The Viable Alternative

NOTE: The story below is a TRUE story but at the request of the main character of the story, the names have been changed. Also, the person in the picture is not the subject of the story.

The Background:

Desmond Miguel grew up poor in the Spanish Harlem section of New York City in the. James W. Johnson Housing projects where he lived with grandmother and mother for the majority of his youth, and interestingly claimed as neighbours notable people such as former WBC junior lightweight, WBC lightweight, WBO junior welterweight boxing champion, Hector Macho Camacho, whose apartment was next door to his, and the lesser known but infamous Bad Boy recording artist, G-Dep who grew up across the street from and is currently serving 15 to life for murder.

Growing up in the Johnson Projects, every day he had to deal with either having to step over urine in the elevator or dog or human feces in the staircase. In what he describes as an utterly disgusting environment and living situation, his only escape was school.

The Problem:

Unfortunately, school brought its own problems.

While the love he received at home from his mother and grandmother was unconditional, going to school where some children can be incredibly cruel and find amusement in bullying other little children was like going from the frying pan into the fire. Since he was half Latino, Miguel was light skinned and subsequently had to deal with being attacked every day by dark skinned kids who were jealous of his complexion. He wound up having to fight every day in the cafeteria, the back of the classroom, and the schoolyard.

Because he felt that the authorities at school weren’t doing anything to protect him from the constant bullying, harassment and bombardment of hate from the other kids, he grew to have no respect for authority and at one point, even peed on the blackboard in his classroom right in front of the teacher in a show of defiance of the injustice he felt he was receiving.

By the time Desmond was 8 years old, he was already slipping through the cracks of the public education system. He couldn’t read or write but, he could draw which allowed him to excel in arts and crafts at school. Since the teacher only focused on the gifted children that were quick learners, Desmond could not excel academically no matter how much he paid attention in class.

The Turning Point:

One day, Desmond’s mother came to his school for a parent-teacher conference and she saw her son had the same incompetent teacher that she had when she was in school. She knew her son was going to have the same challenges with learning that she had because the school never upgraded its teaching staff.

Wanting a better future for her son, she gave him a choice to either switch to Catholic school or stay in public school. Desmond, knowing that his mother wanted only the best for him, chose going to Catholic school in order to receive a higher quality education.

Touched by the fact that his mom was willing to go out of her way to get him placed in a private school where Desmond could benefit from a better learning environment despite the fact she was on welfare, he promised himself he was going to work hard and do well to make his mom happy.

The Transformation:

The following year, Desmond started the third grade at his new school, St. Ann’s Catholic School.

Since he didn’t know how to read or write, his third grade teacher, Mrs. Rose, assigned him to special reading and writing classes to catch up with the other students. Mrs. Rose had the alphabet at the top of the black board so Miguel took this golden opportunity to read the alphabets everyday until he knew them all.

By the time he was in the sixth grade, his reading and writing level caught up with the rest of the kids his age and he was able to be mainstreamed.

For high school, he went down South to Maryland to live with his father and graduated high school down there. After graduating high school, he applied to and got accepted into City College where he received a B.A. in Psychology.

The Outcome:

After graduating college, he was hired as an audio/visual technician for the Fountain House, a center devoted to helping people recover from mental illness. He made a vow to himself that he was going to travel to a different part of the world each year, a vow he managed to keep for many years which further served to broaden his horizons.

He’s currently learning to read, write and speak Arabic and is taking courses on how to teach English as a second language so he can be able to live anywhere he wants in the world.