Originally posted by RABiam
[cont]
I was placed in the 'gifted' program entering 6th grade. Of the few students that I still have contact with, one is with the border patrol and another is an attorney. I was always told that i could do whatever i wanted. Out of high-school, I wanted to follow my father into the military and suddenly I was choosing between Nuclear Biological and Chemical Warfare with the Marines or cryptography with the Navy, ASVAB and Defense Language Aptitude Battery scores, were in the top 99%. I was almost certain to sign up with the Navy and take my happy butt to Monterey, California to learn whatever language assigned.
3 days before leaving for MEPS, bored O bored me, made a dumb mistake that cost me the top-secret clearance that being a CT required. So, the recruiter gets me off my charge, I lose my top-secret clearance and end up taking a different position that just requires secret clearance. Funny how things work out though...September 11, 2001 happens while I'm in boot camp, 2nd or 3rd week. Had I still been qualified for TS-C for the cryptography, I would be speaking Arabic right now and be a completely different person.
Without going into the details, my Navy career was cut short. Upon exiting the Navy, I quickly finished my 'core' classes in college and was ready to actually start on my major. It went a little like, ummm, yea i guess i could see myself doing that. After the first 2 years, i spent 3 more bouncing from major to major. First one, was Management of Information Systems. Told a buddy that it was my major cause the job market was going to be hot locally when we graduated. He changed his major the next day, I changed mine away from this program weeks later. He does have a pretty sweet job but i'm not envious. I just couldn't see myself doing that.
Next major up, chemistry. In AP CHEM 1and 2, i got a 101 and a 103, the other gifted students hated me because I blew the curve. (pfft, gifted students asking for a curve?!? boggles my mind) But then it happened again and after a year of college chem, I was bored and looking for a challenge again.
I wanted to find something that challenged me mentally and logically. I remember always having technical arguments with my older sister, and we definitely both had the debate skill. I decided that I was going to follow her to law school thinking 'if she can do it, i can do it' probably better.
So I finally finished up college with my prelaw degree. Gonna take the LSAT and go right back to school right? Wrong! I graduated in early December and had started studying for the LSAT when christmas rolls around. My sister, an attorney, and her husband, an attorney with one of the biggest firms in the Southeast US, show up to our mothers house and damn when I say they looked like they never got sleep, they both might as well have had nutsacks replacing the bags under their eyes. and although they never mentioned the money, it had to be good, with trips to vegas, costa rica, chile, istanbul. The one thing for a fact that I do know about myself, is that i've never cared about $$$, and i actually do like my sleep. When those two issues are confronted in my mind, i simply cannot be an attorney and damn lol my bachelors is useless. So I stopped studying for the LSAT, decided i just wanted to live for a little bit, and then maybe go back to school down the road.
So i started bartending. Really just wanted to be around people. Not upper class but just a regular restaurant, you have one in your city. Once again, not in the business for the $$, but for the conversation. I want to try and change minds. not for my benefit or $$, but so that we can live better.
I grew up in Cali, Hawaii and Key West, before entering the Navy. While these are all beautiful places, they opened my mind, I never saw 'color'. I grew up around white, black, latino in Cali. In Hawaii, I grew up around white, black, Japanese, Hawaiian, mormons. In Key West, I grew up with white, Cubans, Puerto-Ricans, Haitians, Dominicans, Jamaicans, gays, and various European backgrounds. Navy, everyone was 1. when i got out, GA to MD, the racism is appalling. It comes from all sides, put your fingers down!
I won't ever cast blame at another race without making sure that mine are held accountable. Don't get mad when i say, STFU..your embarrassing our race. Its not personal and my standards are very high for my own race, as they should be for you and yours. Gifted' minds, regardless of color, must encourage, support and WILL the change of replacement. I lived 20 years without racism and the last 10 suffocating under its foul fumes. I will clear the air for us.



Unless people rise up in folly and resist then there is nothing to do but produce food and
shelter and we can do that with the current infrastructure 