when i first moved with my aunt and uncle, and even then I couldn't really see him b/c he either showed up drunk or high. I remember starting middle school and having matching socks and jeans that fit. I remember going to the dentist on a regular basis and acutally knowing my doctors name.
I remember seeing snow for the first time and playing in the snow, having snow fights and then having hot cocoa afterwards..I remember getting my first easter suit, easter clothes, easter basket and easter tennis..(2 out of the 4 i still receive till this day..don't hate my mother (aunt) she loves me.)
I remember my mother and uncle paying for me to go to private school and me, playing basketball, soccer, baseball and lacrosse and being really good at all of them. I remember my mother(aunt) having a no non-sense attitude when it came to my grades (example I got a 65 in a class and she made me quite JV for a semester made the honor roll from 2nd Semester freshman yr until i graduated in the top 5% of my class)
I remember graduating and my mother (aunt), uncle and my father being there and being excited about what the future held for me.
I remember the scholarship letters i received and going to Lincoln. I remember struggling in the beginning b/c I wanted to be popular and well like, but i also remember the promise I made to my mother(aunt) i would graduate and do well b/c all she and my uncle sacrificed for me. I remember finding out my god mother who raised me like her soon had passed and dedicating a basketball game in her honor, scored 20points 10 assist and 6 steals that game. I remember the first drink I had and been a lush ever since...
I remember before graduation speaking to Patricia and her telling me she was going to come to my graduation. I remember graduating and Patricia not being there, but i remember not caring b/c my mother(aunt) was there emotional as ever and proud of her son, who made..."Momma, i made it" Jay-Z....
6yrs after graduation, i'm not exactly where i want to be but i'm come far from the place that I started. I have many more years ahead of me, and a great supporting system to help me along the way. My God, my woman, my mother (aunt), uncle, father, brothers, god brothers and sisters, nieces, nephews and close friends (inner circle) and new friends surround me...so i'll be alright..."As I look back over my life...and I see how the lord is guiding me, even though I've done wrong, you never left me alone you forgave me and you kept you blessing."
So today the day before I celebrate my day of birth I give thanks to all those that have played a role in shaping and molding me into the man I am today. When you look at me look at my past, b/c it tells the story of a man that has come a long way...

Happy birthday to me...