Learning as we go

Life has taught me that there are times where we need to embrace our dark side in other to save the good side.

_{Photo by Ahtziri Lagarde}

I've always made it known here that I grew up in the ghetto, it has never been something that I was ashamed of and I probably would never be ashamed of it because that was a huge part of my life where I got to see and live in the midst of people with different tribe, religion and belief.

But you see, unlike majority of the kids who in one way or the other got influenced negatively by our environment, my dad did a good job protecting me from all of that. As a kid, he made sure I didn't hangout with anyone who he perceived would influence me negatively or expose me to the world and although that was a good thing for a child my age, it also made my understanding of how the world works a bit slow.

I remember when I had just left home for school in a completely different state far away from my parents, I had gone with the innocent mind that I've always had and that made it easy for me to fall victim to a lot of people because I believed almost every lie that was told to me at the time, you just have to put on a good show and I was sold. Back then, I took everyone by their word and would constantly get heartbroken and betrayed because everyone was going back on their word and to me back then, I thought they were all being wicked, not realising that is how the world works.

Whether we like it or not, the world is a scary, evil place where everyone is always looking for a way to attack you and the only way you can survive it is if you hide your innocence whenever you're out there and just be that wild tough no nonsense beast.. And I got to learn all of this on my own while personally encountering some of this things myself, but luckily for me I was smart enough to not let all of it happen to me but instead learn from other people's mistake.

My parents did a good job protecting me when I was a kid but when I left home, it felt like they spent so much time protecting me than they did preparing me for the world. And I really don't blame them because truth be told, they can't prepare you for everything and some things are best learnt through firsthand experience. Luckily, no much damage was done before I quickly understood how certain people and things work.

All in all, what I'm trying to say is that there's nothing wrong in being that innocent guy who smiles at everyone, but remember that there are certain places where you have to change from innocent to dangerous and it's fine, as long as you never forget who you are.