Teens Talk - Wise Streets Is What I Call Home

Dark alleys, broken glass, fatherless children, drug addicts, drug dealers are all images of things many people have to wake up to every morning.
Some people refer to the aforementioned setting as the ghetto; well I refer to it as home.
It’s offensive when I hear my home being labeled as the ghetto, because my dwelling is the greatest environment in which an individual can live.
My so - called ghetto or trashy streets, as some would say, are very wise.
Wise streets are what I call home because on wise streets you aren’t able to place a blindfold over your eyes and shield yourself from everyday life.
I call wise streets home because in wise streets you learn what it’s like to struggle to obtain the necessities in life.
In wise streets, one gains the wisdom to value the gifts that he or she receives from God.
So, when you call my home ghetto, I smile because I know that no one is referring to my residence as the ghetto, because I rest on wise streets.
Some people are able to stay in the streets their entire lives without gaining an ounce of knowledge; others are able to move beyond the wise streets to receive an education in order to spread more wisdom within the streets.
Well, currently, I can say now that I have been on both sides.
I have lived my life in very wise streets; now I am pursuing an education in order to spread more wisdom within my community.
Just because an individual leaves their home doesn’t mean that they are divorcing their community.
Everyone has to leave their wise streets at one point in time in order to gain knowledge to spread more wisdom to upcoming generations.
Everyone has to branch out from his or her comfort zone in order to experience life.
There is a whole world filled with mystery and adventures, and people can never experience that if they stay within their wise streets.
God did not create the green earth we live on just for us to stand on one corner everyday.
He did not give us thousands of acres of land for us to fight over little territories within our wise streets everyday.
If people honestly want to make change within their communities, they have to leave their communities to gain knowledge on how to bring about change.
It’s amusing to witness people change into a variety of different outfits for a number of different events just to look their best.
When it comes to an individual changing their ways then change is simply labeled as being impossible.
My entire life, I have complained about the living conditions in my community and now that God has given me the opportunity to get an education at a luxury college, I understand.
I understand that I was complaining, and no change was being made because I am a part of that change.
People in all are the change.
If we refuse to change our actions, ignorant ways, and hatred towards others, then we will live in what some people call the ghetto and not wise streets.
I’m going to leave you all with this; It’s not about where you come from it’s about where you are going in life.