Donnie L.

Matthews
Dr. Witherspoon
English 101-18
12 September 2014
Chiraq V.S Chi-town

People die every day, but it never really hits home until someone you know personally is
murdered. Stage one is bewilderment; when you hear the news you immediately think its a sick
twisted joke. The day I found out that fourteen year old Antonio Davis (A.K.A Fat Head) was
shot to death changed my life forever. Since his death, I have been more cautious, changed my
outlook on life, and taken school much more seriously. The streets of Chicago are very cold and
that is not a reference to the weather. Chicago's mean streets turn boys in men far before it's time
to mature. Although Antonio is viewed as just another African American male lost to the streets
of Chicago, another statistic, he was also my friend and his memory will never be forgotten.
The headline of the article from the Chicago Sun-Times read "Somebody wanted that boy
dead". Every individual word struck me like a punch to the chest and honestly it scared me.
Antonio was only a year and some change younger than me so technically we were in the same
age group. So many questions and emotions ran through me at once. I was frustrated, confused,
and still astonished. "Why would someone want to murder one of my homies", I pondered. Not
to mention, I was still grieving over the lost of my friend. After the death of Antonio I thought
twice about catching the bus and train around Chicago, especially alone. For a long period of

time I only traveled to school and my friend Travis house. I felt like the place I once roamed so
nonchalantly had become a war zone. A bullet knows no name, nor faces.
Months after Antonio died, majority of the commotion had died down. The crying had
ceased, the R.I.P tweets had stopped, and mostly everyone had gone back to their regular
schedule. Mentally I decided to make a change. I was not going to announce or parade my new
paradigm; I choose to show it with action. I choose not to let this tragedy break me, instead I let
it make me. In Chicago the streets are filled with distrust, anger, and struggle. I knew at that
point it was time to mature and look at life in a completely different light. I decided to be the
example in my community of what a productive African American male looked like. I started
being more courteous and mindful of the image I presented in my everyday settings. I had never
been a delinquent child to begin with, so it was not like I had to make a complete turnaround but
I did have to become a role model. A leader is simply defined as, "something that leads",
however a role model is defined as " someone who another person admires and tries to be like ".
I wanted to be a role model. Someone who has a positive influence on someone's life.
The following year after his death I decided to join the student council. I also decided to
take a few honors and AP classes. My goal was to raise my GPA, not only for my own benefit
but to show my younger brother that there are other options besides playing a sport or getting
involved in negative activity such as gangs or drugs. As I said before, I had never been a
delinquent child therefore my grades had never been below standard. My first goal was to make
a 3.5 un-weighted GPA that semester. While doing this I still continued playing basketball for
my high school and worked part time for Phalinx Family Services. My schedule was beyond full
but that was good because it kept me off the streets of Chicago. Succeeding in school not only

made me happy, it also made my parents happy. The more I did better in school, the more I
motivated younger brother to better in school.
The memory of my friend Antonio Davis will never be forgotten. His memory lives in
the minds of many other friends and family members. I know my life would be different if I
never lost such a great friend. I know that he watches over me from heaven to this day. I'll
never forget the day I found out "Somebody wanted that boy dead".

Work Cited
Erbentraut, Joseph. "Chicago Homicides Outnumber U.S. Troop Killings In Afghanistan." The Huffington
Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 16 June 2012. Web. 10 Sept. 2014.
McGrath, Dan. "'Somebody Wanted That Boy Dead' - Chicago Sun-Times." 'Somebody Wanted That Boy
Dead' - Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago Sun-Times, June-July 2012. Web. 10 Sept. 2014.
"Role Model." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 11 Sept. 2014.