Growing up in a separated household has taught me many lessons, and also has

influenced me in varied ways. Not because i’ve had to figure out things on my own,
however on the account of having multiple families to show me different ways to go
about life. My mother has taught me to follow your heart because you only get one
chance at life. My father gave me a realistic approach about life, and taught me how
the odds aren’t always in your favor. Then, there was my stepmom who showed me I
can reach higher with hard work and education and become an officer of the law,
doctor, or possibly a lawyer like her family.

My mom always let me and my siblings follow our hearts even if our dreams seemed
out of the ordinary. I’ve always had a dream to become an actor or writer/director, and
my mom helped me pursue my dream to the fullest. She called for castings for me and
my brother, and almost got us roles for When They See Us, a biopic about The Central
Park 5. I admired her beyond words can explain, because it wasn’t just me she did
things like this for. She helped pursue my brothers career in basketball by putting him
on AAU teams, and also put me in a baseball program called Harlem RBI when I told
her I wanted to be like Babe Ruth (mainly because I was chubby that’s a story for another
day though). The reason why my mother did this is for the reason being, she was never
able to follow her dream of becoming a doctor since she had children at a young age,
and financial issues because of this.

Then there was my father, who taught me to always have a realistic plan for the future
and not just one. Main reason being that he never had a plan and wanted me to learn
from his mistakes. My father used to tell me stories about how he made bad decisions
in his past to achieve wealth faster, however that just ended up taking time out of his
life since this caused him to serve a sentence. One thing I respect him [Father] for is for
being upfront with me and not hiding anything from his past so that I won’t make the
same mistakes as him. One of the most important lessons he taught me was that dreams
don’t always come true, however having a goal with multiple plans can never almost
never go wrong. I can’t forget about my stepmom, she truly is like a second mom. She
taught me how education can lead to greatness. Almost everyone in her family has a
masters or doctorate degree. Her family were like moguls to look up to and inspired me
to achieve and obtain a degree, however not a degree for the medical field, instead one
in either business, criminal justice, or writing.

Yes, growing up in a separated household may be tough in varied aspects. Nonetheless

you are taught many lessons and principles from different perspectives. I was taught to
reach my dreams no matter how high up the stars are, to be realistic about life because
dreams can fail, and to pursue my education to become prominent in a career of my
choosing.