ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT

It's late and im wide awake so I guess I'll do a lil reflective post about something I realized today. Often times i have people say to me "Marc you're mean" or "Why are you making fun of me?"...LOL I'm not gonna lie these responses generally don't hurt my feelings and often times make me laugh since I find the mere thought of myself being a mean person; absurd. Today however while relaxing on the couch I thought about about it and now it makes sense. You see I live in Cleveland in the Lee-Harvard area...If you don't know then leme tell ya, there aint nothin special about my neighborhood. The most exciting thing is finding out how many people are gonna ask if they can pump ur gas for "bus fare (alcohol)"..Anyway since I'm from this area and my parents aren't rich (nowhere close) I naturally went to cleveland public schools through middle school. If you didn't know it's survival of the fittest there and since I wasn't a star athlete or particular good looking, I had to get by with jokes.

Like a schoolwide activity such as lunch, recess or bathroom breaks there were "riding sessions".

RIDING SESSIONS- where students gather to "rank", "roast", "ride" or make fun of each other through often-times hurtful jokes in order to gain a crowds approval.

Riding sessions could take place in the halls, classes, lunchrooms ANYWHERE..they were just a natural part of life. Everyone had to learn to defend themselves cuz you never knew when your time to be ranked on was coming..Riding sessions would contain jokes that often started with "Look at this dude wearin *insert hurtful staement here*" or " I know you not talkin wit yo*insert hurtful statement here*"..Jokes were vicious but they were fun times..I had to hold my own as did everyone else..

Now fast forward to present day..I just realized that I still have that menatality and unfortunately I hold riding sessions on kids who don't stand a chance lol. If a person makes a smart comment at me they are simply ignorant to the fact that I grew up on peole talkin reckless and I can gaurantee in the end it's YOUR feelings that'll be hurt...