Follower made a leader

Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.

A long time ago, I used to hang out with my cousin and he would always find a way to get me in trouble. We used to start fires, steal mail, and start more fires. Once, we started a tree on fire but fortunately we had a vacuum hose to put it out. He kept hitting the fire with the vacuum hose until it eventually, was put out.

Well, back then I was a follower. Until the night I got shot in the head that woke me up and since then, I have become a leader, I no longer let people lead me into trouble.

Plus I am disabled which helps because if I walk around and do not say anything. People assume I am developmentally delayed, and leave me alone. Even though, my left arm doesn’t work and I walk with a limp. I still can talk and hold a conversation which is important. I don’t consider myself developmentally delayed.

I used to not be able to lead because of my cousin and my father being so overbearing and it was there way or the highway. Now both of them are out of my life and now I can breathe that they are gone. Leading has become easier now that they are gone.

Never should do more

How often do you walk or run?

I have a disability because I was shot in the head a long time ago.

As a result of that, I can’t run the traditional way. I walk with a limp, so walking is even difficult for me to do, but I should do it more often. Plus in Tucson, it is really hot so maybe walk in the evening when it cools down. Plus, where I am, there are a lot of cars driving and it is the city life so maybe wait til 6 or 7 in the evening to walk. I don’t exercise enough maybe walking will help. We will see.

On a cold and windy night.

The family and I drove from Tucson AZ to Ariviapia. We arrived there around 6 o’clock PM.

There was a huge party at my grandma’s house everyone was there my aunts, uncles and cousins were there. I went searching the party for my favorite cousin he was not there. Gotta phone call, he told me to come over to play monopoly with him and his cousins. I begged my dad to take me there and he agreed.

When we arrived my cousin was standing outside in the cold. I waved goodbye to my dad and approached my cousin. My dad had taken off. As I approached him he told me he wanted to take me down to the river to shoot guns up in the air. I told him, “No,” but he kept bugging me so I gave in.

We grabbed two beers from his father’s stash and drank them. Then, we went to his cousins house and smoked some weed. Went back to his house grabbed a 22 caliber riffle and a four ten shot gun. We were out the door then he said,”I gotta go back inside and get something else. He was out in a flash and we walked down to the river to shoot guns up in the air. As soon as I entered the gate of the river my mind went blank because my cousin shot me in the head.